mattogle.com » STS-133 Notes and Footage

I'd seen a lot of shuttles on screens. Faced with what was likely to be my only live shuttle viewing, and surrounded by people with far superior photo/video equipment, watching Discovery the old-fashioned way seemed like the way to go.

And, well, wow. There's a lot to say about the naked eye launch experience and I'm too ineloquent to say most of it. But here were a few things that surprised me:

• The impossibility. This is what hit me first. Having been out to the pad the night before, I had an intuitive sense of how massive the shuttle stack actually is. Seeing such a huge structure begin to rise in the first few seconds of launch was otherworldly.
• The light. Thing was bright, like sun bright. I had to look away a few times.
• The force. You could feel the energy the launch was putting out, in a very physical, entire-body way. The sound was incredible, but was just a manifestation of this force. It was immediately clear why the viewing area is three miles from the pad. I suspect this is what will stay with me the longest.
• The inevitability. After the initial few seconds of launch, my feelings of impossibility gave way to this. The vehicle is very much exploding in what feels like (but of course isn't) a barely-controlled way. Once it's lit, the shuttle has nowhere to go but up. The completeness of this irreversibility felt very obvious, terrifying, profound.

Footage

I couldn't evade the documentary impulse entirely. On a friend's advice, I set my point-and-shoot camera to video mode and had it running at my side just prior to, and during, the liftoff. I only glanced at the viewfinder a couple times, so the result is predictably useless as a complete video; very shaky and the shuttle is only in the frame less than half the time.

But I find the rippling sound waves captured by the camera thrilling. (This probably isn't down to sound quality, but rather that I'm reminded of the physical sensations that went along with the sounds.) I found a short section of video which is watchable (or listenable, rather), as well as some decent still frames. The rest of my photos from the day are here on Flickr.