Tuesday, August 31, 2010

ATK test launch

We went to Promontory this morning to see ATK test their Ares rocket. It was the first one I ever saw and it was pretty cool. There was an actual countdown- T minus 10..9..8..7.............. And then it lit up and you couldn't hear or feel it for probably 10 seconds and then the ground, including our car vibrated for the full 2 minutes. It's crazy to have so much power concentrated in one place. Here is a pic.
This pic is obviously one I didn't take, but this one is from Colby's phone.
Even though we were pretty far away, it was still pretty dang cool. On our drive home, we saw some environmental company's cars on the side of the road with tarps out on the ground. We thought that maybe they would be able to collect some of the debris that would fall from the massive smoke cloud. Then- we thought it started raining- nope. Our car got covered by crap falling out of the sky until it was like trying to drive looking through frosted glass. Crazy. I would hate to live close to the test site just for that reason. It's too bad there have been so many layoffs and budget cuts for ATK.