Going....going....GONE!

We have a GO for launch! Yes...the spacecraft is away now, beginning it's life in orbit. I can't even begin to tell you how happy and relieved a LOT of us are. We get our lives back! Well...almost. Turns out I was counting my chickens before the eggs hatched. I hadn't counted on being sucked back into the mix of the de-install of all the equipment at our payload processing facility and the pad itsself. I figured there was enough of the 'normal' group of people to make that happen, and I could get back to my day job. That is not the case. Yesterday (Thursday, the day after launch) was the hardest day yet as we franticly pulled miles of cables from the pad, getting it all ready to ship away to the spacecraft factory who it all belongs to.

But hey...that's such a downer...instead I choose today to focus on the good. The successful launch of NROL-65 (that's the official designator we use for the launch). All of the pictures below are compliments of Spaceflightnow.com (I have only one picture from my location, it will be the last shot).

Here is the view of the rocket/spacecraft still in the MST. This was my view multiple times every day for the last many weeks, as I walked across from left to right to get to the stairwell going up.



 This is the area that I lived at these many weeks...the areas of the tower where the spacecraft lives.

This begins at level 16 (but they don't count the lower 2 levels, so it's actually the 18th floor).

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning as the Mobile Service tower has rolled away, leaving the rocket standing on the pad connected to the Umbilical Tower (UT). 

 And we have ignition! The large plume of fire is the free hydrogen gas that has been vented off the three boosters. The engine on the starboard (right-most) rocket lit at T-7 seconds in an attempt to burn off all this hydrogen gas (and suck it down as it gets roaring) and the middle/left engines fire at T-2 seconds. At this time the white payload air duct is still connected to the fairing/spacecraft (connected on the left side of the fairing, on the opposite side of the giant mission decal).

And we have liftoff! You can see the payload air duct flinging away as the umbilical arms swing away from the rocket as it clears the pad. You can also see the scorching on the orange boosters from the hydrogen cloud.

And the rocket has cleared the umbilical tower in a blaze of fire!



This is a nice picture showing both halves of the MST just as the rocket has lifted above them. 

She's a real beauty in flight! You can still see some of the insulation is still burning in-between the middle and right rockets down near the engine nozzles.



And here she's really picking up some speed, heading away on it's course to orbit.

And this is my picture. The rockets have stopped with the exhaust plume..but you can still see three small glow-spots from the main engines. I was lucky enough to catch it in the same frame as the moon. Goodbye to our spacecraft...it's been a long haul but we made it. Live long and prosper!

And that about wraps up the launch. Hopefully soon now we will have all the post-launch work done and I will be able to resume my LIFE! I think I had 2 bike rides in the last month, and that's very unsatisfactory! I hope to ride at least TWICE this weekend (YES, I get ALL THREE DAYS OFF...Woo-HOO!) And the weather is actually cooperating for a change...nice weather today and all thru the weekend forecast. I can hardly believe it! I'm giddy with the thought of THREE DAYS OFF...in a ROW!

And so...here's hoping you have an awesome Labor Day weekend...the un-official end of summer. Get out there and do something FUN! And be safe!

Cheers!