Mar 16, 2009

Into the wild blue yonder

Yesterday evening I watched with anticipation the launch of the Shuttle Discovery.I haven't been interested in seeing a shuttle launch in years, mostly because they are rather uneventful and unexciting (which is what we'd rather them to be anyway). I remember being a small child and running out the front door at my mother's direction to watch them launch. At 2 in the afternoon it looks like a bullet whizzing through the air and leaving a trail of exhaust similar to a jet plane. Pretty quick and not very stimulating.
Yesterday, however, all the conditions were just right. It was a sunset launch and the sky was clear; the first signs of it were similar to a fireball propelling itself upward over the trees. The orange trail left behind was a spectacular vision to behold. Of course I forgot my camera.
After the booster rockets dropped off (and you could see them drop, that's how clear the sky was) another white smoke cloud appeared in the center of the sky and I watched the shuttle follow the earth's path and disappear.

2 comments:

UniqueNurseGranny said...

How exciting.

Karrie said...

That must be a real site to see! We watched it on the NASA channel and my 4yr old was so into it. He can't understand why we can't just get on a shuttle and go..LOL! I was hoping they were going to put off the launch until we were in Orlando in a few weeks :( I would have loved to see it.