Seen from FL 528W in Cape Canaveral. Fishermen were lighting the edges of the river and enjoying the weather as much as the crowd that gathered there to watch the liftoff.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 tonight from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and sent another twenty-three Starlink satellites to orbit. Liftoff occurred at 09:22 PM EDT on a crisp, clear spring evening on the Space Coast.
Crowds were heavier than normal along the usual spectator spots, and no one left disappointed — long after staging and for almost seven minutes the second stage could be seen rising and building orbital speed.
As one man said to someone beside me, “Enjoy this, [it] won’t be long until the air is thick and hot as soup.” He’s right. If anything, Friday’s weather was one of the last of Florida spring weather: cool, but not cold with pinpoint stars and crescent moon lighting the sky. It won’t be long until humidity rises and the nightly costal front storms will be a concern for mission managers and launch spectators alike.
Note: Story and photographs are by Charles Boyer, and were originally published at Talk of Titusville