We spent a few hours on the beach today. It was warm but not hot, and a bit overcast for most of the day. Still, I can’t complain about being on the beach in January!
Later in the day we watched the launch from an overflow parking lot at 1795 S Washington Ave (28.593796, -80.803917) in Titusville, approximately 12 miles straight-line distance from the launch pad.
While we couldn’t make out details from this distance, I believe it was about as close as we could get (without paying to watch it from Kennedy Space station itself). The fire below the engines was quite bright and visible, even though my phone didn’t capture it clearly. Brenda had the Kennedy live video playing on her phone and that was a very cool accompaniment, as they were describing everything happening, as well as being tapped into the cockpit and control station communications.
Another cool thing was the thunderous sound of the launch that rolled over us well after the rocket was lost from view.