Space Shuttle Launch

One of the nice things about living in Florida is being able to see a space shuttle launch into space. This evening just after sunset the shuttle Discovery was launched. I saw the whole thing from my front yard. I actually live on the west coast of Florida and Cape Canaveral is a couple of hundred miles away on the east coast but when the weather is clear, the shuttle launch is visible on the gulf coast. And when the launch takes place after sunset, it is actually quite spectacular. The shuttle itself is clearly visible and the trail of fire and smoke is very bright. I saw the booster rockets fall away and the shuttle was visible for several minutes. It looks like a very bright star as it moves across the sky. What is interesting is that if you watch the countdown and launch on TV and then walk outside, during the few seconds that it takes to get outside of the house the shuttle is still below the horizon. As I got to the end of the driveway and turned around the shuttle was just starting to rise above the horizon. Tonight, because the launch was at sunset, the lower part of the vapor trail was a brilliant orangy-red and the upper part of the trail was white because the sun was still reflecting off of it. The sky was various shades of purpley-blue. How patriotic!! Red, white and blue. Made me feel so proud! The vapor trail floated in the air for several minutes. Because of the air currents, it wasn't straight. It was zigzag. It was beautiful. And the launch was successful. God Bless America. God bless us all.