We drive to Melbourne in the lower third of the Space Coast and camp at Land Yacht Harbor, which is not near a harbor. LYH was founded as an Airstream park but “broke-the-buck” a few years ago and now admits what we call SOBs—some other brand – a controversial decision to this day. We are “comped” probably with the hope we will buy shares here. Almost all the sites are occupied by snowbirds Most rigs are restrained at their corners with chains and turnbuckles. Probably the rigs, minus the owners, stay through hurricane season. At least they try. They say our mini-caravan is the biggest thing to happen here in a while. Lots of hand waving from friendly people, all seniors. A local helps Larry park and remarks he has been here a month and is on the board; he suggests Larry buy some shares.
It is a couple hours to launch time. We split in to two groups, the first managing to get to the edge of Cape Canaveral and the security perimeter. We have to leave later and settle for Fisher Park in Cocoa Beach as spots are disappearing rapidly. (If memory serves me right - which is rare, but if interesting, why worry about the facts - “The Right Stuff” portrayed Cocoa Beach as either where the first astronauts lived, or perhaps where they partied. I think it also may be where that lady, supposedly diaper clad, was headed to confront her rival for the attentions of a modern day astronaut. Also I think “I dream of Jeannie” was set here. Other than all that, it is a typical beach town.)
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| Beth and Bill, center, coordinate launch. Larry on camera. Kathy and Marcia wait for lunch. I mean launch. |
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| Turns out it was way to the left. |
Larry and Bill claim a small sandy knoll with their long-lens cameras facing north toward what with binoculars looks like a white gantry; but the binoculars also show what looks like a grey gantry to the left. Beth checks launch e-mail updates on her iPhone and has what we think is a live image on her iPad: it shows what looks like even a different gantry. With this much gear locals accrete to our knoll, asking questions about where to look; we disagree amongst ourselves but give authoritative answers anyway. Someone says we are all wrong, those are abandoned gantries, and the real launch site is not visible. We dream on.
The countdown, via the iPad, is dramatic. We focus toward the presumed launch point, I with my little pocket-sized point-and-shoot set on video, Larry and Bill with the big gear. I hear a shout and look maybe 30 degrees to our left and see a long white flame rising toward the clouds. The vapor and combustion gases billow massively. In a few seconds the flame disappears into the clouds and I pan my hand-held camera hoping to catch another shot. As I turn off my camera a quiet rumble hits us. Even before the sound dissipates people begin to swarm back to their cars, hoping to beat the traffic. Beth’s iPad still shows the shuttle on the launch pad; we now realize it was showing delayed images. We go for pizza in Cocoa Beach, very happy we made the effort to see this historic launch.
(The video above is how it looked with naked eyes. Bill - with his more professional camera, telephoto lens, superior skills, tripod, and photographer's demeanor - captured this look: http://web.me.com/ferry360/ferry360/Blog/Entries/2011/3/14_Discovery%E2%80%99s_Last_Voyage.html)
That would've been cool to see!
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