Those darn rocket launches

The next day, a rocket was scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center that afternoon. The Space Center WEB site had a countdown clock, so when it got to T -30 minutes, I walked over to the edge of the river and waited, peering across the river with my binoculars in hand and camera running. The countdown clock went to zero and said "launched", but nothing happened. I waited another hour to see if it would launch, but all was quiet. What a dud! Later that night, we read that there was a technical problem and the launch was rescheduled for the same time the next day.

So the next day, the WEB site said that the launch window was from 2:45 P.M. to 4:45 P.M., but the countdown clock indicated that the launch was going to happen at 3:45 P.M. I was a bit tired, so I took a nap thinking I would walk out to the river to view the launch about 1/2 hour early. At 2:42 P.M., I was awakened from my slumber by this horrific roar and Jan shouting, " The rocket, the rocket!" I grabbed my glasses, fumbled to put on my sandles, but to no avail. I looked up at the sky and only saw a vapor trail twisting up into the heavens. Darn!!

This is all I saw of the rocket. Big deal!!