Jun 21 2004
SpaceShipOne a SUCCESS!
We’re back from the Mojave and it’s been a long day.
We started out at 4:45am and drove over to the airport. Because we’d rented a $10 RV spot (that we didn’t use to sleep in – it SEEMED that a motel would be a better bet… 50mph winds and a resonant door proved that theory wrong… Somehow, in my sleep at about 2am, I thought to wedge a towel into the door so that it would stop humming), we didn’t have to wait in line on highway 58, we just went in by the Shell station and got right onto the airport. We drove around to where the $10 spots were and spotted Ryan Grant and friends, some of whom had driven in from Seattle just to see the launch. (Ryan had come from SF.)
The flight line was teeming with people, such that we couldn’t even get to the fence for decent pictures. I did get some very shaky video and I’ll post links below once it’s done compressing. Again – I KNOW the quality sucks, but it IS authentic. No one complains about that Bigfoot video…
Erin, the 8 yr old, was cranky, but as soon as she saw one of the airplanes go by, she perked up and thought the whole thing was cool.
Nathan, the 14 yr old…. well, he’s 14.
Soylant Green IS PEOPLE!!!
No really, this is the souvenir tent that we didn’t have the patience to wait for.
More still pictures (of the backs of lots of people with better views than us…)
Video Links
EDIT 2018 – all the links below are broken, but here’s a set of them on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4E5BB014BB7CFB46
(I’m adding more as I part the wheat from the chaff. Then compress the wheat… Digital video as Frosted Mini Wheats… can you tell I’m going on 1.5 hrs of sleep?)
650KB One of the chase planes, another Rutan design called the Starship, taxis by.
3M The White Knight takes off!
1.3MB SpaceShipOne lands safely, flanked by chase planes.
3MB The White Knight, sans SpaceShipOne, does a fly by and lands.
30MB The whole 15 minutes of badly shot, but very unique, video.
An Interesting Way to End the Day
Ok, I’m not making this up. So, we have this wonderful experience above and are heading home. We stop at the Baker’s Square (French Silk Pie!!! Nope, all out…) in Lancaster, CA. I make a trip to the little boy’s room, and as I’m headed back through the restaurant to our table, out of the corner of my eye I notice someone I should know… I cast my eyes over and lock gazes with William Shatner. No kidding. I don’t know what to do (this is all in 2/5ths of a second), so I give a hey-what’s-up-I’m-too-cool-to-bug-you, barely tilted backwards head nod, and keep moving. The we sit at the table for the rest of the meal whispering, “Is that him?” “Can’t be…” Even the grumpy child got excited and made a bathroom trip to confirm the sighting.
How cool would it be to end this with a picture of me and Kirk? Ah well, can’t mess with a guy eating pancakes…
… is that ADAM HABERLACH?
Or yet another teenage?
Too cool for words, like the nod to Kirk. High Class… now if he makes it to X-Sanguin III, you can say “Don’t you remember me from the pancake place?”… just like every other star struck boy he runs into. 😛
Declan and Elaine,
WHat an event to share with Erin and Nathan. How cool of you guys to take the time and go this awesome event. I saw bits of it on the NBC morning show, so don’t be sooooo sad over the “not so good view”.
Kirk….WOW….you should have asked if you could have taken a picture with him….you big chicken.
Did you get his autograph? LOL>
Love,
Nuala
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