When I rode on Thursday, I noted that there were planned road closures for Friday due to a launch. Checking the time, it was 7pm. We planned around that, see launch at beach with Jim & Sheryl and then eat at the Tiki (eating at the Tiki was on the kid's to-do list).
By the time we got to Hiles and the beach, 7pm became 7:11. At T-4:00 the count went on hold as they sorted out some sort of problem. The launch window was until 9pm so it could be a long time before we would know whether it was going or not; it was cool on the beach; hanging around too long would mean missing dinner ... so we headed off.
Eating at the Tiki, we were all watching various websites to see if it was going to go. Once the countdown started again, with an expected time of 8:26, we started paying attention. It was interesting that we each had "live" broadcasts of the launch but the countdown clock was different on each. Well, as it marched on less than 1 minute, we went to the railing to watch, hoping that it would go. My "live" broadcast was still at 30 seconds and the sky lit up and away it went.
When I say "sky lit up", that's not like what we used to see with the shuttle, but at night, it was still impressive. We could see separation and eventually the light winked out. Was it in orbit at that point, I don't know. We heard some sound wash over us but it was minimal and brief. I guess that a Delta IV Heavy isn't that big a rocket :).
The show was over and we headed home, not a very long trek !
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