I was so excited at the prospect of seeing the Lyrid meteor shower this week. I got up off and on for two nights hoping to glimpse something. All I got for my efforts was to see a a stray airplane or two and a couple of cars go by. That was a swing and a miss if ever there was one.
Then I heard that Space X was doing another rocket launch from Cape Canaveral early on April 23. (Hey, I was going to be up early looking for meteors anyway). At 5:45am SpaceX launched their 2nd six-month crew mission (Crew-2) to the International Space Station. Based on the maps I'd seen from the previous week's space train, I figured I'd be seeing this rocket about 6 minutes after launch.
I was RIGHT!
I got up, pulled some warm pants on under my nightgown, got my puffy coat and a warm hat and headed out the front door for a really good look in all directions. I wasn't sure exactly where to look. A few cars went by heading to work and I thought if they saw me standing out here like a fence post, looking all bag-lady, I'm sure I'll be named the crazy person of the neighborhood! The trees on the ditch bank were blocking my view so I headed to a clear spot under the trees to peer through the trees. And all of a sudden I could see the rocket coming up from the south and headed right for me! This was better than a meteor!
It moved slowly across across the sky towards me. Now, I'd mentioned this event to Danny the night before and he had been OK with getting up to see it with me. But I hadn't awakened him when I got up and he was still in bed. Why wake him if it didn't show up, right? Standing outside with an actual visual I now wondered if I'd have time to get back in the house, wake him up and get back out before the rocket vanished from sight. I've had both my hips replaced so moving real fast is usually not an option. I started my "fast" walk and thought it'll be Christmas before I get to the house so I hitched up my giddy-up and started running, which I never do. OMG! It was like running through mud on Pogo sticks! I didn't get far, but what little I did helped me get Danny out of the house in time!
We both watched as it crossed our front yard and went over towards the barnyard. I'd grabbed my camera on the way outside again but didn't expect to get anything with my extremely limited cheap camera. I was surprised to get images of some kind of separation from the main rocket happening before it headed off into the wild blue yonder! Wow! How cool was that?!
This was a total hit in my book of missed swings!
Now there was nothing left to do but go back to bed. and so we did.
#spacex
#spacexlaunch
#rocketlaunch
#crewdragon
