Atlas Launch Tonight

Twas tasty. I went out to the beach earlier today, and noticed what I thought
was a rocket on the pad. Came home to check on the web, and wow there's a
launch tonight! LC36 has the only two pads you can see from the beach, so I
knew I'd have to turn out for this one. It sure was nice, seemed like it took
ages to leave the pad. I was in a crowd of about 40-50 people, and that was
only the beach access ramp I was on. About 5-10 seconds after liftoff a woman
behind me actually said "absolutely no sound!" Haha, just wait I thought.
It was a good rumble, but didn't last very long. MECO was a little strange,
the engines seemed like they cut out and back on a few times before finally
going out for good. Dark clouds? Or actually something with the rocket?
A point of light continued on, perfectly eclipsing a star during its arc. One
of the other people there said it was the tumbling stage, yes no maybe?
As I was leaving someone asked how it compared to a shuttle launch, so I got
to babble a bit about that. Most of the cars (and the parking was full, with
me and a few others parked on grass) were from out of state. Not a bad half
hour.
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LooseChanj wrote in message . com...

... MECO was a little strange,
the engines seemed like they cut out and back on a few times before finally
going out for good. Dark clouds? Or actually something with the rocket?
...

Just after MECO, some stage separation charges might be
visible and several solid rocket retro-motors mounted
near the base of the stage are definitely visible when
they fire to back the Atlas stage away from Centaur.

A point of light continued on, perfectly eclipsing a star during its arc. One
of the other people there said it was the tumbling stage, yes no maybe?

The point of light would have been the Centaur stage's
single RL10 engine. The tumbling Atlas stage might
have been briefly visible too, but much, much dimmer.

It was good that you watched this launch. Complex 36
will see only about two more Atlas III, and four more
Atlas IIAS, launches, with the last planned to happen
about one year from now.

- Ed Kyle