The Surprising Reason You Need to Watch a Rocket Launching Before You Die
Even better, when it can still make an impact on how you live
Sean Kernan recommended that everyone should witness a rocket launch before they die. I sincerely agree. Even better, you should witness a rocket launch when it can still make an impact on how you live.
In March 2001, I was fortunate to witness the launch of STS-102, the space shuttle Discovery taking supplies and crew up to the International Space Station. More than 20 years later, the memory is still vivid and emotionally stirring.
The experience was seared into my soul.
Our family was vacationing in Florida. My brother and I got up early in the predawn darkness and drove an hour to Cape Canaveral to see the launch. Cars were jammed to a standstill trying to get across the bridge into the Kennedy Space Center, and we knew we’d never make it to the viewing stands before the shuttle went up.
He made an executive decision, and we pulled off and parked in a drugstore parking lot. We walked across the main road to a grassy stretch along the river with a clear line of sight to the shuttle waiting on the launch pad. It was a few miles away, but I had binoculars and he had a telephoto lens camera. We could see the details clearly.
The grass was already filled with other people who’d had the same idea, including many locals who came out to watch every launch. They told us the best place to stand, and what to look for.
Light travels faster than sound
You know how, during a thunderstorm, you see the lightning before you hear the thunder? The same is true of a shuttle launch, if you’re standing a few miles away.
The first thing we saw was billowing black, gray, then white smoke rising from the launch pad. Our local experts had told us that the launch pad is covered in water before launch. The “smoke” is actually the heat of the engines vaporizing the water into steam.
The crowd around us shouted with excitement.
And then the roar of the engines reached us. It was something you felt more than heard, a deep vibration that shook the ground and reverberated inside your chest.
I tried to say something to my brother, but couldn’t hear my own voice. The low rumble overpowered any other sound.
United in awe
The water vapor burned away, and we saw the brilliant white flames of the exhaust. Unfortunately, they were so bright, we couldn’t look directly at them. So we missed the exact moment the shuttle took its first hesitant wobble upwards.
But we saw it moving. So slowly, barely an inch at a time, it seemed impossible that it would ever lift off the ground.
Then suddenly, it threw aside the bounds of gravity and leaped into the sky.
A full-throated cheer erupted from the crowd. That tiny metal ship was designed and built by people like us, crewed by people like us, representative of all that was noble and striving in people like us. We had matched wits with the power of gravity to imprison us on the planet of our birth, and we had triumphed. Humanity belonged among the stars.
These brave astronauts carried our hopes for the future as a species into space with them. For a moment, we were united in awe at what we as humans had done.
In a matter of seconds, the shuttle was gone from sight.
Unwilling to let go
The crowd broke apart, no longer all fixated on the same point. There was delighted laughter and many exclamations of, “Did you see…?” Strangers shared their experiences with each other, comparing what they’d seen, heard, and felt.
A man passed among the crowd, handing out silver commemorative coins. The coins showed the mission number, and in very small print, the names of all the astronauts.
Of the six names, three were English and three were Russian. For someone who had grown up during the Cold War, the idea that we were now partners with the Russians representing all of humanity in the joint exploration of space was proof of our glorious future.
The crowd lingered, unwilling to let go of the glorious moment and return to their normal lives. But we had an hour drive ahead of us to get back to the hotel where our parents were probably just now waking up.
Plus, my brother was furious with my father. When he let my brother borrow his camera, he neglected to mention the batteries were held in by a piece of tape. Under the stress of the rocket vibration, the tape had let go, and my brother hadn’t been able to take any photos.
NASA makes photographs of launches available to the public, so I was able to download a photo once I got home. I mounted it with my coin and hung it on my office wall so I would never forget this moment.
I didn’t need the photo, or the coin, to remember. The experience was seared into my soul.
So, like Sean Kernan says, if you have the opportunity, watch a rocket launch. Not for the technological wonder of it, but for the experience of unity with all of humanity. You won’t regret it.
Inspired by Sean Kernan’s article 4 Things Every Person Should Experience Before They Die, in which he recommends witnessing a rocket launch.
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