Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport Makes First Launch 67
PeeAitchPee writes "East Coast residents of the US were treated to the first launch from the mid-Atlantic region's commercial spaceport. The 69-foot Minotaur I rocket soared from the launch pad at 7 a.m. ET, after teams spent the week resolving a glitch in software for one of the satellites that had scrubbed a liftoff on Monday. I witnessed the launch while driving to BWI airport this morning and it was beautiful! It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible." The spaceport, a commercial collaboration of Virginia and Maryland, is on the Delmarva peninsula south of the Maryland line, just west of Chincoteague Island.
Saskatchewan port still in progress (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be nice to have a "northerly" launch point, even though it's more common to have pads closer to the equator.
I saw it (Score:5, Interesting)
As I watched today, I said, "What's that?". To the east a thin bright white contrail grew longer and longer. What's that? I had no idea. Something "shiny" was drawing a line on the sky. The contrail quickly went from a line to jaggy. My guess - Something must be traveling vertical, going through different wind layers.
Acceleration was easily visible - not at all like a cruising plane. It changed course from what may have been nearly vertical to something much closer to horizontal. At times, a long "wake" was visible - a bright line vee from the base of the "shiny thing".
I had no idea what I was looking at. Now I do.
Shiny? The rocket exhaust flame? The distance from Bowie to Wallops is on the order of 100 miles, I can't have been seeing the rocket itself.
It might be decade or so since that last time I've seen a "not looking for it" launch display from the Wallops area.
Re:TSA (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Mid-Atlantic? Stupid name for a region. (Score:2, Interesting)
Saw it from Pittsburgh (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/10552546