I got to see a rocket launch!
Last week I was on vacation in Orlando and by chance while I was there, NASA scheduled the launch of the Dawn space probe, which is being sent to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter investigate the origins of the solar system, and also to orbit around two of the largest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta.
Dawn is well-named, as the launch took place at 7.34am EST last Thursday, shortly after sunrise. I tlook a one-hour drive east from Orlando to Jetty Pier in Port Canaveral, the nearest publicly-accessible viewing location. The Delta 2 Heavy rocket carrying the Dawn probe was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force base rather than NASA’s Cape Canaveral Space Centre (from where the shuttles are launched). This was good as it meant I had a much closer view of the take-off.
Several hundred other people got up early to witness the launch, including press photographers, TV news, and some keen amateurs with seriously long lenses!
Here’s the video clip that I shot of the rocket’s takeoff (6.2MB, QuickTime7 required, opens in a new window).
I don’t go diving as much as I probably should - but when I do it’s fun to take a video camera along. So I thought I’d post some footage I shot last September on a two-tank trip with