STS-92 launch of the orbiter Discovery was on 11 October 2000. It finally got off the ground after almost a week of delays. The mission was the ISS assembly mission 3A and carried the Z1 Truss, including the Harris-built Ku-band ISS antenna, and the Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA) 3.
A friend, to whom I am very grateful, but whose name I don't want to mention should he be deluged with requests for favors, provided access to the space center to where I could see the astronaut walkout and view the launch from the parking lot of the launch control center (LCC) on the edge of the 3 mile exclusion zone. I also had professional reasons to be there.
I call my friend Willy Wonka. He gave me the golden ticket to the chocolate factory.
What you don't often see in the news is the intimidating man with the automatic rifle. (What was this? An MA-5?) |
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This is one of several photos I have of pilot Pamela Melroy waving at me. She said, "Hi John!" OK. I'm kidding. Her husband was probably standing behind me. |  |
I was standing among a group of Japanese. I assume they were friends of Koichi Wakata, who is looking right at me. |
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Only Willy Wonka caught the significance of this photo without explanation. That is my car, parked, oh, four or five spaces outside the gate of the LLC, in the foreground with the Challenger license plate displayed. |
The launch. |
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This was more of a twilight launch than a night launch, but it looks like a night launch from all of the photos and TV coverage. There was actually a little purple left in the sky and some scattered clouds. |
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Unfortunately, to get enough of an exposure to see the clouds and remnants of color in the sky, the shuttle itself would be completely washed out by the flame. |
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When the orbiter climbed high in the sky (not shown here), the lower part of the exhaust column was white and where the column entered direct sunlight, glowed and eerie orange. |
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I used the bracketing feature on my new Minolta Maxxum 9 to take three exposures in quick succession. The center exposure was set at the NASA recommended settings for a night launch, and the camera automatically took that, one stop less and one stop more. I picked and chose which to show here. The greater exposures showed more on the ground, but washed out the shuttle. The darker exposure didn't show any detail on the ground, but allowed the shuttle to be seen. I want to experiment with a graded neutral density filter if I get a chance to do this again. I'm also about to experiement with color processing. It may be possible to pull the film to get more contrast range on the film. |
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This was, by far, the most beautiful launch I've seen. I wish the camera could have recorded it. (I haven't seen anything better from the pros, either.) |
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I went back to the car right after the launch and saw this spectacular purple sunset behind the artificially-lit VAB, so I grabbed the tripod and finished up a roll of film. |
I thought the tradition of the launch controllers eating beans after each launch was well known, but I can't tell from talking to most people. Anyway, I got to eat the beans. I was very thrilled with that. They were good, but I highly recommend adding the provided cornbread to give it a little sweet taste. |
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