Flying a few years back from s Florida to Atlanta on a perfectly clear day up the east Fla coast Pilot anounces we have to alter course about 40 miles inland because the space shuttle is launching that day

As we are about at cruise level over Orlando, he points out the space center way to the right and those on the right can make out the spacecraft still sitting on the pad

About thirty seconds later there's a commotion on the entire right side of the plane The launch pad is hidden by smoke, then a small pencil of fire emerges through the cloud moving upward In less than two minutes it's above us and climbing fast

By the time we were past so was the shuttle

Turns out it was one of the "classified" military shuttle launches which meant the actual time was withheld until the last minute We couldn't have planned it it any closer if we had known the time in advance

Not many have seen a launch from 40,000 feet