Rocket man, Burning Out his Fuse up Here Alone

On October 4, 1957, I was just 9 days away from my 5th birthday.  The Russians launched the first artificial earth satellite.  I lived on West 24th Street in Chester, PA, and The Chester Times published the times it would pass over and be visible. I can still remember our family going out into our back yard with our neighbors, Jack and Sally Collins, and looking up. Now I don't know what I was expecting to see, but it was certainly more than a tiny dot of light. Dad and Jack had all sorts of Russian Communist comments, jokes about taking my picture, and the wonder that we could put things into space. Even though I was highly disappointed that the much vaunted satellite was not much more than moving point of light, it was the beginning of a love affair with astronomy and space exploration. 

     I learned the names of all the constellations and the seasons when they were visible.  I loved going camping and seeing the Milky Way stretch across the sky. I was glued to the TV whenever there was a NASA mission going off. I can clearly remember Alan Shepard's first Mercury mission, followed by Gus Grissom,  John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper. The Gemini and Apollo Missions of the mid and late 60s held even more appeal as the Moon Landings became part of Apollo. The horror of Apollo 1 burning on the launch pad with the loss of all three astronauts. 

      As the moon landings ended in the 70s due to budget cuts, Skylab took their  place as my objects of space interest, followed in the 80s by the Space Shuttle program. As the Shuttle program developed into the 90s and 00s , launches and landings became commonplace and the Network News didn't always cover them live. But the internet always did, and I could feed my curiosity.

      And that brings me to tonight. There was a rocket launch from Wallops Island, VA tonight at 8:15.  At 8:06 I was on the roof of my house looking south waiting to see it. The little orange spot of light rose out of the south, briefly had a tail, then become a bright spot of light traveling to the east until we lost it in the few clouds that were present. It wasn't much bigger than Sputnik was back in 1957. But it was still cool, and I am glad I climbed up on the roof for a better vantage point. Jessie was with me up there, and that was pretty cool too. And I am more than okay with that

shot taken from my roof with an iPhone

Shot taken in Frankford, DE by a professional photographer

Jessie on the roof