SpaceX

windshear

When a close friend of mine was a payload specialist in the space program I made the trip to KSC 4 times to see his launch. Twice the launch had already been scrubbed by the time I got there. That 4th trip made the other 3 tries worth it though, since it was a night launch and he'd given me a pass for the VIP viewing section.

a buddy of mine who worked there told me about a Delta launch once when I was visiting Cocoa Beach. It wasn't public info ( he was an idiot to tell me) so I went to the place he told me to go at the time he said, several cars past by me and it was easy to tell they were questioning why I was there.....after 5-10 minutes they heard the thunderous sound of a rocket launch and then knew why

it was cool, I watched it fire, then lift and about 15 seconds later I heard it.

Some years ago, I designed the fire protection system for the Orbiter Transporter for Lockheed. It was during the shuttle program. You can pull up pictures and see the red horizontal cylinders mounted on the back.

During that project I was able to view a launch while standing on one of the platform stanchions at the beginning of the road leading to the launch complex. It was way too close! The launch concussions almost knocked us off the stanchion.

Nowadays, I can see the launches from my back porch...which is close enough

tell me you were wearing ear protection

The Lockheed guys snickered at us when we climbed up there (as I now know they were "knowing" snickers), but they at least threw up hearing protection for us ignorant fools.

I was twelve when I had a chance sighting of a shuttle launch in FL. I was in Fort Pierce with a friend and his family. We were crossing through a parking lot and a man was patiently watching the sky to the north. As soon as one of us inquired what he was looking at you could see the launch. From the distance the shuttle was a speck of rice, but the enormity and speed of the plume it left in it's wake was awesome. It's stuck in my head as if I saw it a day ago.

Jerome Jerome the metronome.. Always pee's on que. - What (great)movie? (no cheatsin)

-Good luck to Space X for their next actual launch. They can't really afford to many more excuses for why it failed to land properly. I wouldn't use a delivery/travel service that blew up such a large percentage of it's payload.

Yo Lon? I know you're a CR4 user. Scrub as many times as you need to get it right!

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2016/03/01/spacex-pushes-falcon9-ses9-rocket-launch-cape-canaveral-friday/81169226/