I got up today on my day off with no particular plans. I had some breakfast and decided to start working on making my list. The “list” consists of things that I said I wanted to do when I came to Florida or things that I would feel silly to tell someone, “I lived in Orlando for 5 months…but no, I never did that.” Some things on my list are: Spend a day at Sea World, Take Surfing Lessons at Ron Jons, Spend a day at Universal, Go to the Kennedy Space Center, etc. When I got to the Kennedy Space center one I decided to get online and see if they had any launches while I was here and they happened to be launching a rocket tonight!
It was a nice warm day so I took the top off my jeep (well, not I alone…I and a couple of roomies) and decided to head to the space coast to see what I could see. A couple of roommate were going to come with me, but decided not to when they found out it didn’t launch until almost 11. (It would take an hour to get back and they are running in a 5k at 6:30 in the morning.) By that point everyone had plans for the night so I just went alone. I drove to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center and asked about where I should go to get a good look at the rocket launch. The guy told me to drive to Cocoa Beach and then to find a nice spot on the beach. He said that the way the cost line curved pretty much anywhere on Cocoa’s Beach would have a nice view.
It was so neat! I got there and set up about an hour early and slowly more and more people trickled onto the beach to watch. About 10 mins after I got there a couple walked near me and we started a conversation. (I wasn’t shy before Disney…but Disney has trained me to be able to talk with anyone, anywhere) They were on vacation from Washington State and happened to visit the Space Center today where they were told about the launch. We talked about all sorts of things passing the time, waiting for something to happen. Then, all of the sudden we saw this…
Okay, yes, I jerked the camera too hard, too soon at the beginning and I’ve been kicking myself for it since I watched the replay the first time, but you do have to take into account this was my first time to video a rocket launch. It was so very, very cool. We were at least 20 miles away. I suck at judging distances, but I’d say we were more like 30-40 miles away and it lit up the entire beach for a long time. Another thing that impressed me was the sound. You can hear us talking over the waves in the beginning then right when she says something about it looking like a fireball you start to hear the rocket. It is so loud that for a few moments you can’t even make out the sound of the waves. It was a very, very cool experience. I’ve never seen anything like it. The ride home wasn't near at warm as the ride out there, but it really wasn't all that bad. I had packed jeans and a hoodie so a layer up and turned on the feet heat. Going to the Kennedy Space Center is still on the list…but something much cooler got added AND crossed off today.
That was a cool video! And not many people I know can say they have actually witnessed a NASA Rocket launch (other than on TV). It sounded like it took a while for the sound to actually reach you. Was there a delay in that?
ReplyDeleteYes, it took a good 15-20 seconds before we could hear it...but when we did it was SO loud. :-)
ReplyDeleteBecause I am a geek:
ReplyDeleteIf the sound took 15-20 seconds to reach you, then you were 3-4 miles away. (Speed of sound at sea level = 1116 ft/s
1116 ft/s * 15 s = 16740 ft = 3.17 miles
1116 ft/s * 20 s = 22320 ft = 4.23 mile
If you were 20 miles away, it would take the sound 1.5 minutes to reach you.)
This makes sense, since the horizon for an average person at sea level is about 3 miles away. (It varies depending upon the observer's actual height above sea level, the height of the horizon [mountains and tall things can be seen further away] and where you the observer is on the earth [the earth is not a perfect sphere]. But three miles is a good guess/rule of thumb. I see from NASA's site that they claim Cocoa Beach is 14.9 miles from the launch site, although they also say that you can't see the launch tower from Cocoa Beach and that you won't be able to see the actual launch, only the launch vehicle after it gets above the horizon. This is clearly not the spot you were filming from, since you have an excellent view of the launch site. That's a really cool video and an amazing experience. I'm so jealous. ;)
:-) Cool. I did say that I am a horrible judge of distance. :-P I guess I was way closer than I thought. It was so very cool. I did drive back towards the launch site quite a ways after entering the "beach road" in Cocoa. Maybe I was back into Cape Canaveral and didn't even know it.
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool. I want to go to a rocket launch. I loved watching the video. I'm also excited about coming to see you in 3 days!! See you soon. I'm glad you had fun.
ReplyDeleteFrom everything I can tell, Cocoa Beach is really long; I don't know if NASA just picked an arbitrary spot for their reference or if they used the town or what. They may also have done it to encourage people to buy tickets from them, not watch for free from the beach ...
ReplyDelete