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Hubble Launch +30 — April 24, 1990
This Friday will mark 30 years since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard Discovery from KSC.
While some flawed mirror issues early on and several servicing missions have been used to correct and help upkeep the telescope, it has probably returned some of the best and longest lasting science results of most any other NASA mission. It was the first shuttle launch I ever attended, viewed from about four miles south of the pad at what is called the Static Test Road viewing site. Original launch attempt was the morning of April 10, but was scrubbed at the T -31 second mark (! ) because of an APU problem and recycled for two weeks later. I had taken a week’s vacation for the first attempt so as to be able to ‘enjoy’ the launch (the 10th was a Tuesday) and not have to rush back home and back to work. But, for the next attempt on the 24th (the day it actually DID launch), I had to leave out of Augusta after a full day’s work, drive all night to get to KSC 400 miles to the south, out at the viewing site by about 6:30am, launch at 8:30am, then back on the road to Augusta and back to work Wednesday morning. So much for the original launch plans! But I would not have missed it for anything. I have a launch photo somewhere in my many photo albums that I’ll try to find and scan at some point. As I recall, I hit the shutter a couple seconds sooner than I planned and caught Discovery fairly low offthe pad. I was running video also and in the excitement of the moment I just fired my Canon 35mm still camera too soon. Hard, hard, hard to believe that is now 30 years ago. Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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I know what that experience is like Earl.
Once in a lifetime. My brother and I flew in from Seattle for the "last" launch of the Atlantis. It actually flew one more time. Still remember feeling the shockwave. Hopefully the JWST will be in orbit soon |
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It is an experience I wish all could (could have) witnessed in person. As you know, TV or other recorded media just do not do it justice. It is best experienced by ALL the senses, especially auditory. Over the years, I did get so to see four others go from KSC at various viewing locations, and during the high-inclination launches (51 degrees or so) to the ISS, the shuttle launches were viewable from here in Augusta (400 miles just about dead north) when the atmospheric conditions were right. Could even been seen in broad daylight, if there was not a great deal of atmospheric haze. I saw 6-7 of them from here during those times and photographed/videotaped several of them, especially the night launches. One could see about the last minute of SRB burn from here after it broke the local horizon at about 1.5 minutes after launch. Attached are a couple of scans from old 'analog' chemical prints from 35mm negatives (wow, remember those days?!) of a couple of the photos made during the Hubble event. One is a timed exposure of Discovery on the pad (in this case, LC-39B...that is LC-39A on the far right of the photo). This was about a one minute exposure or so, possibly longer I really don't recall. I wanted to capture the brightness of all the huge spotlights that line both sides of the pad during those pre-dawn hours. The other shot is Discovery just as it has started to clear the exhaust cloud. From the Static Test Road viewing site south of the pad, one is looking basically right up the crawler ramp on the pad. The LC-39 pads are positioned essentially in a north-south orientation. That long crawlerway ramp is on the south end of the pads. I do wish I'd tripped the shutter about two seconds later or so and I would have gotten Discovery probably completely clear of the exhaust/steam plume. My itchy fingers and distraction at runninng the video camera as well just caused me to click it off a bit too soon.
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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I toured the KSC in 1980 with my dad.
Pics are the Atlantis 2010 (?) |
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My dad took me to see STS-5 and STS-61B (a night launch). It was a great experience. I remember standing on the road guardrail trying to get a better look the first time when the shockwave, which I wasn't expecting, caused me to fall off and land flat on my back on the asphalt. Luckily there were no cars coming down the road or I could have been run over. I used to save all the newspaper and magazine articles about the shuttle missions. I think they may still be up in the attic of my parent's house.
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I first toured the Cape and KSC in 1977.
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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!! Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't ! Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY. ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC ! |
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My one and only visit to KSC was the summer of 1997. My wife and I drove down after an EX launch at the sod farm in Orangeburg, SC. No shuttles were out, but the Delta III that later exploded after launch was sitting on 17A or B (can't remember which) out from the Canaveral Air Force Space and Missile Museum. I found that I liked that area more than all of KSC. How could you not love it with real NASA hardware you could touch and pictures of Barbara Eden in the blockhouse?
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I love sanding. |
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The CCAFS area and the old ‘missile row’ is a fascinating area of history. I have done the tour a couple of times. And in the late 90s I got permission from the CCAFS Public Affairs office to shoot an on-camera narrated segment for that year’s LDRS video I was working on right on Pad 5 where Sheppard and Grissom launched from back in 1961. The tour guide they assigned to me that morning while I shot my segment was a retired engineer from the early days. After I finished shooting my on-camera segment (after about 15 takes), he asked me what I had planned for the rest of the morning. I told him I’d probably drive back over to KSC and knock around the Visitor Center some. He said “How would you like a tour of Missile Row?”. I looked right back at him and said “I’m at your disposal...take all the time you want!”. We covered most of the pads from the top of the Air Force station to bottom, including LC-37, LC-34, LC-14, LC-19, and a few other spots that I can’t even recall. Those stops covered the pads for the early Saturn flights, all the Mercury launches, the Gemini launches and even a pass by where the V-2 Bumper flights went from in 1950. Walking around at LC-34 where the Apollo 1 fire happened was solemn and humbling. And I found that the concrete ‘stool’ launch structure remaining there was much larger in person than it appears in photos. We spent a couple hours covering all that and I was forever grateful for his generosity. I was just happy to get in to Pad 5 and do my on-camera segment. The rest of the morning there was truly a devine gift. Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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That's awesome, Earl! I wish I could have taken that tour with you.
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I love sanding. |
#10
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That is a nice sequence of photos. Looks like it was a beautiful day for the launch. When I attended the Hubble launch, my first space shuttle experience, I debated which camera to hand-hold during liftoff: still or video. I ultimately went with hand holding the video camera and putting the still camera on a tripod to get (hopefully) one decent liftoff shot ‘suitable for framing’ as they say. It’s nice to have good video of the entire liftoff through SRB sep and for as far as one can cover from there, but video, as mich as I like it, has to be ‘played’ to be appreciated, whereas still shots (at least back in the pre-digital age) could be ‘looked at’ and admired far easier in a frame on the desk or wall. In later shuttle missions I did hand hold the still camera and got more of a series of still shots, and let the video camera(s) just sit ‘static’ on a tripod to get closeup liftoff footage. I think I have a series of still shots for the Glenn return to space (Discovery) mission in ‘98. And I think there is an older thread here somewhere in which I posted a timed exposure or two shot from here in Augusta of a couple of night shuttle launches, showing just how visible they were 400 miles away. I’ll see if I can locate that thread and add it here. Earl Edit: Here is the link to the older thread...2008! Geez, longer ago than I realized. It covers some details of shuttle viewing from here, along with one of the night time long exposures. Link: https://www.oldrocketforum.com/show...ight=Bush+field
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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