If any have read my not so subtle hints over the past year, I am not a huge supporter of the NASA Space Shuttle but this morning I saw the launch for the second time in my life with my own eyes. I was up a oh four something in the morning and saw the countdown on my laptop indicate that it was go time. I looked up to a beautiful orange glow on the horizon growing ever brighter. Than finally I saw the long finger of flame climbing into the sky. Higher and higner it went changing from the polluted orange of sunset to a pure white. I was able to see the solid rocket boosters do their slow pirouette as the white dot of the Shuttle climbed ever higher. I kept watching as the white dot stopped climimbing and slowly descended to the horizon. It suddenly hit me that I had just watched something take off and disappear around the far side of the planet. How cool is that!

I get that same feeling anytime I am on a plane...I am somewhere over a mountain or a major city and it just hits me, "I'm 30,000ft in the air, flying at some insane speed, traveling across the country in a few hours when it used to take us months"

The Shuttle puts on quite a show. You must enjoy a clear view of the eastern horizon to have been able to see it.

What elevation above the horizon did it reach?

When rockets...such as the Space Shuttle...launch from Cape Canaveral...their trajectory takes them up the east coast to take advantage of the earth's angular momentum...which helps 'sling-shot' the vehicle into space.

I have always wanted to see a shuttle launch. Twice launches have been scrubbed either before I got to or while I was in Florida. It sounds like I may never get to see one live. I have seen Atlas rockets launch and those were impressive. Once I saw the shuttle on the back of the plane as it came back from California. That was cool... I am glad you got to see it Dane, even if you disagree with the politics!

It's an amazing piece of engineering. Too bad it's older than most people's cars.

I wish the crew a safe journey and return.

If you are rather technical this website really gets into the nuts and bolts of the technology.

I'm really fascinated with the turbo pumps cranking the oxygen and hydrogen up to around 7'000psi so they can pump the oxygen at 17'592 gallons per minute and the hydrogen at 47,365 gallons per minute. That is an incredible amount of fuel. I still can't imagine how you burn fuel that fast. As a pilot that is 2,787 pounds per second of oxygen and 465 pounds of hydrogen per second. It must quite a job keeping the rocket under control and on course as the mass and center of gravity changes so rapidly.

The science of space travel has always fascinated me. My favorite scene from Apollo 13 is when the engineers on the ground develop the air filter using only things found in the capsule. That type of ingenuity amazes me. That is what they can do with no time and no equipment... Look what they can do when they actually use all their resources!

Many moons ago while my almost wife and I were vacationing in Florida we decided to see the shuttle launch our last day there. As it turned out we had a late start and never would have seen it were it not for the fog. It was delayed an hour or two but the fog also slowed traffic. I'm guessing we were about 10 miles away when all the cars on the highway suddenly started to pull over. A few minutes later up it went. Pretty impressive even from that distance but I bet it puts on an awesome show in the dark.

Re-entry of Discovery may be visible from Dane's brew-shed TUE AM.

The first landing attempt would have Discovery zooming over Vancouver Island and southern Alberta, down over the northern border of Montana and North Dakota, Minnesota near Minneapolis and St. Paul, then Chicago and Indianapolis, eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee, the western side of the Carolinas, eastern Georgia and, finally, out over the Atlantic into Cape Canaveral.

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