So, this morning at 3am Tanegashima time, Cody and the NASA dudes completed their satellite mission. I was lucky enough to get to watch from the space center, so I had a decent view. Poor Cody had to be in a windowless room during the launch because he was part of the team that needed to monitor and control things if they went wrong. I’m not a photographer, but I lugged our giant camera to the viewing area, flipped the switch to “auto” and did my best to catch a few frames. If you ever get the opportunity to watch a rocket launch in person, I’d recommend taking advantage. It’s pretty dang beautiful, and the sound and feel of it is sort of hard to describe.

For video that pretty closely resembles what I saw, watch this.

For video that’s a good bit shinier than what I saw, watch this.