We originally went to Florida to see a space shuttle launch (STS-119) on February 12th. It is now March 15th and the shuttle has still not launched. Because of all the delays, we decided to see a Delta Rocket launch the Kepler satellite into orbit. The pictures above were taken by Kevin at the Jetty Park in Port Canaveral Florida. Although I will now probably never get to see a shuttle launch (there are only 9 launches left), I was pretty excited to experience the rocket launch.
Delta is still pretty cool rocket! I was on the launch team for XTE satellite (way back when) and worked the launch on a Delta rocket. One of the coolest things was checking the RF link before launch. I was one of the last people on the launch pad and had to go up to the tip of the rocket and setup an antenna and RF link with the satellite through the nose cone. The rocket had been fueled and was "ready to go" - and would be sputtering steam, etc. Pretty exciting stuff. Then I was on the headset for countdown and was one of the guys that was polled before launch... "RF Communications, Go for launch!"... I hope the lauch was a little exciting for you guys! Looking for next posts... seeya!
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