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In January 1998, Ann and I went to Florida and visited the Kennedy Space Center. On the way there, we stopped at a KFC restaurant on the Space Coast (Port St. John) for dinner and overheard someone asking for suggestions for a place to watch a launch. I read about the Lunar Prospector launch in the local paper, but I hadn't realized that the launch had been delayed by a day. So Ann and I followed the directions we overheard and we got a good spot next to the Indian River (where Rt. 50 meets US Rt. 1). But still more than 10 miles from the actual launch pad and two hours until the launch. By a half hour before the launch we were parked in three deep. Walking around I saw license plates from 15 different states, the furthest away was Wyoming, the most common (after Florida) was N.Y. state. There was even a truck selling food.
The launch occured January 6, 1998 at 9:28pm. From where we were, we couldn't hear the launch, we just saw a small, bright light appear on the horizon. The light grew and then moved up into the sky. And these are the photos I took of the launch (for those who care about such things these pictures were taken with 800 speed Kodak film).
If you have a "RealPlayer" or QuickTime, you can watch the launch.
In route to Kennedy Space Center, Ann and I came across an interesting junk yard.
Launch - 2
Launch - 3
Launch - 4
Launch - 5
By this point the rocket has probably traveled more than a mile in
less than a minute.
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