Boeing Delta II launch from Vandenberg

 

Boeing's Delta II is probably one of my favorite rockets. I've been wanting to build a big one of my own for a while, but today marks what could very well be the last Delta II launch ever. As I understand it, the ULA is in negotiations with NASA to be able to offer Delta IIs for satellite launching, but for that, NASA needs science in need of satellites, and the congressional mandate for the SLS system, and having to fight for money to be able to do science to support the need for a launch system at all.. it's a bit of a mess, and I think few people understand the need for science that requires these launch systems, we just see that we now no longer have the Space Shuttle, and that's a travesty. But we need science so that we have something that needs to be launched.

Anyway, I heard of this last Delta II launch, and entered a lottery to be granted special access to Vandenberg - didn't get in - and still wanted to make it a point to actually go, and see the launch. I've seen launches from VAFB before, but usually just from wherever I was, and that usually just means that I catch a glimpse of a tiny little dot in the sky, and it can barely be traced from horizon to horizon. The date slipped a couple of times, and I was trying to get to a place where I could get a fantastic view of the launch, even though I couldn't attend the tweetup.

So I asked the wife if she wouldn't mind going to see it, and kind of to my surprise, she gave an ecstatic yes. Tired and shagged out Thursday evening, from nearly a week's worth of work and school, I literally came home, and collapsed, and slept until about 11pm. Tellmo woke me up, and we got headed out around midnight. A stop for a snack, and some gas, and we were off. In my research, I found that there are a couple of really spectacular viewing locations that are accessible, but difficult to get to, and having not been there to familiarize myself with the area in the day, there is no way that I would put myself in that situation at night, so I opted for a 'safer' location. It's just a residential coul'de sac in some little town off the 118 in Ventura County. We were checking our smartphones constantly for the time, and to make sure that everything was on track. There was a moment of question before the last four-minute hold where upper-level winds were RED, but the situation cleared before we came out of the hold, and the launch proceeded to count right on schedule. Having never been there before, I didn't know exactly where to look, but as soon as the count reached zero, there was no question - on the other side of a hill, there was a large, bright glow, and within a number of seconds (probably more than I figured, because it seemed like an eternity [or an anomaly?]) before the rocket came into view. We watched it gracefully arc through the sky, like a giant, flaming meteor falling "up'. You could very clearly see where the ground start boosters burnt out, and the air-starts kicked in, and the ground starts were ejected. It was glorious to see the bright yellow-orange flames billowing out of the rocket, and really quite moving to finally see a Delta II launch without some sort of digital interpretation. For a moment, a sadness struck me in that I never will be able to experience this in relation to a Shuttle launch, but I digress. After MECO, I felt (and Chauntel Scott pointed it out too) kind of like a sigh of relief - maybe the collective of the whole NNP team, and the developers of the cube sats that were on board, with their love-labors finally safely in orbit (even if elliptical) followed by kind of a ::tear:: moment.

But I was glad that at that moment, I was in that place, with my love beside me, absorbing it all. It was worth the sleep deprivation, the drive, the cold, and even not getting to join the tweetup.