SpaceX Crew2 launch from the house!

Early yesterday morning, we were able to see the Commercial Crew 2 launch from the house.

We were watching the SpaceX live stream of the launch, and at about T+2:20 after lift-off, we spotted a small red light rising up behind some houses. We lost sight of it briefly as it got higher, but then we spotted the exhaust plume from the booster rocket once it got high enough to be illuminated by the rising sun.

Commercial Crew 2 launch seen from the house

The SD card in my phone picked overnight to get corrupted and unmount itself, so all of the pictures from earlier in the launch, including booster separation, didn’t get saved.

The photo below shows the larger plume of the second stage heading off toward the north, with the much smaller plume from the booster stage near the center of the image.

SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage rocket plume.  The exhaust plume from the booster stage is visible just below the center of the image
SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage rocket plume. The exhaust plume from the booster stage is visible just below the center of the image

It was interesting to see the puffs of exhaust as the booster stage made its way to the SpaceX drone ship.

Falcon 9 booster stage
Falcon 9 booster stage returning to the SpaceX drone ship

We were even able to see the booster stage start its landing burn as it landed off the coast.

Falcon 9 booster stage landing just below center
Falcon 9 booster stage heading to the drone ship

Pretty spectacular start to the day. With 11 crew on the ISS now, it’s going to need some more modules.