We left our hotel in Orlando at midnight, which was probably a little late as we ran into some major traffic jams due both to the thousands of people venturting to the east coast and some highway construction along the way. It’s only about 45 miles from Orlando to the coast, but it took a good hour and a half. We set Jill (our trusty GPS guide) to Space View Park.
Space View Park is located in Titusville, just across the water from launch pad 39. It has some memorials to the space program and the astronauts. It would definitely be a great place to visit during daylight hours and when it’s less crowded. We left that for another day. 
Once we got there we were met with hundreds of cars, buses and RV’s parked along the roads. We lucked into a parking spot just a couple blocks from the park. We walked down to the shore where what I figured were a couple thousand people were waiting… many in lawn chairs and on blankets by the shore facing Cape Canaveral. There was a booth set up nearby with TV monitors and loudspeakers broadcasting NASA’s coverage. We meandered our way up towards the front of the crowd and got a pretty decent advantage spot to view the launch.
( Click on any picture to enlarge.) Video below.
As the final countdown was brodcast 5–4–2–3–2–1–Zero… Liftoff! 
Someone said the launch pad is about 8 miles across the water.
The shuttle lifted off at precisely 2:28 AM Eastern time. It truly was a sight to behold.
At liftoff the shuttle and tanks weigh more than 4 million pounds.
Upon landing it weighs less than 300,000 pounds.
The awesome display of power and technology only lasted a few seconds for the crowd…
…before the shuttle burst through the clouds and disappeared into the heavens.
This was just the second nighttime launch of a shuttle since the Columbia explosion in February of 2003.
The crowd went wild with excitement applause.
Here’s video that I took of the launch. (Make sure your speakers are on.)
It took us almost 2 hours to get back to our hotel. I tried to post this at 5 am, but couldn’t get the wireless to work then. We slept for a few hours and now we’re headed home.
Here’s NASA’s official version:
What an awesome experience. I’d highly recommend it to anyone!
I always wanted to watch that. My mother-in-law lives 30-45 minutes from the space center, but out trips never coincided with a launch.
Great stuff Jonco. I was fortunate enough to see Atlantis blast off to mission STS-71 back in ’95. The sound was amazing, like the sky was being torn apart
I’m still as amazed by shuttle launches as I was when I was a kid. Very cool …!
Jon,BING HERE back in St.Louis,I knew you guys went to Florida,I did’nt know you were going to go watch a night launch of the space schuttle !
I would love to see one from where you were at ! I hope you took lots of pics of cape canaveral I would love to see them,it’s almost bed time for me now,but I for sure look at bits & piecies in the morn. Boy it went up so quick and then it was gone ! I have watched the space program since I was just a little glutton in walnut park,watching on a black and white T.V. and
sometime at two or five in the morning aa lot of the stuff back then was anamation after you saw what we gust saw here on your film,Jon lets take it one step more and lets go up in the shuttle,walk around on the moon maybe or stop off for lunch at the space station,have them fill it up with ethel and check the oil rotate the tires for landing ! I miss you guys !
Hope to be at the next meeting ? SEE YA SOON YOUR FRIEND DING
Thanks for posting your launch video and shots, awesome! I really enjoyed watching them – posted your video to my site. Keep sharing …
I live a couple of hours south of the Cape and was disappointed the clouds rolled in late in the evening; I can usually see the launches right from my front door. I had to settle for CNN.
Big tip for next time you’re filming: turn OFF your autofocus and set it on infinity. Cameras get confused easily and anything over 30ft away will then stay sharp.
I lived in Orlando in the early 90’s and managed to catch 1 night launch and 1 day launch, I forget which shuttle it was….the day launch was my fav, only a few miles away (in the lawn of the Kennedy Space Center) and the sound enveloped the sky….it was LOUD !!! I’ll never forget that, the crackling and rumbling was coming from every direction.
I’d like to get there again with the wife before the shuttle program ends.