Watch NASA's LADEE moon launch on the East Coast

[Crisp]

Watch NASA's LADEE moon launch on the East Coast ? or online

 

An Orbital Sciences Minotaur 5 rocket is due to send NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, on its way toward the moon on Friday night. - NASA EDGE

 

Make your plans for a spectacular East Coast fireworks show on Friday night: That's when NASA?s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, is set to blast off from Virginia and light up skies from the Carolinas to Maine.

"This vehicle will be launching at night, so it should be easily visible from a lot of locations on the East Coast," Doug Voss, launch manager at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, told reporters last month during a pre-launch briefing.

LADEE (pronounced like "laddie," not "lady") is set for launch at 11:27 p.m. ET Friday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops, atop a five-stage Orbital Sciences Minotaur 5 rocket. The blast from three of those stages could be visible from parts of the East Coast during the first three and a half minutes of flight.

Two viewing locations have been set up around the launch pad ? at Robert Reed Park on Chincoteague Island, and on Beach Road spanning the area between Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. Depending on your location, you might be able to spot the Minotaur's shining point of light from as far away as Pittsburgh.

 

Source and more

 

NASA TV

[Dane]

I'll have to watch this tonight.   

[Roger H. Veteran]

Well should be able to see it from NYC area too so i'll be getting a good seat on the top of the building somewhere :)

[Crisp]

Here's the launch visibility map if it helps.

[AJerman]

Oh sweet, this is tonight? I was thinking I'd forgotten about this. I'll have to see if I can check it out. It's supposed to be a clear night here.

 

Edit: Hmm... perhaps this is an important picture to include as well. Looks like it'll only be about 5 degrees over the horizon where I am. There aren't any areas flat enough with no trees in NC to see 5 degrees over the horizon, haha.

 

[Travelar]

Spectacular looking launch from the Baltimore area. I wanted to drive down to WFF for the launch, but it's a lot of driving for a small window of action. 

[DocM]

A friend mailed me that the 3rd stage had an extremely bright ignition, almost explosive to the point he thought it blew. Sounds cool :)

[PGHammer]

It is nice that MARS is getting more good press - it has been around nearly as long as Cape Canaveral or even Vandenberg AFB; however, launches from there aren't as high-profile as launches from either Canaveral or Vandenberg (I'm referring to unmanned-satellite launches, of course - it's the one area where all three sites overlap).

 

If anything, thanks to Orbital Sciences (and companies like it), sites such as MARS (as well-equipped as it is - and nearly as isolated as you can get, despite its location) can be useful for decades.

 

(Of COURSE I have additional reason to smirk; MARS - as merely the Wallops Island Test Facility - dates back before rocketry.  As much as some have tried to mothball it, more uses keep being found for it.  Therefore, it's nice to see it getting some sunshine time.)

[DocM]

LADEE's computer shut down the spacecrafts reaction wheels (necessary to maintain orientation) shortly after launch due to an abnormally high current draw. They still have communications and are trying to work the problem.

[Crisp]

[Crisp]

Flying frog :D

 

[Beittil]

You would jump to if a (former) ICBM was being launched on top of your head :P

[DocM]

http://weather.aol.com/2013/09/12/photo-the-incredible-rise-of-rocket-frog/

A frog unwittingly made one giant leap for amphibian kind on Friday, Sept. 6, when it was catapulted into the air during NASA's LADEE spacecraft launch. A still camera on a sound trigger at Virginia's Wallops Flight Facility captured this incredibly well-timed shot of the frog's wild ride.

Lyrical parody from Burrito Justice

Ground Control to Major Frog

Commencing countdown engines on

WTF are you doing in the pond

Check ignition and may frog?s love be with you....

This is Major Frog to Ground Control

I thought I had a few seconds more

And I?m floating in a most peculiar way

And the pond looks very different today

Can you hear me Major Frog

Can you hear me Major Frog

Can you hear me Major Frog