Cape Canaveral is about 100 miles north of Ocean Resorts.
A space shuttle, carrying astronauts to the space station circling the earth, was launched in December. The residents of Ocean Resorts have seen many shuttle launches over the years. We were fortunate to be able to witness this one.
We walked to the beach and looked north along the shore. We are pictured here waiting for the shuttle to launch.
Pictured is the rocket as it ascends. You must look closely as the rocket is hard to see in the picture. It's just a streak in the sky.
A night time launch allowed us to see a spectacular view of the night sky as the rocket went up. We could see the initial explosion of light as we looked north along the coast, then a streak of light as the rocket rose in the sky. We could see the separation of the booster rockets as the shuttle got higher and higher. Then it appeared to start coming down. What was actually happening was that it was disappearing over the horizon. It was amazing to be able to see this so clearly being that it was 100 miles away.
