Just got back from watching STS126 launch my little brother into space. Damn, what a show. We were able to watch from about four miles. It took several seconds for the sound to arrive after the initial flash of ignition. The noise was thunderous, and you could feel it in your chest.

I took a little video, but I was paying more attention to the sights and sounds than to making a good video. The sound was so loud that it overloaded the audio portion. Here's the best 50 seconds worth:

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While this isn't backcountry flying, it is definitely flying!

tom

Your brother is an astronaut???? Awesome!

Man, how cool is that?

Thanks for sharing, Tom. Must have been an incredible experience.

You did slip him a BCP shirt for the photo op, right??

WAY cool- thanks for sharing

FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!! I got goosebumps watching it!
My son is currently enrolled at ERAU Prescott and his dream is to be an astronaut. He wants to be the first man on Mars. I hope he makes it.
WW

That's really cool! I've always wanted to be an astronaut.

John

wow that is soo cool good for him. That's was my childhood dream to be an astronaut I'm going for pilot now, but I guess you never know.

I raise chickens and grandkids and fly a homemade spam can. Brother Don Pettit is a mission specialist for NASA, flying T38s and doing space walks. This will make his second space mission. The first was to spend 5 plus months in the space station. This time he will be just up for the duration of the shuttle mission.

We got to use the invited guest only viewing station at Banana Creek. It was roughly four miles from the launch pad. I expected the roar to be really loud, and I wasn't disappointed. The main engines are started about six seconds before launch. When they have proven to be okay, the solid boosters are lit, and then there is no stopping that monster. The very bright portion is when the boosters are going. As the thing climbed out, there was a very loud snapping sound that I hadn't heard in any of the televised launches. When Don gets back I'll have to find out what that was.

For far more information than you can absorb in a week, go to nasa.gov.

tom

"You know you've landed on a REAL backcountry strip when ________"

you do a 360-degree backflip and "dock" instead of touching down.

Thanks,

And congradulate your brother. He is one brave guy to ride that old bird into space.

I've seen two launches from the surface. One just across the lake from launch pad and one from an apartment rooftop at Cocoa Beach. Two others have been observed while flying airliners down the western Fla. coast. Both of those were during night launches.

The last one I saw from the air, about 2 years ago....launched just at we were directly west at 39,000 ft. It lit up the cockpit and inside of our 767. The passengers(and this old hat) were impressed!

Bob

I was told the odd Cessna flying into the TFR will cause a scrub. Right before the launch there were a bunch of helicopters flying around looking for trouble. There was even a guy on a jetski patrolling the lake.

The preflight briefing we got warned of acid rain after the launch if the wind blew the cloud over to the viewing area. Apparently, in the past folks have gotten skin burns and holey clothes from it. We were warned to head for the bus if the cloud came our way.

tom

I'm watching the Post-Mission briefing live on CNN.com. There's a feed from inside the shuttle-- I'm looking for a guy that looks like Savannah Tom.

1SeventyZ wrote:I'm watching the Post-Mission briefing live on CNN.com. There's a feed from inside the shuttle-- I'm looking for a guy that looks like Savannah Tom.

fortunately for my bro, that won't be much of a help.

I was checking the photos also trying to figure out who looked like Tom.
No luck here either.

Hey Savannah-Tom,

You brother didn't blame losing his toolkit on that woman astronaut did he?

Tom, Thanks for the great video. Brought back alot of cool memories. I did a bunch of mission specialist work for Patrick AFB. Sent me up in gutted Piper full of radio equip to act as a relay for the helos when they went to look for the boosters over the horizon. Callsign was Relay 1. Had me orbit for 3 or so hours in the restricted area just west of the pads. Pretty good view. Night ones were the best. The PAFB radio guys used to raffle off who got to ride shotgun. Congrats to your brother, that is great. Tim

I second the thank you. This also brought back many memories. I worked at Kennedy Space Center from June of '65 till Oct of '69. Worked on Pads 16,32,34, 39A, and the VAB.

Went thru the entire boilerplate series and all the Appolo launches thru #11, the landing on the moon.

For a young man, it couldn't have been more exciting. I also started my private pilot training at TiCo airport in Titusville. Unfortunately, I can't brag about what a unique job I had, just a pencil pusher, BUT, to witness the Saturn V on take off is nerve numbing. Some of the military launches were almost ear splitting with a different type of noise.

Sad that us old farts still remember some things so well and my anniversary so poorly. Ford