Who has ever seen a launch in person?

well i was at disney world when i saw the shuttle carry up the first teacher into space (no im not talking about the challenger). there was this other time i was looking out my window to see the columbia launch and sure anough there i see a big flame heading into space(unfortunatly that was columbias final mission) whats amazing about me seeing the shuttle launch from my window was that im in south florida about 200 miles from the cape
 
I'm currently in the Daytona area for school and I can see launches pretty good from here. I've taken the 45 min drive down to Titusville to see a few shuttle launches from a much closer perspective though and it's always a blast! (pun not intended, or was it? :P)
 
3 Miles away from STS-124 at the VAB
2 Miles away from Dawn in Jetty Park
 
I saw the launch of STS-118 from Disney Land. I heard it a few minutes later.
 
I happened on the Themis launch accidentally. We were going to the cape just for vacation, lots of people were stopped on that big bridge leading from the beeline into A1A and all of a sudden, the ground lit up and I saw this smoke plume and jumped out and grabbed as many pics as I could!
This is the best pic I got, if you look closely, you can see the blue-green of the rocket and the shape of the fairing and SRMs!
picture.php
 
I saw STS-118 launch last summer. I'm a teacher, so it was especially cool! I live in New Jersey, but planned a week vacation around going to Cocoa Beach, seeing the launch, going to KSC and enjoying all of the sights there.

It was an amazing experience. I was on the Cocoa Beach pier, drinking a few beers, waiting anxiously for the launch, and got to see the whole thing from about 15 miles away.

The view was great, but I actually regret not getting tickets to go into KSC for the launch. There are only 10 shuttle launches left. Ares 1 will only have one SRB, so 1/2 the show.

If you have the opportunity, I recommend going to see a launch!!!
 
I saw Apollo 17 night launch in 1972. This is the most impressive remember of all my life !!! Still now, I have the feeling in my mind it was yesterday.

ACS
 
My grandparents live in tampa, and they can see them from their roof under very clear conditions.

I did tell them to go outside for a "surprise" about 2 minutes before the reentring shuttle was about to pass over the west cost of Florida. Then,
BOOM!! ... BOOM!!
 
I saw Challenger's last successful flight from the Orlando area. Watched the launch on TV, and as soon as it cleared the tower, I walked outside to watch the rest. Fantastic!
 
I've seen Ariane-5, Delta-2, Soyuz, Proton, Shavit and Black Brant. Plus a bunch of smaller ones. Never seen a Shuttle up close though.
 
Zatnikitelman said:
I happened on the Themis launch accidentally. We were going to the cape just for vacation, lots of people were stopped on that big bridge leading from the beeline into A1A and all of a sudden, the ground lit up and I saw this smoke plume and jumped out and grabbed as many pics as I could!
This is the best pic I got, if you look closely, you can see the blue-green of the rocket and the shape of the fairing and SRMs!
picture.php
Click to expand...

Well that was a chance of luck!
 
I whish I would be able to see a Space Shuttle launch in person :(

It must be awesome to experience the sound. It still always amazes me each time what small humans are able do...

[ame="http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5odETw3Yc"][/ame]
 
In the 70s when I lived in Thousand Oaks, CA, I saw quite a few launches from Vandenberg, which was about 100 miles away. These were mostly suborbital ICBM tests aimed at Kwajalein, but there were a few satellite launches as well.

They didn't announce these launches but they were hard to miss. They were very bright white lights going up on the end of a tall smoke trail and really caught your eye, especially if it was in the evening. You'd see them coming up over the mountains to the NW. You could even hear the things at that distance, a long continual rumble, but only after you'd been watching them for a while.

The funny part was that the sound cut off abruptly at full volume while the burn was still going. It didn't gradually fade out like it does in Orbiter. The sound would be gone but there'd still be the bright rocket fire still going up. Only after the sound was gone for some time would the light go out. At that's even with the sound needing about 6.5 minutes to reach me.

The 1 time I was at the Cape, there was supposed to be a night launch. I was on the beach nearby but they scrubbed the shot :(
 
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