I grew up on the space coast and watched the Gemini series of flights as well as the early Apollo launches from a beach view and later across the Indian River (truly a lagoon and not a river) where I lived on Merritt Island until my college days at West Point. The recount of a co-worker's first launch experience was touching and brought back many fond memories for me and captured, as best as you can in picture or words, the experience of a "First Launch Experience." I thought others in our club would like to read Jon Payne's recount and view his pictures... Enjoy!
original pictures can be seen by members in our Gallery...
"Last week, I attended the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center. What made this trip so special to me was that I was invited by a friend, Rex Walheim, who happens to be a Mission Specialist aboard Atlantis as you read this. Rex and I were classmates at the USAF Test Pilot School way back in, dare I say it, 1992. 
Four of our classmates wound up at NASA. Between them they have 11 flights. This was the third or fourth invitation I received over the years, but the only one I actually saw in person. The last time was about three years ago, but delay after delay after delay prevented us from seeing the launch. We spent about a week in the area back then and visited just about every park in the Orlando area due to the delays. But we went home tired, broke, and still never got to see the launch. This time was different.
[Pictured left above: The night viewing was a remarkable sight. Pictures just can't show what it was like to actually be there since you can't see or feel the mosquitoes that were eating us alive...]
Even more special is that Rex arranged for us to attend the night viewing at dusk the night before launch. Of the 10s of thousands of people there at KSC, not to mention the additional 900,000 or so in the area, only about 200 get to attend the night viewing. 
We got to within about 200 yards of the launch pad, right in the middle of the most prolific mosquito breeding grounds in the entire world (I swear that must be true). While there, I got a neat surprise. Another one of our classmates, CJ Sturckow, walked over to shake my hand. He has 4 shuttle missions under his belt. Turns out he was scheduled to fly the weather observation aircraft the morning of the launch. More on that in a minute...
After the night viewing, we got back to our roach motel at about 11:30 PM, but were up at 2 AM to check the schedule. Everything was still a go even though there was a 70% chance of a weather delay, so we loaded up and headed to KSC. We arrived at about 3:30 AM and the parking lot was already almost full. After waiting in line for hours to catch a NASA bus to the causeway, we arrived and put out our chairs at about 8 AM - three and a half hours before launch.
We had been there for a couple of hours when I heard a familiar voice. There was a guy next to us at the causeway with a radio. 
He was picking up CJ's transmissions to NASA regarding the weather and I could hear his voice. NASA was not yet convinced the weather was a go, and CJ was getting frustrated. At one point, he said something to the effect of, "I don't see the problem. There's plenty of blue sky up here. Let's light her up!!" That's CJ.
[Pictured above: Author Jon Payne and his wife; and pictured far right launch day haze]
Finally, we heard the countdown at T minus 10 seconds. The place went berserk. I heard the "Liftoff!" call over the loud speaker, and got a fabulous once-in-a-lifetime view of the launch of the Space Shuttle. Atlantis was almost to the clouds before we heard any sound at all from the launch. When she punched through the clouds, the crowd cheered, then got weirdly quiet - for just a second or two. Then, through a tiny hole in the clouds, we could see Atlantis on her trek into space - and the crowd went nuts all over again. Many cried. It was an awesome feeling..."
[Pictured right above: Although I thought I had anticipated everything, one thing happened I did not expect that you can't see in pictures or video... ...the plume was blow-torch bright and very hard to look at without sunglasses.]
Original commentary written by:
Jonathon [Jon] S. Payne; IO Range Event Coordinator; AMRDEC; Redstone Arsenal, AL 35898
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