We debated whether to go see the 2:28AM scheduled launch of STS-123. We went back and forth all day. It's an hour's drive down and back. It's scheduled for 2:28 AM. It might get scrubbed because of cloud cover.

Around 9:30 PM we decided we're here, the latest NASA reports said weather conditions were 90% go for launch and the main engines were fueled, so we figured why not. We loaded up and headed down to Titusville.

Some photos after the jump...

At first I thought there was no point in leaving early at 10PM. We arrived around 11PM and were glad we did. We got one of the last parking spots just across the Hwy. 402 Max Brewer Memorial bridge. The people in the foreground were touring from France. The guy further down in the white hat looking down had a laptop with wireless broadband to monitor the launch status. He and some friends had driven over from Orlando, and had to be at work in the morning.

There were people there from all over the world. A bus unloaded some Japanese tourists. A German kid asked me for help setting up his camera because he had borrowed it from his Dad and he wasn't familiar with it. He had to translate the menus for me. Hope he got some good pics.

Everybody with a camera was walking around asking everybody else with a camera if they knew the right exposure for a night shuttle launch. Nobody did. I decided to set mine on ISO 320 and "P" mode (auto aperture/shutter speed) and hope that the Nikon engineers who designed and programmed the thing would figure it out for me.

The spot we picked is about 12 miles across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center. Floodlights lit up the launch pad and the low-lying clouds above. The larger structure to the right is the Vehicle Assembly Building.

The Vehicle Assembly Building, zoomed and cropped from 12 miles away.

Another view of the floodlights.

Finally, after a three-and-a-half hour wait, liftoff, right on time at 2:28AM. Here's a zoomed and cropped view, seconds after Shuttle Endeavour lifts off. As far as I can tell, it's virtually impossible to get a good exposure of the entire vehicle at night. The rocket flare is almost as bright as the sun.

A telephoto view of Endeavour entering the low-lying cloud layer. Unfortunately for those of us who drove an hour (or came from half way around the world) and waited two or three hours, the shuttle was only visible for about 15 seconds because of the cloud cover. But it was worth the wait.

Shuttle Endeavour punches through the clouds to the other side, headed for orbit.

While I handled telephoto duty, the Mrs. was in charge of wide angle shots. Here, she started a long exposure a couple of seconds before ignition, capturing a pretty spectacular explosion of light.

A wide angle view of the launch and reflection.

Another reflection, just as the shuttle is entering the clouds. For some reason, the camera's auto white balance picked a different setting, giving this shot a different look. In all the excitement, I can't honestly say which one is "correct."

Another wide angle reflection shot...

One last wide angle shot as the shuttle lights up the clouds from above.

People arrived at intervals spanning a couple of hours, but everybody left all at once. Traffic was stopped back across the bridge for about half an hour. We got back to the beach pad at about 4AM.