Oh, and shuttle questions?

[LesterS]

Yes, you can see the launch (free) from Titusville at a distance of about 13 miles I think. You can get closer by going to Kennedy Space Center (the Visitors Center) - and it costs like 40 bucks a head, and you get a two-day pass to the Center and the Hall of fame museum. To get even closer you have to move quick, causeway viewing tickets go on sale exactly 30 days before a launch, and they get snapped up in less than 10 minutes. (online)

The view from the visitors center is from 11 miles, and the view from the causeway is at 6 miles. Now if you are with a major press organization, you can get to watch from the reviewing area, the one seen with the large digital countdown clock. It's about 8 miles away I think.

Here's a picture I snapped that day.

[Claw]

Cool picture Lester. Where were you located when you photographed this impressive shot?

[Mike C.]

Great picture Lester. Do you have anymore?

If you do, post them.

And what claw asked, how far away were you when you took this one?

[LesterS]

I stood right behind the shuttle display at the Visitor Complex. I thought we (my son and I), would get a good view as the Shuttle cleared the tree line.

The Visitor Complex is about 11 miles from pads 39A & B and if you do the math, that makes it over 50 seconds before you 'hear' it taking off! Kinda cool, because the snapshot you see above -- was taken when the the sound was the loudest. And even at that distance the sound was impressive.

I'd waited almost 40 years to see a site like that in person. And it was worth the wait.

I haven't posted any other pictures (mainly 'cause they umm aren't very good), but a trip to http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com will get you all the info you'll need and pictures too!

Rockets the ultimate 'guy' toy: fire, speed, noise, smoke, metal, and shiny bits -- true distraction!

[Bill Fernandez]

very nice

[Boodro]

Go to www.nasa.gov & click on Nasa TV & you can watch the current mission going on at the space station. They have live audio & video for the whole mission, from blast off to touch down . Very fun to watch, ya never know what you'll see or hear sometimes. also can be very boring too.
My cousin was an astronaut & I got to attend 3 launches & we got a tour of the launch pad & got to drive right up under the shuttle as it was on the pad. we parked in the flame trench & took pics. it was very cool & a lot of fun, we got to talk to the astronauts the nite before launch across the road by the launch pad too. We had to yell back & forth across the road as we could not have contact with them in any way due to possible germs.

[Bobgorilla]

I was on the causeway for the 3rd launch back in about 1979? and on a clear day you can see the smoke plume from here, 90 to 100 miles in a straight line and exhaust flames at night While my submarine was tied up in Cocoa in 1980, I also got to see the test launch of an older Poseidon missile that launched just after dark and flew back into sunlight about 20,000 feet