Shuttle countdown

[matt]

The countdown has begun to the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery this weekend... Yaaaaaay!:D

Lift off is scheduled for Saturday afternoon

Be watching your NASA TV;)

[iceman]

Wow, that's a quick turnaround.

Great, thanks for the heads-up.

[toetoe]

A night time launch, how spectacular will that be.:eyepop:

[Chrissyo]

I thought they ruled out night time launches under the new safety guidelines? :shrug:

[matt]

Might have to check official launch time again?

I just picked it up on a newswire at work.

[jjjnettie]

I heard thursday night which is this morning. I've been sitting here in front of Nasa Tv waiting waiting.

NASA TV schedual here
http://www.nasa.gov/tvschedule/pdf/tvsked_rev0.pdf

[iceman]

1 hr, 5 minutes to go.

So i'm guessing about 1:35pm AEDST.

[iceman]

I can't watch NASA TV from work due to the proxy/firewall :(

[iceman]

yay i got it working!

[matt]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Friday afternoon....

Damn time difference confusion.

Glad that's sorted

[matt]

Thanks

Am now watching live. Take-off delayed at the moment

[jjjnettie]

Launch at 12.35pm Qld time.

Is the sound quality really bad for everyone else? Or is it just me.
I'm viewing through RealPlayer.

[matt]

Countdown on hold with 9 minutes on the clock.

I'm using QuickTime ... sound is good

[iceman]

It's gonna be scrubbed due to bad weather :(

[matt]

Is now scrubbed due to cloud.

One of those astronauts must have bought a lot of astro gear:lol:

[jjjnettie]

Is that a SCT that that fellow is using? :shrug:
I just want to be sure before I start bagging NASA.

[iceman]

I think it's even worse, it looks like a short-tube reflector!

[[1ponders]]

Not only is it a short tube reflector, but he has got it around the wrong way :lol:

[mojo]

On behalf of the NASA art department and web design departments everywhere, I'd like to say, If nobody tells us what a telescope looks like, then we'll use what we think is a telescope from our collection of stock art.

Mike: "That doesn't look like a star."
Terry: "What's a star look like?" :P

[jjjnettie]

:rofl:
Thought so. I'll sent them a little note I think.
What a hoot!:lol:

[jjjnettie]

Message sent.
I wonder what happens next.
Will they be so grateful that they send me all expenses paid tickets to the launch?

[toetoe]

Dam, no wonder I'm having trouble with mine.:doh:

[jjjnettie]

Got an email back from NASA today acknowledging the message I sent. Pretty prompt concidering they say it's takes 10 days for them to get back to you.
More later.

[iceman]

Next launch window is tomorrow (Sunday) night, about 10-11pm AEDST.

[matt]

Thanks Mike:)

[ballaratdragons]

I'll be at work :(

I leave home at 10:30pm and start at 11pm :sadeyes:

[h0ughy]

????????but on the countdown clock they have launch at around 16 hours? wouldnt that be after lunch here in australia?:shrug:

[iceman]

You're right - my page was cached and needed a full refresh.

Just under 15 hours from now, makes it between 12:30pm and 1:00pm AEDST tomorrow.

[ballaratdragons]

:thumbsup:

Yaaay! I get to see it!!!

[Gargoyle_Steve]

NASA seems to be running slightly head of themselves somehow..... I've been watching the screens for the last few hours, doing the maths, and it doesn't quite add up.

It's just gone 5am here in Qld (6am for those "daylight challenged" folks down south :P ) and the countdown timer (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/index.html) hit the T-3 hours hold mark a few minutes ago. NASA's own site (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/countdown101.html)lists this as nominally a 2 hour hold, with a further 10 minute hold (usually) at T-20 minutes.

Depending on how long the final T-9 minutes hold period is (usually very short unless there's a serious issue) the numbers seem to point to a 10:10 am (Qld) or so launch, however the launch window (approx 5 minutes) has been clearly specified for 8:47pm EST (USA) is 11:47 am Qld. I guess that one or more of the final hold periods is going to be much longer than usual.


Keep your eyes open folks .....
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

EDIT: 5:52 am (Qld) NASA tv just announced there is still over 2 hours hold remaining now, still at T-3 hours holding .... countdown has already been on hold at this point for about an hour.
I knew those clever guys would make it work out somehow.

[xelasnave]

Do they run the trains as well?
What they will do to get a bit of over time...
Next time we should have a competition to see who can guess the lift off time..
Cant wait however..good luck to all involved.
alex

[h0ughy]

8.47pm US florida time is launch time today. its 4.41pm NY time so 4 hours to go, that makes it about 12.30 there abouts our time

[matt]

Looking good. Less than an hour to go on the countdown clock.

Maybe a pre-midday launch?

[ballaratdragons]

45 mins to go until T-9 minutes :thumbsup:
Report is perfect weather.

[33South]

Looking good 25mins.:thumbsup:

Update 8mins

[ballaratdragons]

Yayyy, countdown resumed!!!

7 minutes to lift-off!!!!!!

[iceman]

Excellent launch!

[33South]

Yeah baby, go.

[matt]

Everything on the money!!!:thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

That was Cooooool!!!!!!

Must have been a bright spectacle being there to watch it! :eyepop:

[h0ughy]

wow i want to be there for one of those, that was an awesome launch!

[matt]

First night time launch in more than 4 years apparently

[Tamtarn]

Our first time visit to the NASA launch link

To catch a nightime launch was awsome :eyepop:

[jjjnettie]

Docking is at about 3pm I think.
Does anyone know for sure?

[JethroB76]

Just watched Discovery dock with the ISS, interesting viewing:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

So when we can see through all of this cloud and rain again - is someone going to try and take some images of Discovery sitting there docked with the ISS?