Was lucky enough to be invited to attend a Space-X Falcon 9 night launch at the cape last week, so with the blessing of my family, off I went on my big American Adventure!
The occasion was the launch of Kacific1, a $300 million Singapore based broadband satellite to service remote pacific island communities and surrounding countries incl. Vanuatu, Timor, Phillipines, PNG, Nepal, Tahiti, NZ, etc - to enable those communities and their hospitals & schools etc to access high speed services. My old buddy John works for Kacific and travels extensively, so I was his guest along with representatives from all these other countries, all buddying up together in a series of luxurious Villas in Orlando.
We got to do Disneyworld, Alligator Fanboats & NASCAR hot laps, but the real carrot was the launch.
We had a private area of Kennedy Saturn V/Apollo lawns set up with Marquees & refreshments just for Kacific & their 250 or so VIP's & guests, only about 5 miles from launchpad SLC-40. Weather was perfect for the 7:10pm launch, clear skies and clear oceans (you need clear oceans to launch the recovery boat "of course I still love you" to land the 1st stage booster).
Much exitement in the air, followed by the classic 10>1 countdown, then a huge fireball on the horizon that lights up the night sky! Curiously though, there's no sound yet...
About 30 seconds later the sound starts building, hammering into your chest like the bass at a Kiss concert, and then there's the crackle. The crackle is amazing, as the vehicle goes supersonic - this roaring, crackling, grunting, popping sound unlike anything I've heard before - a wild demonstration of sheer power and force as the rocket gracefully arcs it way up north & east, at one stage lighting the entire sky as it penetrated some scattered passing clouds to many oooohs & aaaahs from the captivated crowd.... and then it was over. Successful launch of Kacific1!
Wow, just Wow!
Btw, $300m satellite, $80m launch, $50m ground facilities & Insurance + $40m if you ask Space-X not to recover the booster!
As luck would have it, a second launch was scheduled for the following Friday, the last day of my US trip. This one though was scheduled for 6:32am, which meant being at Kennedy at 3:30am! Long story short, I conquered my fears of driving on the wrong side of the road, at night and joined literally thousands of people back at KSCVC for a hot buffet breakfast and the launch of the Boeing Starliner (uncrewed) flight test on an Atlas V
This was to be from launchpad SLS-41, a little closer than the previous launch and again we were blessed with perfect conditions.
Lots of exitement, astronauts on the PA, a small village of merchandise on sale and a wonderful atmosphere of fun & anticipation - the Americans do this stuff really well!
Once again, the countdown & launch was flawless, but the magnificent sight of this beautiful rocket arcing up into the predawn skies was something I'll never forget, and although this was more powerful rocket with 2x SRB's - a little quieter than the Falcon9 (wind direction maybe?).
I managed a successful streak shot (time exposure) and another nice pic, which made up for stuffing up my image of the Space-x one!
and I've attached a few shots of the launch by my colleagues, including a legendary young pro photographer called John Kraus, who features regularly on instagram. He has press access and sets up 8-9 sound activated remote cameras only 100's of meters away from the rockets - incredible.
Bucket list well & truly ticked - if you ever get a chance, go to Kennedy SCVC & time your visit to co-incide with a launch - it's amazing!
Link to my dodgy iphone Atlas V video taken whilst juggling two other cameras, turn the sound up loud for the crackle!!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0eok...CDcyKfUrn5EgKQ
Link to Space-X Falcon 9 video
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0MXY...A7eZVd2J1qgsfA
