Last Friday was the first launch for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. I watched this one from behind the Kennedy Space Center Saturn V display building. It turned out to be a 4 1/2 hour marathon of sitting in the Florida sun. But, I think the results were worth it. The whole gallery is here: http://gallery.mac.com/erichlinder#100258&view=mosaic&bgcolor=black&sel=17 Erich
Sweet set, Erich. ; I especially like the ones with the condensation cloud. ; I see some "sparklies" around the exhaust plume just after liftoff. ; Could you tell if they were coming out of the engine or just pieces of ice falling off the rocket? I see where STS-134 has been pushed back to mid-November. ; Maybe I'll get lucky and it will launch while I'm down there.
There was a LOT of ice falling from the vehicle, and for a fairly long time. Reminds me of film from the Saturn V launches. I don't remember anywhere near that amount from the Delta launches I've seen, but they were night launches, so it may not have been as evident. Erich
Very cool. ; I saw the story about this in the news and was rather pleased to hear that their first launch of the 9 was a success. ; But I'd never seen what the rocket looked like before this. You seem to have caught some condensation effects. ; 1_12 through 1_14 show what looks like a ring of condensation just behind the nose of the rocket with a cylindrical trail of condensation streaming off of it. ; I've never seen this in launch photos before. ; I'm guessing it must mean it was at least approaching going supersonic. Bit o' trivia for the board: ; The falcon name is a reference to the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. ; Nice to see sci-fi geeks applying their passion to actually getting things into space.
Yes, the condensation is from the shock wave squeezing the water out of the atmosphere. It's visible on most launches more or less, even on the space shuttle. Erich
