June 30, 2011
Congratulations Minotaur, Damn You
Wallops Island and I don’t get along.
Twice in the last two years I’ve made the long drive from my home in ex-urban Washington D.C., hoping to finally see an orbital launch from this quaint and historic launch site on Virginia’s eastern shore.
Twice I’ve come away empty-handed.
It happened for the second time Tuesday night, when the launch team at Wallops had to scrub the planned liftoff of a Minotaur rocket with the Defense Department ORS-1 satellite onboard, due to rainy weather. I couldn’t stay another day, so I missed last night’s launch, which went off (of course) without a hitch:
That should have been me cheering.
Keep trying, I’m sure it will be worth seeing a launch in person. We used to live south of Palm Beach, Florida. We drove up to the Cape for the launch of STS-92, which of course scrubbed because of the pin left on the pad. We drove back home that night and back to the Cape the next night to view the successful launch. After the launch we drove back home. I was a virtual zombie at work both days after those round-trips, but it was well worth it. TV/YouTube is no comparison for being at a launch in person, whether it is a model rocket, a Minotaur, or the Space Shuttle.
Comment by ID Rocketeer — June 30, 2011 @ 4:45 pm