Night Launch of Falcon9 Starlink

Well what do you do when you suddenly find out that the Starlink Falcon9 is scheduled to launch in the morning?  Well drive to the coast and wait 9 hours for the launch, that's what!

That's exactly what we did when Mark suddenly found out that Starlink postponed their recent flight and it was now scheduled for the morning! On a whim, we decided to head 2 hours east, find any location we could, and to wait until the launch at 3:13am. We planned out a dark park location which we later got kicked out of, then moved to the roadside location where we walked down next to the water and enjoyed each others company while we waited; about 15 miles straight west from the launch pad. We did manage to get a few hours of sleep during the night, and Pica was very well behaved during this crazy night. 

The launch itself was spectacular! The SpaceX live broadcast playing in the background; the rumbling of the boosters; the ground shaking from the mighty thrusters that were lifting 60 more satelites into space.. It was just awe-inspiring and emotional to say the least. I don't know why it got to us that way, but maybe it had something to do with the meaning of the mission.

Twenty-four years ago, we took our honeymoon trip to Orlando. We watch a Space Shuttle launch then too! Now after these many years, Shuttles no longer fly. Instead, reusable rocket boosters send up satelites that promise to bring world-wide Internet and communications; our future. This launch was the 76th safe landing return of the first stage booster Falcon9.

Everyone should try to see a rocket launch some time in their lives, but this night was was absolutely spectacular.  Watch the 3-minute video to see the entire thing. It gets blurry, but straightens up around the 1:10 minute mark.