# Saw My First Rocket Launch Yesterday

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-rocket-launch-yesterday/809906>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 2, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-rocket-launch-yesterday/809906 "2018-03-02T18:03:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SHARKBITEATTACK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@SHARKBITEATTACK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SHARKBITEATTACK)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-rocket-launch-yesterday/809906/1 "2018-03-02T18:03:08Z")

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Pretty cool and I think I did a decent job of tracking it with my camera. Payload was an advanced weather sattelite.

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ue6EqATaXTs/hqdefault.jpg "NASA Atlas V Rocket Launch - ULA GOES-S Sattelite") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue6EqATaXTs)

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-rocket-launch-yesterday/809906/2 "2018-03-02T18:38:03Z")

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I think you did a fine job of tracking it as well.

Did you have a “huh” moment when you realized that even tho it was going straight up, you were standing on a spinning ball that was moving you away from the rocket?

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-rocket-launch-yesterday/809906/3 "2018-03-02T18:38:22Z")

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A rocket is several million parts flying together in an aerodynamically unstable configuration piloted by an _idiot savant_ and balanced on the breath of a dragon. It seems basically impossible that it should actually work unless you have a detailed appreciation for the billions of person-years of effort that have gone into propulsion and combustion dynamics, structures and mechanisms, guidance & control, highly reliable miniaturized avionics, and very rigorously tested software that you hope doesn’t still have some minor conversion error or line of dead code somewhere, in which case, it seems merely very, very difficult. Every successful launch into orbit is a minor miracle of technology, diligence, and not a small component of good fortune.

Stranger