Endeavour Launch

This morning at 8:56am (right on time!) Endeavour was launched for it's last flight. My brother Mark has worked on this "bird" for many years. Happy to see the successful launch...but sad to know it's the last time for this one and we are down to one last Shuttle launch. The sky was blue...no clouds blocking my view this time and a great loooooooooonnnnnng rumble afterwards!

Waking up with a flash and a boom!

This is what the sky looks like now...abou 45 minutes after the launch...the "trail" has turned into a sort of weird cloud...it's fun to watch it changing!



and a quick look at the moon again.
Okay...so my little camera REALLY does not capture this...but it was pretty cool. We are counting down :( the last few Shuttle launches and this was one of the last scheduled to go in the darkened sky. Here's the view to the south...before the launch. Clear sky...half moon at t-minus 1 minute and counting.
Then...turning to the north...you start to see the sky lighting up...plus I could hear people cheering down the road "There it is...there it is!" Clapping and whistling too. (The street light is on the right...looks a little orangey).
As it went up the whole sky lit up and that BOOM...I love the rumble...as it breaks the sound barrier! That's when all the dogs start barking! (and later I will have to straighten all my pictures on the wall...that's what is so amazing...we are about 40 miles south...to hear it and feel it...it is amazing!)
Again..this doesn't begin to show what it looked like...but it's all I've got. hahaha
It looked like a giant comet...with a bright trail behind it. You can't always see the trail...but I guess the atmospheric conditions were just right..because the "cloud" left behind and the trail behind the rocket were really bright this time.
and then....
it was off into space...and I was off to get ready for work!

3,2,1 Blast Off!

Into space....we really saw it much clearer than this.......but click on for better view

heading up..................

Last night at 11:59 pm the Shuttle went up again. About10 minutes before launch time we hopped in the car and went down to the beach.(too dark to ride the bike across A1A)

We were not disappointed....right on schedule the whole sky lit up over Cape Canaveral and the rocket went into space! My little camera really didn't capture it very well.....but it was cool to watch. Since we were down on the beach behind the Quality Suites Hotel it's not QS anymore...but I can never remember what it is...so as far as I'm concerned...it's Quality Suites,,hahawith a small crowd of people of all ages, from all over the United States ,many of whom had never seen a launch live, let alone a NIGHT launch live,... there was plenty of excitement.(I know that was a terrible sentence grammatically speaking...but.....)

These photos are of the rocket and if you can see it...some of the people on the beach. It was pretty funny to walk down to the beach at 11:55pm and see a small gathering of people , many of them holding up cameras and cell phones (glowing in the dark) waiting for the lift-off. As I said, my pictures really didn't capture the sight...but they're all I've got...so you'll have to use your imagination! :)