Greetings, my brothers and sisters:
Today (Sunday) the weather is much improved over the first launch
window that resulted in a scrub. Yesterday was very windy (25kts+) but
now it seems to be blowing out. I did see a commercial flight crossing
over at 10,000'. Flight path was 180 but heading was 220. So a lot of
crab angle was necessary in order to maintain flight path, indicating
strong winds aloft. That's not good, but I'm 80 mi N of Titusville.
Things could be a little different down there, especially in 10 hours
or so when the launch window opens.
The only real bummer about a scrubbed launch, aside from the scrub
itself, it the traffic leaving KSC. Two lane causeway exiting the
facility means lots of wait time. But it's worth it.
I can't say enough about the mood on the site when 20,000+ people
are all pulling for the same event to occur. It borders on a "spiritual
experience", as some would say. It's what folks in Fairfax, CA would
call "positive energy" ;-). It's FUN and it feels all warm and fuzzy
and patriotic and all that. But it's more than just nationalism. It's
very special to see a civilization taking its first baby steps to the
stars.
So, of course, if there's a chance of seeing a launch, it's well
worth it to drive for an hour to get there. And that's just what I'm
going to do. I think I will try to shoot a lot more pictures this
time, of all the different people there. A substantial number of people
there are from other countries--a lot of europeans, Japanese,
Austrailians--entire families somehow book a flight to get here for
launch day. It's pretty obvious that it's not just Americans who are
interested in manned space flight.
So keep your fingers crossed for STS-116 this evening. Godspeed and
all that.
Uncle Bob
Fairfax, CA (TDY Flagler Beach, FL)