Viewing Atlas V Launch at Cape Canaveral

Courtesy of www.nasa.gov. Launch of MMS on the Atlas V

A little late is better than never...
This past March, I had the opportunity while visiting Florida to go to Cape Canaveral and watch a launch of a NASA satellite for The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS). This is actually a set of four satellites, launched together, which will fly in formation and take measurements of the Earth's magnetosphere. Yeah, I never heard of it either until I found out about the launch. The MMS was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V 400-series rocket.

Logistics

I had a trip planned to the central Florida area this March, and since I have been several times before to the area, but never during a real launch I was excited to find out that there was indeed a scheduled launch during my trip. I initially just used the Kennedy Space Center (the tourist site company) website, which lists upcoming scheduled launches, and found the post for an Atlas V launch

When: March 12, 10:44 pm

Where: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Kennedy Space Center

Rocket Launch: Atlas V | Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)

At some point I've subscribed to a Kennedy Space Center "Launch Alert" mailing list, although this particular launch wasn't one that I got an email for. This was probably due to the scheduled time, at 10:44 pm, the official Kennedy Space Center visitor center is closed. I called the day before to the KSC's main number and left a voice message asking if they still had any sort of ticket available to view the launches at night, they did not respond.

After reading a number of other sites with viewing advice for launches, we decided to wing it by going to Cape Canaveral and looking for one of the public viewing areas outside the actual NASA / U.S. Air Force base in the town of Port Canaveral or some of the other nearby state parks. According to launchphotography.com: 

For off-hours/night launches, when no tickets are being sold by the Visitor Complex and Playalinda Beach is closed,
the best option for Atlas 5 launches is Port Canaveral on Route 401, at 11.7 miles from the pad. In that case it is the furthest viewing of any rocket.

Armed with this minimal information we headed off to view the launch!

Night of the Launch

After double-checking the weather reports, the launch appeared to be on schedule. We drove the hour or so to Cape Canaveral in the early evening, the sun was still up and went to get dinner. I think we ate here, which was unremarkable, except for the fact that nearly everyone in there were "space launch groupies" all going to the same launch afterwards. At the table next to us was a couple who apparently had connections to access the base. They were kind enough to suggest we take a look at spaceflightnow.com as the best place to get real-time info on the upcomming launches. After eating our dinner, we drove over to try to get a spot along Rt. 401 which faces the launch pad for Atlas Vs to the North, across an open body of water called the Banana River.

Map of Rt. 401 where we watched the launch

As you may see in from this map image, there is a curve of Rt 401 which goes behind the Port Canaveral cruise terminal. There really isn't an official beach or parking area, people just parked on the north side of the road on some grass next to the water. By the time we got there it was around 8:45 PM and the enter stretch of the road from the entrance to the Air Force base to the East of this map, all the way to the road cornering to the south was taken. Our car was one of the last cars to fit in to a spot before there is a guard rail that prevents any roadside parking on that side, just around that bend. There are "No Parking" signs across the street and there is an active police presence who we saw forced some people who parked on that side to leave. Moral of this story is try to get there early, 2 hrs or more.

After we parked we had two hours to wait. A lot of people were setting up large cameras with zoom lenses on tripods. Since the only people there are the people who drove and were able to park in that area, it wasn't particularly crowded at all, but you had neighbors to your right and left at all times. We sat on the grass in a spot with a good direct view at the rocket on the pad, preparing for launch. From our smart phones, we caught the NASA TV live stream which was mostly just a video of the rocket from close up. Occasionally there would be a feed of some talk of the mission controllers asking for a status check on some system. Things like this were often heard during the hours before the countdown: "The Centaur liquid oxygen pad storage area has been prepped. The next step is conditioning the transfer lines, which is now beginning to prepare the plumbing for flowing the cryogenic oxidizer."

The worst part of this experience was the wait. Right offshore in the shallow water, parallel to the road were some high power lines, which made an incredible loud electrical buzzing the entire time. There were also police patrol cars going up and down the rows of cars along the street, with their lights flashing. The two combined in the most awful synergy to probably qualify as a form of torture in most of the developed world. We spent the next hour listening to updates on my phone, while taking looks at the rocket and the Vehicle Assembly Building which was also nicely lit, and perfectly visible using my binoculars.

Pictures of the Rocket

Here were some pictures we managed to take. It was dark, and my camera isn't meant for this. My camera is a Sony Cybershot with 20x optical zoom. These were all taken during the fueling stage.

Landscape of the Cape Canaveral base. The Atlas V launch is at center. The VAB is on the left and well lit.

The clearest shot with full zoom

Another zoomed shot of the Atlas V on the launch pad

The Launch

After 2 hours of waiting (and nearly a half day of driving and waiting overall) we finally began hearing the dramatic count down. As I was informed halfway through their count down by a "neighbor" the stream from my smart phone was on about a 20 second delay. So around "T-20" we started seeing the bright orange flames and smoke around the base of the rocket as it silently began to lift off. It was nearly overhead before we heard the loud rumble of the rocket pass by us. I spent most of the launch trying to see something with my binoculars, at first the flame was too bright and I didn't see much. I barely saw it as the first stage separated I think. My mom did the honors and held my digital camera as we filmed a movie.

Aftermath

I can't say I was a big enthusiast for Magnetospheric science, but I have been keeping an eye on the MMS mission since launch. The four satellites in the rocket that were launched together all separated and are flying in a formation in orbit around Earth. They are continuing to take measurements and function as of today. I look forward to seeing what science they are able to do from this mission.