Liftoff!

During Covid times, with a lot of our international network shut down, the airline shifted flying to some new destinations that would have never made sense in normal times. One of these was Orlando. Due to the less than daily nature of the operation, we normally would end up with one or two full days on the ground, leaving plenty of time to explore the (still-open) amusement parks or to wander farther afield in search of other things to do.

One of my last trips there happened to align with the scheduled launch of a SpaceX rocket from Kennedy Space Center. I planned to rent a car, drive out for the evening launch, and then return to Orlando and work the flight home the next day. The captain had had the same plan but was also going to make a whole day of it and explore KSC during the day prior to the launch and he invited me to tag along.

We ended up with the full tour at Kennedy, taking a bus out to the viewing gantry, as well as driving around the rocket set up for launch later that night. The up close and personal view was pretty cool but standing on the shore of the Intercoastal Waterway in Titusville six hours later and watching that same rocket streak upward into the night sky, the supersonic booms reverberating around us, was far, far cooler.

Titusville, Florida 2024

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