Category Archives: Space

Now that we’re living the good life up in the High Desert and not in the mega metropolis of Los Angeles, we have some different entertainment options. Like, rodeo.

Tonight was the first night of the High Desert Rodeo at the San Bernardino County Fair Grounds in Victorville. An easy 20 minute drive up the freeway, and we were anxious to check it out.

The weather was great! Not to hot, a little breeze but not howling.

It was a sellout, and it looks like tomorrow will be as well. (We won’t be there tomorrow since there’s a time conflict with a very important Chiefs game.) This bodes well (we hope!) for the financial future of the new event.

Bareback riding, saddle bronco, mutton busting, chute dogging, team roping, tie down roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping, and bull riding. Plus all of that small hometown charm, like having the local “wrangler” group riding to introduce each event, and a couple of high school ladies singing the National Anthem. Plus lots of booths, vendors (clothing, jewelry, housewares, baked goods, and so on), and food trucks (above average BBQ).

And off behind us (we were facing north, this was to our west) SpaceX launched just after sunset and left a long exhaust trail swirling across the sky.

Is that a great Saturday night date night in small-town America, or what?!

This was not quite a deal breaker when figuring out where to find our Forever Home, but it was definitely an important question to me. And I had gone looking for videos and pictures prior to moving here, so I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

Yep! Coincidentally, we happen to have a clear view between the two houses across the street all the way to the western horizon, so less than a minute after launch there was a red dot climbing up which quickly started growing a tail of fire.

Over the next minute or two it was easy to see the tail get longer and start to change color, then it all suddenly blinked out at Main Engine Cut Off (MECO).

I figured that was it, but after the second stage lit up I could see it with my eyes for another couple of minutes, headed southbound and up.

Tonight’s launch was originally supposed to be a twilight launch, with the exhaust plume all lit up by the setting Sun from way over the horizon, and possibly a huge “jellyfish effect” as the exhaust expanded and blew around in the high altitude winds. Then the launch got bumped almost two hours, and we didn’t see any of that in the dark night sky.

Maybe next time.

It most certainly looks smaller from here – we’re almost three times as far away from Vandenberg as we were in West Hills. But this is not a strictly local phenomenon, so let’s bring on the next night launch!

By then I’ll have found the tripods and rescued them from the PODS unit and I’ll be looking for better photos and maybe some video. Stand by.