Falcon 9 Launch, Feb 21, 2022
Here is a video of the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida.
My fascination with the space program began in 1957 when, as a 5 year old, I heard about the Russian launch of Sputnix 1, the first artificial satellite put in orbit. I remember seeing a news report playing the beeping sound the satellite sent down to earth. In 1960 the US sent up Echo 1, a passive reflector. In 1962 the Telstar satellite went up providing satellite TV broadcast access between Europe and the US. The ground station was in Andover, Maine.
Through all the years as the US Space Program developed I followed it closely. The 25 flights in Project Mercury between 1961 and 1963 put the first US astronauts in space and showed that humans could function for up to 43 hours in weightlessness.
The Gemini Program (running until 1966) tested equipment and procedures. It determined that space craft could dock in space, that “space walks” were possible outside of the space craft, and that astronauts could survive up to 14 days in space.
In 1969 the Apollo program put men on the moon and safely returned them to Earth.
Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, the Hubble telescope, it has all held my attention through 65 years. Now I have the opportunity to be near those many places we’ve heard mentioned, Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, the Banana River, the Kennedy Space Center.