I'm in the US right now. Thanks to my pal Louise, I was lucky enough to get ringside seats for the departure of STS-125 on its way to the Hubble Space Telescope.
It was spectacular, everything I hoped it would be. For added comedy value, your humble correspondent was looking at the *wrong pad* until seconds before ignition (when his wife pointed out that everyone else had their cameras pointed *that way*). Never mind, I did take some truly awesome photographs as the shuttle cleared the pad and began its rotation. You could see everything, even the shock diamonds in the SSME exhausts. The launch was over incredibly quickly, as Atlantis punched its way into low-lying cloud. We didn't get to see the solid rockets separate due to the cloud cover, but that was a small disapointment. It wasn't as loud as I was expecting: about on a par with the loudest afterburner noise you'll hear at an airshow, which is to say impressive but not physically painful. Actually having felt my stomach being churned in knots by a Vulcan bomber, I'd actually rate the shuttle launch as being somewhat quieter. We were at Banana creek, which is about as close as you can get, but there's still a large body of water between you and the pad, which absorbs a lot of the noise. My wife, who saw the launch of an Ariane 5 from Korou, felt that the Ariane was the more visceral experience.
Afterwards, we went to see the new Star Trek film (liked it) at the KSC IMAX. Which is where, rather frustratingly, I appear to have lost my camera, with all the Atantis photos still on the memory card. I've put out feelers and contacted lost and found, but to no avail. In the unlikely event that somewhere out there did find a Panasonic Lumix FZ-50 with a shuttle launch on the card, do get in touch...
Anyway, enough of that - I'm over it now (sob). No, really. Took a biplane ride to cheer myself up, and tonight we're off to see the new Terminator film, which opens today. Usual lacklustre service will be resumed when I return to the UK.
