Space Shuttle Atlantis - http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Saturday morning we headed to the airport to hopefully see one of the amazing sites living in Florida affords - that is a shuttle launch.

Atlantis STS-115 was scheduled for an 11:15 launch from launch pad 39B. We loaded up our gear, checked TFR information, fired-up 100WW and took-off to the east. We skirted along the southern edge of the shuttle's 30 mile TFR climbing to just over 9,000' and making it just shy of the coastline when STS-115 took to flight.

There was just a little haze up through 6,000' then visibilities turned unlimited. Our timing was off by a few minutes, so we missed arriving at the coast for a view of the launch pad, but still had a great seat for the launch.

When the timer on the GPS hit 11:14:00 we turned to a northeasterly heading and watched. Shortly after the 11:14:44 mark, STS-115 pushed up through the clouds.

Though only lasting a few seconds, it was an absolutely spectacular sight to see...

The solid rocket boosters can be seen as they separated from the shuttle (below).

What a great day for flying.... by jdl

09/16/2006