Space X Rocket Launch With a Front Row View

I felt the sonic boom through my whole body

Crowd watching Space X launch on the jetties South Padre Island. Photo by author

I had zero interest in seeing this rocket launch. However, as I witnessed the liftoff, heard the sonic boom, and watched the smoke turn to orange fire, I felt tears in my eyes.

Elon Musk is a controversial public figure, but everyone agrees he has a bit of discretionary income after he pays his bills. SpaceX has been feuding with the FAA for breaking environmental regulations. Over $600K in fines were proposed in September by the FAA, but paying the fines is chump change for the richest man in the world, and he has money to fight back.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, also likes to shoot off rockets in Van Horne, Texas. His company is called Blue Origin.

I know it isn’t fair to generalize, but it seems rich guys like to buy land in Texas and shoot off rockets. Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife has been in the news lately for charitable giving.

Back to Space X and this rocket launch. The people in front of us told us they had been coming to every launch and this was the best one.

Friends from Brownsville, Texas, were posting on Facebook that their houses were shaking and their animals were trembling.

We heard and felt two sonic booms and watched the rocket go up, and separate. Half of the rocket turned around and landed successfully where it started seven minutes after it launched. The festive crowd on South Padre Island clapped and cheered.

The other half landed in the Indian Ocean and exploded about an hour after its launch. That’s what was supposed to happen.

My mind stretched back to the 1960s and heard my dad talking about the first space flights and how the Russians could return astronauts to land while the American rockets crashed into the ocean.

Even if humanity doesn’t get to Mars as soon as Elon would like maybe it’s possible more humans can zip around this country and get to places as far as the Indian Ocean in about an hour instead of a daylong plane ride.

My eyes had tears thinking about how I got to witness what my dad was in awe about in the 1960s. His spirit now is unfazed by worries of rockets falling on the crowd or destroying habitat.

We were very lucky and found a condo on the island the day before. It was a bit of an impulse trip. An out-of-town relative was visiting and he had mentioned that he wanted to see a rocket launch.

We enjoyed a late afternoon on the beach and watched the sunset over the bay. This was my first time staying on the side of the island looking out over the Laguna Madre. I usually stay on the busy side with the waves from the Gulf of Mexico crashing on the beach and families swimming.

Sunset of Laguna Madre Texas Photo by author

Waking up at 2:30 am to drive three miles down the road to the jetties seemed crazy, but we grabbed coffee and water and off we went.

Surprisingly, the Parks and Recreation department has learned over the five launches to open at 1:30 am. The lines were minimal, but when we parked our car and walked to set our chairs near the jetties, I was amazed at how many people were there.

Kids were sleeping on air mattresses. Some people had chairs planted on top of the roof of their vans. All were cooperative and excited. Some were wearing shirts that announced political preferences, but everyone was eager for the launch to be successful.

It was four hours until launch time. The time passed faster than an hour’s wait in a doctor’s office.

We could see the steam coming out of the rocket with binoculars and simultaneously watch the event unfold with narration on the SpaceX channel on our phone.

We saw the sun rise over the Gulf of Mexico. Drones and birds flew overhead. We watched the countdown on our phones.

3–2–1 Blastoff!

A minute later Sonic

Boom!

Space X Launch Photo by author

We saw the two halves of the rocket separate, and the one half turn around to come back home.

We held our breath.

Would it make it back to its exact location? It got close and seemed a bit tentative.

Then another sonic boom! Yes! Rocketman was home.

Well, without a man aboard this time, but Elton John’s song is taking on new relevance.

I contemplated and marveled at how no technological advances are the work of one person. Science is built on the work of others. AI came from human vision.

It’s a confusing, overwhelming, high-tech world these days, but I am glad to be in it.

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Thanks for reading!