Karen James, who someday will become the first person to sail on both the Beagle and a spacecraft, created this fetchingly geeky, giddy video (gideo?) recording her and her friends waiting and then watching the Discovery launch. James is a shameless space geek anyway, and took special interest here because the Discovery contained a friend of her, mission specialist Michael Barratt.

Be patient; you may even think something’s wrong with it. Breaks all the rules: One shot. Low-X, maybe no-X zoom. No people shown. But it’s the only film of any succcessful shuttle launch that has given me goosebumps.

Update 8 Mar 2011: James sent me a note recounting her hi-tech, film-grad-school-level technique:

Deets: I used a Gorillapod to mount a point & shoot (loaned to me by @JetForMe) on the leg of @therealdjflux‘s tripod, pressed ‘record’ and then left it there for the duration while I watched from about ten feet away. I also recorded a separate audio track as a ‘voice memo’ on my iPhone, which I held in my hand throughout. I used iMovie to combine and edit the video and the two audio tracks.

Eisenstein would approve. If you’re wondering WhoTF that is, now you know.