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The complex opened
early at 5am for the late morning launch.
A large crowd had already gathered at the
visitor complex when I arrived around
5:30am. |
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A gator was on hand
to view the launch and keep and extra eye
on security. |
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Pad 39a prior to
launch. The heat and humidity created a
slight haze and milky sky behind the
launch complex. |
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The countdown clock
with less than a minute to launch! |
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Main engine start
of the shuttle's three main engines. |
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Six seconds later
the solid rocket boosters ignite. The six
second difference is to allow the shuttle
to rock back to vertical after the main
engine start causes the shuttle to sway
out of vertical momentarily. |
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The Space Shuttle
Discovery clears the tower! |
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Discovery begins to
execute the roll program. |
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Discovery enters
the first layer of clouds. |
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and re-emerges a
second later. |
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only to reenter the
clouds again and create this dramatic
photo. |
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The shuttle
breaking the sound barrier at Max-Q. It
appears in this photo that the Shuttle is
flying "heads-up". Because the
Shuttle's trajectory was more vertical
the camera became inverted as I tried to
catch this shot. The picture is actually
upside down. |
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As the shuttle
roars to space it appears as a bright
star in the midday sky. The faint points
of light visible to the right are the
solid rocket boosters. |
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The path to space.
The shuttle Discovery's exhaust trail
show the near vertical path it took |
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A view of the
launch pad after launch. The cloud has
drifted and appears to be centered
between Pads 39a and 39b |
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Back at the visitor
complex |
