Seeing a SpaceX Launch from Kennedy Space Center

By Karim Elmahmoudi

Like many other participants of NASA’s Social program, I am a life long space enthusiast.  I wanted to be an astronaut as a child and never really outgrew this joy and passion.  In high school, I completed my private pilots license and soloed after 6 hours of flight training.  I competed and won in the Science fair getting as far as the International level of the competition and took every math class my high school offered to prepare myself for Aerospace Engineering.  I did eventually switch my hobby of music to be my career and switch my plans of a career in Aerospace Engineering to be my hobby, but to this day I routinely study NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) safety reports and follow the space programs very closely.  I grew up with Star Wars and Star Trek and have always loved sci-fi.  I have also been fortunate enough to have contributed to the music of high budget Star Wars projects which was a real honor for me.  I am lucky to have friends who work at NASA and SpaceX and have been very fortunate to have some of my music played at these venues.  My space themed work Orbit: A Symphonic Fantasy was selected by the California Science Center (permanent home of the Space Shuttle Endeavour) to accompany the space presentations of the space shuttle and was heard by over three million people during its tenure there!

Especially significant to me was that the Space Shuttle Endeavour was the shuttle built to replace the lost Challenger.  It was an unintended vehicle so felt a bit like a phoenix rising out of the ashes of a catastrophe.

I was beyond thrilled when I was selected to attend the NASA Social, and watch a launch of a rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.  This was really a dream come true and I had no idea just a few months earlier that this was even a possibility.  Luckily, my sister is also a space enthusiast and she suggested I apply.  I had nothing to lose but was ecstatic to be selected!

My red eye flight left LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) at 11:30 pm on Saturday night, March 31.  I was surprised to get a business class seat since this was a discount airfare.  Unfortunately, I am a very light sleeper and the comfortable chair didn’t help me sleep, I had too much going on in my mind.  I feared I wouldn’t make it through NASA security because of a technicality, or that I didn’t know how to use my new camera so wouldn’t be able to take any good pictures, etc.   The flight did go by quickly though and the next thing I knew we were about an hour from landing.  When we finally landed, we were a bit too early so another plane was still at our gate and we had to wait about 15 minutes.   The airport was a mess to navigate through on foot and I was very tired since it was now 6:15am but 3:15am LA time so middle of the night.  I got a small rental car and then set out to make the drive from Orlando International to Cocoa Beach where my hotel was.  Check in time was 3pm so I had hours to kill.  The roads were wide open, and the sights felt very foreign…almost prehistoric.  I had never seen swampy trees like these.  Some sights felt like it could have been a set for Jurassic Park.  I wondered if I would see a large alligator (by the end of the trip I had probably seen a dozen).

I arrived at Cocoa beach around 8am and went to have breakfast at a local cafe called “Country Cafe” which was basically just a local diner.  It seemed everyone knew each other and greeted each other by name.  The line was very long but since I was just there alone, they managed to seat me at the bar where I sat next to an old man.  I eventually asked him if he knew how far NASA Kennedy Space Center was from where I was.  He said it is about 30 minutes but on launch days, it can be an hour or two to get in due to limited access.  This made me nervous since we had a very tight time window to meet at NASA Press Accreditation building from 7:00am to 7:30 so only half an hour plus I was worried of my two ID issue getting in to security since my name didn’t exactly match on both ID’s.

The elderly gentleman at the bar said he had been visiting the area since the 1960’s and was a retired school teacher.   We had a delightful discussion about his memories of the glory days of NASA and hearing Alan Shepard’s jet fly over when he was in town either for training or a mission.  Alan Shepard was the first American in space, so NASA was brand new in those days.  How amazing it must have been to experience that period of history first hand where no obstacle was too big to stand in our way.

After breakfast, I decided to go search for the NASA Press Accreditation building since I tend to get lost easily and had never been there before plus we didn’t have a lot of time to get lost tomorrow.  It was a good move because I did get lost trying to find it.  I eventually found the place and managed to make it all the way to the visitor’s center where I saw a barrage of rockets from multiple eras.  There was the diminutive Mercury rocket, the larger Atlas (that carried John Glenn into orbit), the Gemini which was one of my favorites as a young boy, and the space shuttle booster rockets.  On the ground was a Saturn I which would have towered over the others if erect.

I was much relieved to know where to go.  Now it was time to go to the hotel and check in.  I relaxed for an hour and showered then texted my roommate, Stuart, that we’re all checked in to the hotel so whenever he wanted to join I would have the spare key for him.  It was a really good move to make contact ahead of time with Stuart and have a roommate to carpool, share costs, and frankly, share in the experience with since we got along very well, and I learned some much needed photography skills from him.  He was easy going, a space enthusiast, and a very good photographer so would give me pointers since I was inexperienced.  I didn’t realize how important color correction is in a good picture.  We went to have dinner and enjoyed the conversation about how we both were nervous if we’ll have trouble getting through badging so he also brought a third form of ID as did I but this made me relate to him.  We decided to go back to the NASA visitor center after dinner just so he could learn the route prior to Monday when the launch was.  I liked that like me he wanted to be ultra-prepared and on time.

I woke up at 5:45am (2:45 LA time) so extremely sleepy and it was going to be a very long day.  Luckily, excitement and enthusiasm kept us going.  Stuart and I were on the road at 6:30am sharp.  Luckily there was no traffic, so our fears of launch day traffic delays did not materialize.  We arrived at the Press Accreditation building around 7:00 am and there were already quite a few people there.  I chatted with one or two people who seemed friendly (Jeannine and Catherinne) and found everyone involved to be very friendly and giddy.  Luckily, there were no issues getting through security for any of us.  That was the last hurdle so now I could totally relax since nothing more was in my control.  The weather was mild, and it looked like there was a high chance of launch.  It was estimated at 80% which I can’t imagine it getting much higher than that.

After we all got our badges for the day, we were then cleared to go on the bus that said “Kennedy Space Center” which was very cool.

Our guide was a NASA retiree and army veteran who worked at NASA as quality control on maybe 50 launches over the decades.  He was a real character…the old drill sergeant type but full of great stories like his experience working in a clean room with Russians who smoked nonstop.  I enjoyed this man’s no-nonsense style

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I was operating about six hours of sleep of the course of two days so was very tired.  I let Stuart know, “if you see me conked out before the launch, please kick me. I don’t want to hear you missed the launch because no one wanted to disturb your peaceful rest!”

Our first destination was the Press Annex near the massive 40 story tall block that is the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building.  We would have a meet and greet here as we each introduced ourselves, talked about where we’re from and space passions.  Some of the NASA Social participants were professional bloggers (Aerospace web pages, pro photographers), school teachers, etc.  One interesting woman was Julia Velasquez who operates a science blog for the hearing impaired and it was a pleasure meeting her.  She was very sweet and articulate considering what she said had to be translated.  She mentioned that SpaceX launches don’t serve the hearing-impaired community because their launches aren’t always closed caption and she wanted this launch to be her reaching out to her audience about space exploration.  It was an interesting perspective I hadn’t considered.

After the meet and greet, we loaded up in the bus and drove to Launch complex 39B.

It is under construction but when completed will be the launch pad for the next decades of large rockets called SLS (Space Launch System) which includes planned trips back to the moon, to capture an asteroid and eventually to Mars.  I thought we would just drive around the large fence but to my surprise, we actually drove up the incline and walked the launch pad itself!  It was a great place to start the tour since it offered a beautiful panorama of KSC.  Just imagine, this is likely to be the very last view of earth an astronaut going to Mars will have and those astronauts are around today.  Maybe even students.

I walked up to the crawler path that takes rockets from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the launch pad.  I think it is the largest car and has a speedometer that goes all the way up to 2 MPH!  The crawler pathway is 8 feet deep full of river rocks to avoid sparks when the vehicle drives over it and compresses the rocks.

The 39B has a massive fire trench for the launch fires to be directed to minimize damage to surrounding support structures.  Looking into this trench, it is easy to imagine the tremendous force of the fire that will one day feel the full power of a massive rocket launch.

Our next location was the historic 39A launchpad.  This is the launchpad used for the Apollo and Space Shuttle launches that I’ve seen in millions of iconic photos over the years.  It is the place where every man who ever touched foot on another world left the earth from.

NASA sold 39A to SpaceX which is currently retrofitting it for its own Falcon 9 Heavy which is a very large heavy lift vehicle capable of taking man to the moon or Mars.  It is hard not to get a little bit choked up at seeing this sight that held so much historic significance.  I could easily imagine what it must have looked like to see the mighty Saturn V on the launch pad back in the 1960’s.

Visiting CRS-14

After 39A and B complexes, our next destination was the launch site of our rocket (CRS-14).  When we arrived at this launch pad, I was surprised by how many people and objects were laying around close to the now erect rocket in its launch configuration.

Again, I was surprised we were able to go as close as we got.  The rocket stands 210 feet tall in launch configuration, so we were maybe 500 feet away.  There were hundreds of cameras all set up in arrays.  Interestingly, I asked about why they had no special heat protection but seemed to be sound insulated.  The SpaceX representative said at 500 feet, the heat wouldn’t be lethal but in fact the sound would be lethal.  I never heard of anything like that…that you could die from sound!  I later understood that the Space Shuttle had a death radius of 800 feet caused by the pressure waves pulverizing your non-elastic organs.

If these loaded and fueled rockets blow up on the launch pad, they pack quite a wallop, so we were all surprised to see so much spare parts lying nearby.  Someone mentioned it looked like their garage.

Lunch at the Commissary

After visiting CRS-14 up close, we went back to the commissary for lunch.  There was a long line waiting for Subways sandwiches (just imagine working for the Subways located within the NASA Kennedy Space Center compound) so some of us started a new line for barbecue sandwiches which were very delicious.  😋 NASA had reserved seats for us but even so it wasn’t very crowded considering this was a weekday.  I sat next to Grayson and Tyler.  Both are avid photographers and have seen multiple launches.  During lunch, I learned that Grayson was a marine who had served three tours of duty in Afghanistan!  He was a sharp guy and I was very impressed by him and it was an honor to meet him.  He is currently in his senior year of college studying Aerospace Engineering.  Grayson also mentioned that he had seen the launch of the Falcon 9 Heavy – the largest rocket SpaceX has so far launched maybe a month ago (this was the flight that included a Tesla as its only payload).  He said he was around 3 miles from the launch site and the sand around him started vibrating from the force of the three falcon rockets (27 engines)!  Wow, that must have been unbelievable to experience up close.

It was interesting just how much spare parts and metal pieces are sitting around close to the rocket.  The next stop after lunch was the Vehicle Assembly Building.  The VAB is a very iconic location that can be seen for miles.  It is 526 feet high so about the height of a 50 story building, yet it is only one large floor since it is where vehicles are assembled into their launch configuration.  Rockets assembled here include the Apollo missions, Space Shuttle, and the in development SLS (Space Launch System).  It is a massive facility and hard to comprehend its scale unless you see a person on the other side.

You get dizzy looking straight up in this voluminous building!

Press Briefing Annex – part 2

After lunch, we returned to the press briefing annex and were treated to a brief talk by NASA administrator, Robert Lightfoot.  The talk was interesting about the future plans of NASA and SpaceX and then he opened it up for questions and answers.  He made it very clear he has no desire to go to space, he is an engineer not a pilot.  But there are some exciting missions ahead including a plan to bring Martian soil samples back to earth in 2022.

Space Station Handling Facility

Our next destination was the space shuttle handling facility that is the last point of contact between the earth and everything that goes to the International Space Station.  They are also doing some very interesting science here such as agricultural experimentation.  Interestingly, plants drown in zero gravity because the water in the soil doesn’t go up their roots.  Due to water tension, the water sticks to the roots effectively drowning the plant.  NASA has come up with several innovative types of soil that allow the plants to survive zero gravity, but these soil types have other drawbacks such as they weight a lot or are single use resulting in these innovations being deal breakers.  They have three plants on the international space station that allow astronauts to consume food they grow.  Apparently, zero gravity has an impact on taste and astronauts complain about food tastes different than on earth and very bland no matter how much spice they put on it.  The hope is that living grown plants allows the astronauts to have more food options.  This facility also has chambers that have the same atmospheric pressure and chemistry as the space station, so they can see what plants thrive best.  The atmosphere is higher in CO2 which is a nutrient for plants.

The Launch!

After we left the Space Station Handling Facility, we went out and I saw a huge squall line (a line of thunderstorms).  Oh no!  There was now a fairly good chance the launch would be cancelled because it has a zero second delay window.  The scheduled launch was at 4:30pm and 32 seconds.  If for any reason the launch slips by more than one second, it will be cancelled because it won’t have enough propellant to reach the ISS since it is traveling at 17,400 miles per hour and they must rendezvous a day later.  If they miss their window they’ll be trying to catch up to the ISS which requires more fuel than they have at launch.  I looked at my weather app and it indicated the storm cells were five miles away.  Grayson said in the past he’s seen SpaceX or NASA cancel a launch because though the weather was clear, there was a chance of lighting nearby.  The launch was nearly 45 minutes away, so I just hoped that the storms would stay away for that duration.

We reached the causeway which was our venue to view the launch and there was a somewhat ominous feel to see the rocket on its launch pad and dark clouds surrounding it.  It looked powerful and vulnerable.  There was a large lake between the rocket and us.  Many visitors had gathered and were already set up with their cameras and heavy-duty tripods.

Before we left the bus, our NASA guide gave us a stern warning: “Ok, everyone needs to listen here.  There is a loaded rocket only a few miles from here.  Rockets are very serious business and they can and do blow up.  If this blows up, believe me there are some nasty toxins in there that even a whiff of it will put you six feet under.  So, if the rocket explodes, leave all your gear immediately and run to the bus.  We’ll leave immediately and return when it is clear.”  We were T minus 25 minutes and jumped out with all our gear and quickly found good real estate to set up our cameras.

I picked a spot between Grayson and Tyler since they were the most experienced and very skilled cameramen.  I wanted to borrow some of their pictures if none of mine came out.  Surprisingly that wasn’t a lot of time.  We were really rushed to set up the camera and tripod, get the settings right and take test shots.  I had two cameras (my Nikon P900 that I purchase specifically for this launch and my iPhone that I just wanted to set on the ground and capture a panorama.  Grayson and Tyler both had three cameras plus huge telephoto lenses.  Their pictures were amazing!

Since our tour guide had warned us about running if the rocket explodes, every few seconds the rocket would eject high pressure coolants making me wonder “oh no, here she goes..RUN!”  It started getting real nail biting down towards the final minute or two.  The squall line was stagnant and didn’t get any closer, so it was given clearance to proceed.  Then it hit another milestone at T minus 90 seconds and T minus 30 seconds.  The last milestone was T-15 seconds and hearts were racing.

I heard a barrage of shutters clicking away as the countdown reached 10, 9, 8…lift off.  I heard the rocket noise through the loud speaker but not immediately from the rocket itself.  In fact, it felt like the whole launch was slightly delayed.  When I got a clear sight of the rocket in flight, I was surprised by the intensity of the fire.  It was nothing like what it looks like in any photo I had ever seen.  It was a brilliant blinding yellow like the sun.

It slowly accelerated but was very steady from our vantage.  About twenty seconds after liftoff we started hearing the sound and the rocket was nearly several miles up already.  The sound got louder until it was all we could hear – it was a terrific and terrifying sound of thunder that was ripping the sky apart and you could feel it inside your bones.   I even saw what looked like the rocket punch a hole in the sky.  This was probably the shock-wave as it passed the sound barrier.  I lost the rocket visually at about 30 miles altitude (based on SpaceX telemetry, I matched it up to my footage).  The experience left me deeply moved and trembling.  It was far more intense than I expected in terms of sights, sounds, emotions and this was when the cargo was just resupplies and some science experiments.  I can’t imagine how much more emotionally impactful the experience would have been had this been the Apollo 11 or a manned flight.

As soon as the rocket vanished from our sight (around the time of stage 1 separation) we packed up our gear and headed back to the Press Accreditation building from when we first started.  The bus ride back was a collage of excitement, picture sharing, and deep reflection upon our shared experience.

Stuart and I shared a nice dinner and drinks after and were looking forward to spending the following day at the visitor center.  We agreed that it would have been nice if NASA had coffee/snacks at the Press Accreditation building and if there might have been some better closure to the experience than everyone just going off on their way.  Today (April 23) is the third week after the experience, I still don’t fully know my thoughts over witnessing this launch.  It is exciting and powerful, but I think I kind of understand how many astronauts struggled to articulate their thoughts and feelings of being on the moon or being in space.   I will have to read more about this.  I understand Michael Collins’ “Carrying the Fire” is the best book written by an astronaut on their experience in space and I am enjoying reading it and highly recommend it to any enthusiast of manned space flight.

I also loved spending the Tuesday after the launch at the visitor center with Stuart.  I was surprised we didn’t bump in to more NASA Social people but we did see one or two others.  The visitor center was very nice.  Highlights included seeing a Saturn V, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and Space Shuttle Experience where you can “experience” what launch on a rocket feels like, and the moving memorial to the astronauts who have been lost.  I wasn’t alive during the Apollo program but was deeply moved by the Shuttle program and vividly remember the loss of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.  The spirit of the astronauts is so heroic.   Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts who died on the launchpad fire of Apollo 1 said this: “If we die, we want people to accept it.  We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program.  The conquest of space is worth the risk of life”.  I was moved to see the Apollo 1 burned hatch from our first space disaster and wreckage of the Space Shuttle Challenger, Columbia, but also personal mementos of all the astronauts lost.  It was a nice tribute to their lives not just their deaths.  The visitor center was a very special place to experience and all the more so since it was experienced after seeing a launch.  I think part of what made the NASA Social event at Kennedy Space Center so special is, that though it might pale in comparison to the glory days of the late 1960’s, since this is the epicenter of the early conquest of space, this site represents the culmination of staggering technical and personal achievements mixed with bravado. In many ways, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is both the beneficiary and the heir to this legacy with his own bravado and guts to make a game changer space company that is significantly lower cost and doing some very speedy progression to more and more complex engineering. NASA is sometimes prone to institutional bureaucracy* and SpaceX can be accused of impulsiveness but what a great partnership. Seeing the rocket launch in person had a sense of “this can’t be…it isn’t possible” but NASA and SpaceX don’t have “can’t” or “impossible” in their vocabulary as they both strive to embrace risk and welcome failure as a step in the path to success. Kennedy Space Center represents humanity at its finest.

I am deeply honored to have been selected to participate in the NASA Social experience and definitely heard tunes in my head the last days inspired by this experience.  It was also very nice to share it with such an interesting group of fine folks.   Thank you to everyone involved in making the NASA Social a reality, it was a dream come true!

* Gene Kranz, legendary NASA Flight Director who oversaw the safe return of the Apollo 13 with his strong, tough, and competent leadership style said this in 2000: “NASA, has become just another federal bureaucracy beset by competing agendas and unable to establish discipline within its structure. Although NASA has an amazing array of technology and the most talented workforce in history, it lacks top-level vision. It began its retreat from the inherent risks of space exploration after the Challenger accident. During the last decade its retreat has turned into a rout. The NASA Administrator is appointed by the President and to a great degree represents the current President’s views on space. If space is put on the national agenda for the coming national election [2000], a newly elected President will have the opportunity to select new top-level NASA leadership that is committed and willing to take the steps to rebuild the space agency and get America’s space program moving again.”  I wonder what Mr. Kranz thinks of NASA today and SpaceX as an example of embracing risk and pushing forward at full steam.  I also think when SpaceX begins manned missions, their risk tolerance will change significantly.