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If they didn't delay it the last two times, I would've been there to see it. D:
But yeah, go NASA!
What is Endeavour going to be doing? Repairing a satellite?
Someday I just want to send a shuttle out into space and see how far it goes.
Endeavor is flying an International Space Station assembly mission which will deliver the last two elements of Japan's Kibo Module along with the Spacelab Pallet-Deployable 2, and an Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable.
As for sending a shuttle to see how far it goes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Current_status
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-4407b.svg.png
These are the launch dates, trajectories and locations of the four farthest outersolar probes as two years ago(April 4, 2007).
That's what space probes are for.
I nominate that this thread be about all current space missions from all space agencies in the world, not just upcoming NASA launches.
SpaceX. Wins.
i just got back from holiday in florida. i went to see it 3 times before it actually went up. but it finally went up, it was pretty cool.
did anyone go to see it? because the there was the biggest lightning storm i have ever seen in my life. anyone see that?
quite strange how the two most amazing things ive seen both happened on the same day.
Discovery is about to go up! Almost forgot about it.
STS-130 is scheduled for launch at 4:39EST tomorrow!
ISS assembly flight 20A
This mission is to carry Tranquility and Cupola to the ISS.
Postponed due to weather
Make way for the first commercial spaceport:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol...ay-100128.html
Figured I'd explore this forum a bit.
One of my relatives (second cousin to be exact - i.e. my father's cousin) was on Endeavour in the early 1990's. I think he did about three or four flights. It's funny because he returned from one of his flights on the day I was born. I'm also named after him :P
Thought that'd be interesting for you guys.
That's pretty awesome, blueline. What I wouldn't give to be on one of those flights. :)
And Atlantis is coming home for the final time, in about 40 minutes (8:49am EST). For those of us who are close enough, listen for the sonic boom!
You can hear the sonic boom from near the cape? I thought it would've slowed down way before that. It's a shame I'll never see a shuttle launch in person, I don't think NASA will be flying anything quite so loud in the future. I'm also disappointed that future NASA vehicles will be more like the old school rockets instead of re-usable plane-like spacecraft. Consider yourselves lucky to have seen the shuttle!
Yeah, we can usually hear it from where I am in Deltona, but I'm guessing it's only when they approach from the North? I dunno. Today was one of the first times I was actually anticipating the sonic booms (it usually catches mt off guard), but we didn't get it out here. I know that sometimes the humidity and cloud-cover plays a role, but it was a clear day today. I know they approached the south side of the runway, but what I don't really know is whether or not they do that all the time.
I'm used to hearing the sonic booms though. Even back when I lived in Houston, we lived a couple-dozen miles from Johnson Space Center. I can watch it go up from here, but I still haven't actually been TO the cape to see it. :? My friend and I got close, but our plans fell through at the last minute. I'd love to go see one before the program ends, but I dunno if I'm gonna pay to go out there by myself, and drive what would be a 2-hour round trip if not for 3 hours worth of traffic.
Oh well. =/
Got home from work just in time to snap this pic of Discovery's final launch. If they didn't delay the launch for those three minutes, I probably would have missed the whole thing. I love that the fire trail is visible in the picture. :>
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...inalLaunch.jpg
Not close enough!
Clear this up for me: Is the Space Program still going to be operating for years to come or are they shutting it down?
They're shutting 'er down. :(
Endeavour will be the last shuttle mission, unless NASA approves/funds/schedules Atlantis for one final mission. Endeavour is scheduled for a launch in April.
It's rather bittersweet. My cousin was on Endeavour's maiden voyage in 1990, and now Endeavour might be the last shuttle for a long time.
Edit - Also, a popular YouTuber by the name of Charles Trippy was at the Discovery launch. He caught the launch of his iPhone, as well as on his Canon 7D. While the iPhone footage is pretty cool, I can't wait for the HD 7D footage. Gonna be badass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-BAcRBuf0M