An Afternoon With the Rocket-Watchers

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — First, there’s silence. It’s an anxious silence. Everyone on the beach has been waiting for hours, knowing that any small hiccup—a gust of wind, a raindrop, an out-of-place cloud—could send everybody home, having witnessed nothing. But as the clock ticked closer to the appointed time—in this case, 6:24 p.m.—everybody turned their faces toward the horizon. For minutes, we all stood, watching an empty sky, disappointment starting to seep in. Then I blinked, and blastoff.