February 2023

Naturally, most all of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are high security areas limited to authorized personnel. What you may not know is that much of the property is wilderness, and in fact half of it is a national wildlife refuge. Before you think about going overland to get a better view of a rocket launch, you might want to consider that there are literally hundreds of volunteer security guards on patrol.

Here’s Carl, a 8-10 year veteran of the patrol zone, keeping an eye on me.

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Falcon 9 carried dual-band, six-ton mobile communications relay station Inmarsat I-6 F2 to orbit for Inmarsat, a British company.

The launch was at 10:59pm local time at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s SLC-40 complex. It was a cloudy, muggy evening as a cold front approached, but the weather was deemed good enough for the successful launch.

Unfortunately, due to some bad luck and lack of a backup plan, these photos were taken through the trees on the banks of the Indian River. The low cloud deck made the show a very brief one after liftoff, though from time to time the rocket glared through a gap in the clouds.

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SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39-A inside Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday morning with 53 Starlink satellites for their Starlink network.

This was Booster 1069’s fifth mission overall.

Photo was taken aside the aptly named Mosquito Lagoon, and on a relatively warm winter’s night, the flying insects were out in force.

They were not the only bite-y things about — as the sound of the rocket’s engines washed over the water, a bull alligator perhaps 10-15 meters away roared his disapproval. It is said that the sub-sonic tremors that accompany any nearby rocket launch are similar to those issued by males competing with one another for territory. Undoubtedly the gator would have been foul-tempered if it had been encountered. Fortunately, that was not the case and no photographers were harmed in viewing the launch.

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