Space X Launch

White Pepper continued her hard march down from Daytona (see previous post) past New Smyrna to Titusvillle.  There we picked up a mooring ball and had a restful night.  After refueling there was more motoring south.  Finally we pulled over to the side of the ICW  in the Indian River near the mouth of the Banana River in very benign conditions.  We were watching for the launch of the Space X rocket which is the first commercial rocket launched from Cape Canaveral 15 miles to the north.

I was prepared to be impressed but not overwhelmed.  The rocket launched on time at 5:41 pm several minutes past sunset.

Launch

Two thoughts jumped into my head.  One is that Elon Musk, founder of Pay Pal, Tesla Motors, and Space X, must be so proud.  And that it was no wonder locals were so hooked on the launches.  This beats fireworks all to hell.

Man made sunrise at sunset

Setting Sun catches the contrails

Second stage burn

What could not be shown in these photographs taken on a Galaxy phone is the stately pace with which the rocket slowly ascended into the heavens.  There was a rumbling thunder several minutes after the visual events 20 miles north and up.  In the last picture at the end of the middle contrail is a bright speck.  This is the first stage rocket reflecting the setting sun.  It very gradually fell to earth as the second stage powered away.  Later there was a smaller speck, the second stage, falling to earth.  By this time the third stage was just a faint star burning in the sky.

We can only hope that this private enterprise endeavour re-invigorates the space industry.  Please see my previous post about Titusville in Dec. 2010 titled the "Sadness of Titusville" when the government space efforts were shutting down.  It was so depressing, but maybe today things are looking up for Titusville and Cape Canaveral.