Another Perfect Launch

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ancona

Praying Mantis
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I just watched the launch of an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Station.

They had a short launch window, but lifted off right away, so it's all good. With the humidity as low as it was the sound was pretty intense, like it would be during the winter.:judge:
 
my perfect launch would take gold to $2k and rising,
silver to $50 and rising even faster (-;
 
Nice. These launches don't make the local news like the shuttle launches did.
 
Nice. These launches don't make the local news like the shuttle launches did.

After the first few shuttle launches those weren't making news either until the Challenger disaster, then all of sudden they covered launches for a while again. Then after a while it was only the 24 hour news channels that covered it. I guess it's kind of nice to think that space travel is (or was) so routine as it isn't more news worthy than an avg. trans Atlantic flight, but lots of people fly in planes, not too many travel into space. At least not yet anyway.
 
Being in the unique position of having all area access at NASA has been a nice perk over the years. I have been lucky enough to watch hundreds of rockets launch over the past twenty two years.

Back around 2001, I watched one go up that was carrying a billion dollar satellite. It got up around 2 thousand feet, tilted slightly and they hit command destruct. When that thing blew up it was the loudest noise I ever heard. When I saw the red smoke ring or hydrazine drifting slowly toward our area I jumped in the truck and hauled my ass out of there.
 
... carrying a billion dollar satellite. ... and they hit command destruct. ...

... and it's gone. Poof!

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I thought those things had plutonium on them.

I only hear about launches when Mark posts them.
 
No Penn, the one that blew up did not have plutonium. What you are thinking about is a space probe we launched that had about forty five ounces of plutonium on it, which I seem to recall was part of the propulsion system, although I thought ion pulse technology had not yet been perfected and beta tested. I may be completely wrong on this one, but I am certain about the plutonium because I remember the protesters trashing the south gate at CCAFS.
 
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