I grew up with our space program from the very first Mercury launch back in the '60s, but have never seen any type of launch live - until yesterday.
We made the drive up to Vandenberg AFB yesterday to see the Delta IV NROL-71 launch of a a secret spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The public can't get any closer than about 3 miles from the actual launch site, and you can't see the launch site because of the hills around the perimeter of Vandenberg.
Here's the video from a friend's cell phone. Wait for the sound - it seemed strange that we couldn't hear any sound until about 30 seconds after we could actually see the rocket in flight.
