Drove 750 miles last night coming back to VA from Cape Canaveral

[Lt.Del]

Quite a long nearly 12 hour drive after the shuttle launch. Stuck in traffic two hours in titusville, FL, got on I-95 and never looked back. Made it home at 7am Friday--750 miles later.

How bout these pics....

http://www.delbridge.net/shuttle1.html

[jthomas12287]

that is truly AWESOME!! something that will always be the American dream!!!

[beastie_3]

Im so happy that you and your son got to witness another great American event.


Wouldnt it be cool to find a NASA photo of you from the helicopter (pg 3)

[Blazin]

Ive been to Cape Canaveral, but never witness a shutle launch. Those are some sweet pics. I bet your boy hasn't stopped talking about it yet!

[jaredts]

Great pictures!  Your son won't forget that.

[Lt.Del]

thanks, I've always wanted to see one, and with, now, only two left, April and June, I realized time was running out.  I had arranged that we go last February for a shuttle launch set to launch back in Feb. 2010, I had tickets to the Kennedy Space Center complex and bus tour of the place which drives very close to launchpad 39a and 39b--with the shuttle in place for the next day's launch. We were going to take the tour the day before a scheduled launch.  We had tickets to the NASA causeway for the launch, the closest any non VIP could get to a launch, 5 miles away for the special day. Then, of course, they postponed that launch due to a bad hydrogen valve last year.  We didnt even go to FL since we wouldn't see a launch.  

So this time I didn't buy all those extra things, because i didn't know if it would go up this time. It sure would've been neat to ride within a hundred yards or so of the shuttle sitting on the launchpad, but, oh well.  It was quite an experience just the same.  Two kids enjoyed it, my son and the kid in me.



 

[Captkaos]

I would love to do this...  hmmmm

[eventhorizon66]

Very cool.  Thanks for sharing.  Your son is one lucky dude.

[Lt.Del]

We had a good time.  If anyone wants to try to catch one of the last two launches, let me know.  The spot I was at was perfect for those without a KSC ticket.  April 19, the Endeavour goes up for a night launch, 7:48pm, June 28, Atlantis goes up for a 3:48pm launch.

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html

I put a map of sorts on my page...
www.delbridge.net/shuttle

[jthomas12287]

that would be so cool seeing the lift off at night all the fire and flames bellering out!!!

[Lt.Del]

Yeah, that would be cool.  I used two different cameras in the pics you see on my site, both automatic advance, for shooting many pics in a row.  They had different lenses, one had a 500mm w/ a 2x coupler and one had an 80mm lens.
 
for a night launch, I'd use my manual advance and set the shutter open for the entire launch, then close it and it would look like an orange streak the entire distance...that would be cool---it would last about 2 minutes 'til the boosters fall off.
 
You can google shuttle launch pictures and see some creative pics taken of it over the years.  


Mason ranked #25 in the nation!!!
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/usatpoll.htm

[FatgentryC25]

I was there too! lol I watched from titusville. my girlfrind has family there. We rented a house in kissimme so we could go to disney. We got to stay in titusville for the night - thank God, the traffic was horrible. The early mornng launches are amazing! Then we spent a few nights in savannah, which was pretty cool because that is one of my favorite towns.

[Lt.Del]

cool, i would've liked to visit Savannah, or even Darlington, SC--heck even Daytona, while I was there.  There is so much to do and see. St. Augustine FL is the nation's oldest city and just above Cape Canaveral...was there when I was about 10 and stood close to an aligator and my mom yelled at me.  Anyway, would love to spend about two weeks going down that route and spend a night or two in each place while going down I-95.  Charleston SC would be a nice place too and visit Ft Sumter.  So much to do in life.

[Stewart G Griffin]

There's not going to be anymore shuttle missions?

[Lt.Del]

2 more...Endeavour blasts off Monday May 16, Atlantis goes up June 28

 http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html