Second Delta IV Heavy Launch

[spacecat27]

Successful so far! 
It left the Cape this evening (well, last evening now) at 20:50 local time carrying the DSP-23 spy sat to geosync orbit for the Air Force.  Very spectacular night launch- makes one nostalgic for the pre-Columbia days when we hoped this bird might one day be used to loft a new OSP.
I was juggling two cameras tonight, and hopefully got better results with film time exposures.... but here's a few digitals.  There are some great pro shots posted at Spaceflight Now, but thought I'd share my experiments--

[spacecat27]

And of course, I have to close off with a nice shot of the VAB across the water.
Florida has finally cooled down from the summer, but it's still a bit humid, and there are still mosquitoes!   

[Satanic Mechanic]

Damn, I missed the launch.  I don't think NASA TV covered it last night, all that was on were highlights of STS-120.
Pretty cool pics.  Were you off that highway, forgot the number, that connects to state route 3 to take the pics?

SM

[spacecat27]

NASA TV didn't carry it since it wasn't a NASA launch, but I heard later that ULA did webcast it from their site.

You're right, I was just off 528- actually on the curve of the road that goes north, then east around the cruise ship terminals at Port Canaveral toward the CCAFS south gate.  It's about the closest the public can get to an Atlas or new Delta shot these days- think it's about 12 miles on the map. 

I forgot about the hydrogen purge on the IV-H, and when the whole pad became a fireball at ignition I thought "OH S___!"  Unfortunately the only way I can get a vibration-free tripod shot with my digital is to use the 10-second timer, which I hit at T-9.  Next time I'll wait till about 7 or 6. 

Even from 12 miles away, this thing made lots of noise!

[skyjim]

I watched the video streamed by ULA - at night, that really is a spectacular (and slightly scary) start sequence once all that hydrogen mixes into the air during the purge and then lights off! 

I was a whole bunch closer to single RS-68 hotfires several times during the early testing on the stands at Edwards, and that is a really loud engine for a hydrogen burner.  Not the sharp crackle of an RS-27 or Atlas MA-5, but SSMEs just sort of whoosh along by comparison.  Some of my fondest memories of that time were those trips to test areas. I've stood under falling condensation from an SSME test at Santa Susana on a hot, sunny day, enjoying the cool mist falling and the rainbow above us while the acoustic waves were rendered visible in the steam cloud next to the stand.  I miss days like that!

Spent a long time living with the first few RS-68 main injector and main combustion chamber assemblies at the tail end of my Rocketdyne days.  After more than a decade of handling mainly SSME hardware, the MCC of that first RS-68 looked huge by comparison.  It was very exciting to see a NEW American liquid engine taking shape!

Really glad to see the Heavy in business!  A few years ago, I was almost certain it was going to be the booster for our next manned spacecraft.

Jim

[dcsugeek]

That start was spectacular, and after liftoff did you notice the fire shooting out above and between each of the three RS68s where they attach to the rocket? What could have caused that?

[Satanic Mechanic]

Some good closeup pictures of the launch on the Spaceflight Now website.

SM

[spacecat27]

Finally got around to having my film processed.
There were a few earlier on the roll from the Wideband Gapfiller Atlas launch last month- but they were clipped on the contact print.  Here's my best shot of the Delta IV Heavy.  Quality is poor because this in an enlarged scan of a contact print, but a little darkroom doctoring when I get a photo enlargement done might make it a decent catch.

[Johno]

Sorry, What's film?