Countdown...

 

No, nothing to do with counting down the days 'till my next doctor visit.

We live about 4 1/2 miles from the SpaceX Boca Chica facility.  There is supposed to be a test launch today, putting a rocket up to about 50,000 feet before trying to land it successfully back at their facility.  Elon Musk said that this is a test, and that there is a 1 in 3 chance that it will be successful.  That means a 2 in 3 chance that they will explode the rocket over the Gulf.  According to the SpaceX website, this is the first attempt at a high-altitude suborbital flight test from the Cameron County site.  Successful or not, they expect to learn a lot from this.

Friends Mike and MJ were considering taking their new World Cat out for some Gulf fishing today.  I suggested they look up any warranty exclusions to see if "exploding rocket parts crashing through the hull" is covered.  ;-)  No, I have no idea if they went out or not.

It is coming up on 2:00pm and no word whether the launch is a go today or not.  If not, tomorrow is a back up launch day.

This will give you an idea of what the rocket looks like...

It is a bit more "Flash Gordon" looking, as opposed to a NASA rocket, to my un-rocket scientist eye.  That is a file photo - we are not out at the launch site.  The highway leading to the launch facility gets closed to the public when there is activity planned.

To give you some idea of location...

We are at the blue dot on the island just south of Port Isabel.  We can't see the launch site from our deck due to the house across the canal from us; but walk a half block, and we can see the rocket assembly building from the street.

There have been some test firings in the past, but not while we've been home to see/hear it.  I'm interested to hear what the roar will sound like.

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The launch was aborted with 1.3 seconds left on the countdown clock...

Maybe tomorrow.  It was aborted by the Raptor rocket, which apparently found some condition not right.  Excrement occurs.