Artemis II

Kristin and I are in Florida at our condo in Melbourne. We are about 20 miles south of the Kennedy Space Center, but we have never actually gone to see a rocket launch. My boss informed me that on April 1st the Artemis II was launching and made me promise to go watch it and get pictures for him. I am basically clueless about rocket launches and all that other rocket stuff, but I figure if my boss is telling me to do this, I should probably go watch it. On top of my boss’s urging, Kristin and I are trying to sell the condo, so this might be our last time down here in our condo and so we are trying to do all the things we have been putting off, and watching a rocket launch is one of those things.

Two days before the launch I told Kristin we need to watch this launch, and she agreed to do it. I figured, let’s do this in style and try to get tickets to watch it from the Kennedy Space Center, you know, front row seats. We were surprised that they were sold out. Then, I started to do some looking into this thing. Turns out, this is the biggest space launch in decades. There were expected to be 400,000 people turning out in the area to watch the launch. People were coming from all over the country to see this thing, and here we were trying to get front row tickets two days before the launch, haha. The internet suggested getting a spot on the beaches that are closest to the space center about 4 or 5 hours early to avoid traffic and get a spot. Crazy.

The Artemis II is a manned rocket that is sending 4 crew around the moon, and they will go further into space than any other human ever has. We used to do this type of thing all the time 50 years ago, so, not a great milestone for us, but it represents us getting back into space and exploring and all that. So, its a good thing and people are really excited for it, especially all the space nerds and trekkies.

There’s no way I’m going to fight traffic and sit on a beach for 5 hours in the hopes that this thing takes off on time so I can get a picture to send to my boss, so Kristin and I figured we could just go to our local beach a half mile down the road. Around 5:30 we hopped in our car and headed out. Eau Gallie Blvd (the street our condo is on) was backed up all the way to our condo parking lot. I’ve never seen it like that. Apparently the internet was right, this thing is a big deal. I dropped Kristin off with our chairs and stuff, then I drove back to the condo, dropped the car, and walked back to the beach. Worked like a charm.

Our beach is about 34 miles south of the launch pad, so not as crowded as it was further north, but there was still a big crowd there. The parking lot was full, and plenty of people were walking down as well.

 

Here is the view from where we set up, looking out towards the launch pad which is over the horizon and can’t be seen from our beach.

 

It felt a little like the Fourth of July; everyone was setting up their spots; kids were running around playing; and there was an excitement in the air. Everyone was curious, friendly, and almost giddy with excitement. Most people were like me, not knowing what to expect, not really sure if coming here was worth it, and just kind of waiting around to see what this was all about. Then there were the rocket-heads, the ones wearing their NASA t-shirts and spouting off stats about the rocket and the mission. They were really amped up and in their glory, trying to educate the ignorant.

It was a real communal atmosphere, something that I haven’t seen in a long time. Everyone was focused on the same event at the same time, a rare thing in our modern age. Most of all, everyone was rooting for the astronauts and America, it was very patriotic. No one knew exactly what to expect and no one knew if everything was going to go right, but we were all hopeful and happy to be a part of the event.

I set up my tripod, attached my 100-500mm zoom lens. I was 34 miles away, and although it was a clear day I still expected a lot of haze at that distance. I did not know how big the thing would look, but my boss wanted pictures so I was going to do my best.

I kind of wish we had some sort of sound system that would give us the countdown and all that, but we just had to rely on our phones, and then we could see the fireball and trail of smoke start to rise over the horizon.

There are 15 miles of beach between us and the Space Force base, and all of that was packed with people. I’m sure it got more crowded the closer you got to the base. The crowds continued south of us too. There were a lot of people watching this thing.

 

 

With the naked eye you could just see the fire and smoke, and not really the rocket itself. The rocket does show up in the pictures, but is pretty faint in some of them due to the haze. It almost blends into the blue of the sky.

The rocket itself is 322 feet tall. The fireball that was lifting it into space was much larger than that, at one point it appears to be 3 to 4 times longer than the rocket itself. The rocket would go from 0 to 2,600 MPH in 90 seconds, which is about how long it took my first car to get to 60 MPH :) It is a pretty incredible sight.

My camera set up did pretty well capturing this thing, even from such a great distance, so I was happy with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There go the solid rocket boosters, a little over two minutes into the flight.

 

 

After the rocket boosters separated, the beach erupted in cheers and Artemis II disappeared into space. Just after that we finally heard the distant rumble of the rockets, it had taken 2 and half minutes for the sound to reach our beach. It was surreal.

I appreciate that my boss told me about the launch and encouraged me to go. We just lucked out that the timing of this thing landed in the 3 week window that we were down here.