After watching the news last night and hearing about the SpaceX Dragon re-entry in the Gulf of Mexico that was going directly over eastern Oklahoma, I decided to set my alarm and see if I could see it.
Not sure what the visibility would have been in OKC, but it flew directly over my home this morning.
I got up at 4:30 AM went out side and watched and waited for 4:38 AM. That was the scheduled time for crossing OK. Right on time it went over head coming from the northwest and proceeding southeast. It looked like a slow meteor. It had lots of reddish glow and appeared to be burning. It was pretty cool to see and watch I am really glad that I got up to view it.
If I had given it any thought I would have taken a video. But at 4:30 in the morning not all brain cells were functioning. I did reach for my trusty phone and got a couple pictures. (I know it does video but like I said brain not working)
Yes, when you stop and think about that this capsule is coming back through the atmosphere the same as a meteor and the contents survives. It took a bunch of really smart scientist, engineers and physicist to come up with the idea that is feasible and could work. It is incredible that it actually works.
Now all I need to do is see a rocket launch some day.
Russ,
No didn’t use tripod. It was a spur of the moment shot. Had to brighten it up a bit with photoshop. If I had realized how cool it was going to be I would have made a plan and tried to video it. It was not what I was expecting. I figured it would be somewhat like a meteor and it would just whiz by before you could photograph it, but it was slow enough that I could have reacted and captured it. It was moving pretty fast but not just a momentary streak.
I will have to check into the next return trip to see where they will land it. I guess the orbit was just right for it to go over the state and land in the gulf. Not sure if that will ever happen again.
Thanks…
Stan
When I lived on the Central Coast of California, very early one morning I saw a huge glow on the southern horizon. My first thought was “my God. LA just got nuked!” Then saw the light rising in the sky and realized it was a launch from Vandenberg. I never found out why that one was so bright, but it was amazing to see.
It was very spectacular, even from miles to the north. I was in Florida for a month in 2001, just north of Cape Canaveral, but there were no launches that month.
Mitche,
Thanks for sharing this. Very cool and hopefully it will get me to check into possible launch dates and places. Maybe someday I will get off the couch and go see one.
