Iceberg, Right Ahead 213
the number three is a Chinese lucky number, the launch
was postponed to 3 AM.
All guests and staff were evacuated to a safer place,
but the hundreds of residents who lived around the hotel
were not evacuated. It was a party atmosphere so everyone
were dressed in their best clothes. Other villagers were
seemingly unaware of the launch. One sat in front of his
house and wove a basket.^183 “Because the launch time was
at midnight after two o’clock, we discussed after dinner
where we go to watch the launch,” a villager said. “The
proposal was the roof of the hostel where it has better
views.”^405
As the day turned into night, the clock turned 3 AM.
The rocket launched. An onlooker described what hap-
pened after the launch.
“I got out, turned and ran around the building
to my best viewing spot, in time to see the
mountain lit from behind, hear the startling
rumble and see the rocket emerge. But instead
of rising vertically for nine seconds and sev-
eral thousand feet I saw it traveling horizon-
tally, accelerating as it progressed down the
valley, only a few hundred feet off the ground.
‘Wrong way,’ I yelled, and for the next few
seconds I was frozen in my tracks.”
“It arced toward the earth and I thought I knew
what was coming, but the instant of horror
that is burned into memory was not antici-
pated. A tremendous light turned 3 AM into