10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 We Have Liftoff!!!

As of January 20, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Steps: 874,508
Miles: 372.32


A View of Cape Canaveral - and the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

If you click on the picture you will see more clearly a red dotted line showing the separation between NASA and the Air Force facilities. At the left top, you see the runway used to land the Space Shuttle. The upper right is Launch Pad 39, where the missions to the moon were launched. The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB in NASA-speak) is shown at the end of a roadway used to move the assembled rockets from the building to the launch pad.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse is in the lower far right. The Mercury and Gemini missions were launched in the Air Force area in the middle to middle right. The nuclear submarine missiles were tested from the area near the bottom.


Here we see a Delta rocket being launched. Both NASA and the Air Force have launched a number of sattelites that have changed our world considerably. Clicking on this picture brings out a whole world of details and NASCAR-like decals!


Here we see Apollo 15 leaving Launch Pad 39 on a tail of red flame. Ever since I was a wee lad, I've always been impressed by the sheer magnitude of smoke and flame these rockets generated. Clicking on this picture will fill your screen with smoke and flame without setting off your smoke alarm.


Here we see a Space Shuttle leaving the pad. Ever since the disaster on Tuesday, January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded only 73 seconds after lift-off, I have not been able to bring myself to watch anymore rocket launches. Clicking on this picture however, will show you that the Space Shuttle is no slouch when it comes to spitting flame, smoke and fury.


Every splashdown was a thrill beyond words for me... ...and each safe landing is something for which I am thankful.