While getting ready to leave for Disney in the early afternoon, we checked the NASA launch schedule and noticed the Space-X’s Falcon 9 is scheduled for a launch to deliver 40 satellites into the orbit at 5:30 PM today. We quickly rearranged our schedule to stay for this once in a lifetime event.

We were extremely fortunate that the launch was delayed from earlier in the week as SpaceX prepared the Falcon 9 launcher inside a hangar a quarter-mile south of pad 39A, a location very close to our marina.

At 5 o’clock, we walked next to a park next to our marina, found a bench, sat our butts down and watched a spectacular sunset blastoff at 5:27 p.m. as the Falcon 9’s upper stage headed into a roughly 373-mile-high (600-kilometer) polar orbit to deploy the 40 OneWeb satellites. Amazingly a few minutes later, the first stage booster flawlessly returned to Cape Canaveral for landing. The whole thing was over in about 10 minutes but it was one of the most incredible events we’ve ever experienced. How lucky are we to have hit this space Jackpot!

Launch

Launch

Launch

Launch