W0QNX
Blacksheep Tribal Member
- Joined
- May 30, 2006
- Messages
- 3,347
- Location
- Pensacola, FL. USA
- Bike
- 06/ST1300 19/R1250RT
- 2024 Miles
- 007437
The SpaceX dragon crew capsule came down across the lower US this morning. It was very visible here in Pensacola where it continued out in the Gulf of Mexico about 30 miles offshore where it splashed down in calm seas.
Tom sent me a text 9 days ago, at 11:16 p.m. ET. "Nice launch view from our street", Cool I thought right then. I've seen the long blaze of burning fuel rising up from Cape Canaveral into outer space from the street in front of his house once before myself and it's a pretty awesome thing to watch. So the text was almost like any other text from him, he saw the big rocket go up up and away. I wished I could have seen it myself but I didn't.
So when I found out yesterday the Dragon was supposed to splashdown just 40 miles south of me today I planned to go see what I could see from nearby. I got out of bed at 4:22 and quickly readied myself to drive a half mile south to the big open park where the horizon is somewhat clear all around. I wasn't completely sure what time the Dragon was supposed to be here so I entered the park and about halfway down I turned to view to the Northwest. There it was streaking across the sky already!
I jumped out of the car and got my phone out for some video and pictures. The video came out just decent and I grabbed a couple pictures. Here is the best of the pics. The burning plasma trail subsided as it dropped lower and slowed in the atmosphere and the glow disappeared completely as I watched.
It's kind of neat how @TPadden watches it go up and I see it coming down around here many miles away and days later. I may just have to take the boat out into the bay this afternoon and cruise by the Pensacola Naval base shipyard and see if I can see the actual capsule myself on board the recovery ship. I saw one of the capsules down there once before so maybe later.
Tom sent me a text 9 days ago, at 11:16 p.m. ET. "Nice launch view from our street", Cool I thought right then. I've seen the long blaze of burning fuel rising up from Cape Canaveral into outer space from the street in front of his house once before myself and it's a pretty awesome thing to watch. So the text was almost like any other text from him, he saw the big rocket go up up and away. I wished I could have seen it myself but I didn't.
So when I found out yesterday the Dragon was supposed to splashdown just 40 miles south of me today I planned to go see what I could see from nearby. I got out of bed at 4:22 and quickly readied myself to drive a half mile south to the big open park where the horizon is somewhat clear all around. I wasn't completely sure what time the Dragon was supposed to be here so I entered the park and about halfway down I turned to view to the Northwest. There it was streaking across the sky already!
I jumped out of the car and got my phone out for some video and pictures. The video came out just decent and I grabbed a couple pictures. Here is the best of the pics. The burning plasma trail subsided as it dropped lower and slowed in the atmosphere and the glow disappeared completely as I watched.
It's kind of neat how @TPadden watches it go up and I see it coming down around here many miles away and days later. I may just have to take the boat out into the bay this afternoon and cruise by the Pensacola Naval base shipyard and see if I can see the actual capsule myself on board the recovery ship. I saw one of the capsules down there once before so maybe later.
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