STS-135 Launch Coverage

[Roland99]

Source: NASA

Atlantis Flying through 'Max Q'
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:30:01 AM EDT

Now just about a minute after launch, the flight continues to go well as Atlantis reaches "max Q," the area in Earth's atmosphere where aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle reaches its peak.


LIFTOFF of Atlantis!
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:29:09 AM EDT

Booster ignition and liftoff of Atlantis! The shuttle's main engines and two solid rocket boosters are generating a thundering farewell as Atlantis quickly climbs up and away from Launch Pad 39A on a getaway path to orbit. After 30 years and 135 missions, residents and visitors to Florida's Space Coast are seeing this rocket's red glare for the last time.

Once Atlantis clears the tower, the flight control team takes charge, led by Flight Director Richard Jones. Astronaut Barry Wilmore is today's ascent capcom, or spacecraft communicator, meaning he'll stay in contact with Commander Chris Ferguson over an air-to-ground channel throughout the trip to orbit.


T-1 Minute and Counting
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:25:48 AM EDT

Causeways and beaches throughout Brevard County, Fla., are lined with RVs, tents, cars and pedestrians, all waiting to experience the light and thunder of a space shuttle launch for the last time.

Read more: STS-135 Launch Coverage

[Arctic Dave]

1. Was listening on the radio. Goosebumps. nt

[gateley]

2. I'm lucky enough to have watched it on TV -- EVERYBODY

was covering it, which is as it should be.

I was crying - feel like I'm watching a friend die. :(

[kestrel91316]

3. (sniff)

:cry:

[krispos42]

5. Yeah, me too, a little.

:pals:

[slackmaster]

11. A lot of that for me. I remember watching John Glenn's Mercury launch in 1962.

The first American in orbit, now I'm seeing what will likely be the last for some time.

:argh:

[krispos42]

14. I stayed up until 5am one night in 1989...

...with the TV tuned to PBS. Just so I could watch the live image returns from Voyager 2 as it passed by Neptune.


I was 13. :-)

[krispos42]

4. It's up and away...

...watched the hi-def NASA streaming.


Beautiful!

[bikebloke]

6. I saw Alan Shepard lift off.

Now the final shuttle. The space program from beginning to end - if the plutocrats keep looting the country.

It's just not the same without Walter Cronkite.

[Phoonzang]

7. Missed it by 20 minutes because of some fucking stupid meeting at work.

God that pisses me off something fierce. ;(

[Baclava]

9. Here you go - launch video - - the external fuel tank view is pretty cool

STS-135 Space Shuttle Launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EFuLap5Pgg

[Phoonzang]

13. Thanks. I really wanted to see it live (on the internet) but this is a nice consolation prize.

[WatsonT]

8. Last time any of us will likely see Americans sent in to space

And to save a trivial amount of money. Or perhaps just because we lost the nerve for further exploration.


The Chinese did much the same thing in the 15th century.

[Baclava]

10. You know what I say - - End the Wars - save the shuttle.

Air Conditioning The Military Costs More Than NASA's Entire Budget

It costs $1 billion more than NASA's budget just to provide air conditioning for temporary tents and housing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The total cost of keeping troops cool comes to roughly $20 billion. That figure comes from Steve Anderson, a retired brigadier general who was Gen. Petraeus' chief logistician in Iraq.

NASA's total budget is just $19 billion.

http://spacereport.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-22-2011.html

[Phoonzang]

12. I don't want them to save the shuttle so much as come up with a next gen replacement

and actually leave Earth orbit for the first time in 40 years!

[WatsonT]

16. Yeah, I'd be happy if they were scrapping the shuttle to be replaced with something better

but just giving up after we've spent so much money and so many lives to do something no other nation has ever done? It's a national disgrace.

I'm fairly ashamed of our values at the moment.

[Baclava]

17. The plasma engine is going to get a test in space - - years away from actual spaceflight though

NASA to Test Revolutionary MagnetoPlasma Engine In Space

Nasa will soon announce plans to test a revolutionary new drive system aboard the International Space Station. The propulsion tech in question is a plasma engine known as Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR).



According to Flight International, NASA supremo Michael Griffin says that his agency is "at the end stages of agreeing a co-operative agreement for NASA to test the VASIMR engine on station".

The plasma drive is intended to work by using electric power to blast hydrogen reaction mass from its rocket nozzles at a much greater velocity than normal chemically-fuelled rockets can achieve. This means that the carrying spacecraft gets a lot more acceleration or deceleration from a given amount of fuel, and so can potentially make interplanetary journeys in much shorter times. Another potential application seen for VASIMR is maintenance of the space station's orbit, without the need to burn off colossal amounts of chemical rocket fuel.

In the near future, for lower-thrust applications at Earth orbit or closer to the sun, plasma drives could draw their power from solar panels - the mainstream means of electricity generation in spacecraft today. The proposed ISS orbit-maintenance plan would be on this model. But more ambitious uses for the electric rockets, such as carrying humans on fast interplanetary journeys*, would require higher output, probably from onboard nuclear powerplants.


http://www.nextenergynews.com/news08/next-energy-news8.12.08b.html

[WatsonT]

15. Sadly that won't happen

maybe if NASA promised to blow up shit on the moon with some high definition cameras recording it from orbit we could get people behind it.

Imagine that: a 4th of july celebration that involves nuking the moon. No need to worry about burn bans or anything. Hell yeah! Get er done.

Oh well. We've chosen decline and obscurity. Just as the emperors of china did in the 15th century. Perhaps things will come full circle and our descendents will end up being cheap labor for their spoiled lazy asses as they are innovating new technologies and having bold dreams.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

18. I had planned to go to this with my dad, girlfriend and her dad

Her father was a contractor on the shuttle facility at Vandenberg AFB and my dad always had the space bug and she is just a speedoholic and cums for anything fast and loud. We just couldn't line things up with her work schedule.

This will be recorded as one of the representative events in American decline from our post war peak. Whatever replaces it will probably make billions for defense contractors and probably never successfully enter service.