Delta IV launch Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

I've been out at the SPIE meeting in Florida for a couple of days now, but predictably have been really busy. However a few of us had heard that GOES-N, the first in a series of new Earth monitoring weather satellites, was due to be launched today on a Boeing Delta IV from Cape Canaveral. There was nothing for it but we had to go and try and see the launch...


The GOES-N satellite launch (Quicktime Movie 13MB)
Unfortunately we didn't really get organised until the last minute, and mostly my fault, we left things a bit late considering Canaveral is around 40 miles from the conference hotel. So therefore Robert White, Rick Hessman, Rob Seaman and myself were still barrelling east along SR 528 towards the cape when the launch took place at 6:11pm EDT. I spotted the rocket arching upwards through the thin cloud near the horizon, and we pulled over and bailed out of the car for a better look. It's a shame we didn't get closer, but at least we saw it...

Tags: SPIE Conference Orlando Florida NASA Launch Delta IV GOES-N Satellite