Matt and I went to watch the shuttle launch today. We got there just a couple of minutes before the launch. We had our camera and handheld TV in hand. We were at a great spot right on the river across from the launch pad. Matt estimated that we were about ten miles away, but I'm guessing it was closer to five miles because we could see the shuttle sitting on the pad, although it was far away.
The launch itself was pretty cool. It was a clear day, but there was one cloud that the shuttle flew behind shortly after launch (as you'll see in the pictures). It was so cool to see the initial smoke cloud on the launch pad as it slowly pulls away. The light from the engine is very bright and you could see the little dot of a light as it pulled away for a long time. The most remarkable part about the launch was the sound. We didn't hear it until about 20 seconds after the actual launch, and it just kept getting louder and louder. It wasn't quite earth-shaking, but it was impressive. All in all, the whole thing took about 10 minutes and I got to see Matt act like an excited school kid :P
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