Now Arriving Runway No.5

[SirRod]

Those are nice shots Volcano. It must have been great actually living in Coco beach.
I was privileged to witness Challenger STS-6 in person. By then the whole world wanted to see a launch, and they came the same time as we did. I went with an old friend who never really surfed with me in my day. We stayed at one of the hotels on the beach and surfed as much as possible. The day of the launch we got up early and left the hotel. Headed out to KSC, my friend had Press Passes for both of us from the University of South Florida, where he was going to school. We arrived at the gate well before the launch, and the Air Man took one look at the long hair and surfboards and even though we had press passes we were denied entry. I had expected it, but Ol'Bob thought we could just skate through. We wound up on a Causeway with about 10 thousand other people. I didn't see but one Florida tag, it was on a van that had a sticker that read. "If your not from Fla. your not POOPY" but it was the other derogatory adjective describing feces. This was about 3 hrs before the launch so I sleep in the hot car for a time till I got uncomfortable. I emerged and Ol'Bob said "Hey you hungry" "Yes" was my reply, so we has sandwiches. It drew closer to the time of the launch, I had my Nikomat, My 105 mm lens, tripod and headed out to the berm to try to photograph the event. Well needless to say there were so many people with the same idea as me, there was hardly enough room. So I pardoned my way to a spot. It was an uneventful launch, took a few pictures that my X wife wound up with. Then sat there for about 3 more hours till the tourist who were jamming the highways thinned out. I don't know if I'll go to watch another of those, crowd's aren't my thing any more and especially folks who don't have any courtesy. On a clear day I can set in my living room and watch all the launches I want too. My largest window's face the East. I saw the launch of Columbia in 2001. I had just moved into this place in Jan. that year.
Was very shocked when Columbia didn't make it back.
My youngest son was born on Feb.2nd. Columbia burned up on Feb.1st. My thoughts and prayer were for the family’s, friends, coworkers, of those seven Astronaut Hero’s. We have been so lucky with our space program that we haven’t lost more than we have.

[DMmasta]

i was in orlando the day of the landing so we drove toward cape canveral and pulled over sat and waite for it to arrive, it was a HUGE sonic boom, and was a really awesome experience... only about 5 miles fro the runway! cool

[warpedx]

I have always wanted to see a shuttle launch, someday I'll make it out to see one. Great stories SirRod!
I work in the Mramar and La Jolla area, I hear military aircraft all day long. A portion of the I-15 also runs directly underneath the landing path, it's great having an F-18 scream overhead when stuck in traffic. I roll down my windows and enjoy the engine rumble.

[SirRod]

Warpedx:
If you ever get out this away let me know and I'll make sure we roll out the red carpet for you.

You gotta see at least one in your life time. The AF launches from Vandenberg from time to time. The Space Truck will be phased out soon. Replaced by a Apollo type module on steroids. Called the Orion, with 6 man crew.