Trade Show Guru

If you’re in Southern California tonight (Friday, October 24) , step outside tonight at 7:28 pm tonight and look out towards the west (if you live anywhere else, step outside anytime tonight and look up in the sky and enjoy the stars – I love star gazing). But back to those of us in Southern California. Tonight at 7:28pm, Vandenburg Air Force Base (30 miles west of Santa Barbara on the coast, 100 miles or so northwest of Los Angeles) is scheduled to launch a Delta II rocket. I live in Santa Barbara and have seen a few daytime launches, and they are neat. I saw one nighttime launch and it was nothing short of amazing. At night, I think one can see the launch for a few hundred miles, so even if you’re in San Francisco, Sacramento, or Reno, you should take a look. It usually takes a few minutes to get airborne and climb into the sky, so you probably won’t see it until 7:31 or so, and then it can be over in a minute or two. There’s also a chance the launch will be postponed for weather or technical reasons… but it’s only a one-minute launch window so you don’t have to wait around very long.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this one. There have been several launches from Vandenburg this year. I’ve seen the daytime launches but have skipped the few that were at 2 or 3 in the morning (I’m not that dedicated). This is the first evening launch so you can bet I’ll be outside.

For those of you that aren’t around here, you can click on the rocket launch picture above and it will take you to the source page for the picture (http://www.air-and-space.com/20070823%20Minotaur.htm) that also has a short time-lapse video of a 2007 Vandenburg launch at 1:31am (yes, I didn’t get out of bed for that one).

If you want an update on the launch status, you can go here http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ and then click on “Delta II Rocket Scheduled for Friday Night Launch”