Posted on August 29, 2009 - by Brett
Shuttle finally launched!
The night the shuttle FINALLY launched, I was mixing sound for a concert event called Rich Party in Tampa. Right after the event was over, a lot of the people went out in the parking lot of this field of warehouses to try to watch the shuttle launch. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera were 99% dead and I was only able to snap 2 shots before it quit.
I saw the sky begin to change color and I knew it launched but didn’t know exactly where it would be peaking over the warehouses. Once I caught the first glimpse, I tried to steady my camera on a post and take a long exposure to capture as much light as possible.
Where I am taking these photos is about 130 miles away from Nasa and we had a pretty clear view of the shuttle for about 8 second before the Discovery stopped shooting out the firey ball of flame that we could see from over one hundred miles away. It dipped behind some clouds and then we lost sight for about 45 seconds. When it rose above the clouds, we could only see a tiny light for a short time.
To see a few better shots of the shuttle launch from a closer view, check these links out here:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1457.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sefirephoto/3866089543/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapictures/3866178445/
Last but not least is a video from the UK where this guy captured the external fuel tanks being released…did I say FROM THE UK??
http://newburyas.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/sts-128-orbiter-external-fuel-tank-pass-over-west-berkshire-uk/
