From south of the Cape, you can see land jutting out to the east, a scimitar drawn in dotted lines, each dot a hotel, with fainter dots disappearing north and east. Just where the dots stopped, I wasn't sure, but farther right, a tower of lights appeared to tip the cut of land.

Other hotel guests pointed cameras and binoculars at the ship, which only appeared at the end of the Cape by coincidence. Of course, the VAB is a tall building but, from over thirty miles away, both the shuttle and the VAB were below the horizon. I knew the point had to be farther to the left than they were looking, but it didn't matter.

Thankfully, it had turned warmer. The previous day's launch had been scrubbed because of the cold, but the air was warmer this morning. It was still a short while before dawn.

But dawn came early. And from the north. An orange bubble of light expanded above the scimitar of hotel lights and rose, globe-like at first. The bubble broke from within and released a white needle of light, which lifted on its own wavering column of brilliant white.

A dark blue cloud deck swallowed the rising needle, which then glowed orange at the bottom. The glow quickly died, until the clouds were all dark blue again for about five seconds. Then the top of the clouds glowed orange, just before the white needle emerged, smaller this time.

The shuttle climbed and arched out across the ocean. Just above another cloud deck, the shuttle emerged again, and the SRBs separated. The spent rockets, still trailing flame and vapor, drifted left and began to drop. The shuttle burned on eastward and out of sight.