Atlantis: The Last Shuttle on the Launch Pad - liftoff Saturday morning AEST

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice gallery of images here on UniverseToday:

http://www.universetoday.com/87203/g...the-launchpad/

Final lift-off is on Saturday morning about 1am, from what I can tell with my mental TZ calculations

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html

Though the weather forecast isn't looking good.

[stephenb (Stephen)]

Yep 1:26am Saturday morning I read somewhere last NASA will be beefing up their servers to cater for the online traffic.

Mission Clock is a good iPhone app to keep tabs on all missions and updates.

Looking forward to it.

Regards,
Stephen

[Brundah1 (David)]

Quite an historic day for us Baby Boomers who were born well before, the manned space flight projects began 60 years ago. I was one of those young boys who dreamed the dream and got to watch it happen, in our teenage years.

There is currently no active project to build another reusable space truck!

It is highly unlikely that another conventional landing, reusable, long endurance space craft will be built. Perhaps the Chinese may prove me wrong?

So watch the news, but better still watch NASA TV on the internet. This IS the end of the first era of manned space flight innovation!

The next big step in manned space flight will probably go beyond the Moon - when and who will lead that project is still unknown.

Thanks NASA, I have enjoyed the journey with you.

David

[Liz]

1 day and 14 hours, will have to drag myself outa bed for this one.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html


Might check out Comet Garradd while out at those hours.

Ths will also be our last chance to see the Shuttle with the ISS. Ian Musgrave says they will be morning views, look forward to that.
http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/

[Trixie (Carey)]

I probably wont get up for it but the kids and I are having a shuttle party on saturday.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by Brundah1

Quite an historic day for us Baby Boomers who were born well before, the manned space flight projects began 60 years ago. I was one of those young boys who dreamed the dream and got to watch it happen, in our teenage years.

David, it's seems funny but I consider the Shuttles to be relatively new in the scheme of things

I consider the Atlas rockets old stuff, but the Shuttles modern

I have enjoyed watching it all throughout my 53 years
And now, nothing

Latest report is not looking good for launch Saturday Morning our time. The weather is turning nasty.

[Suzy]

I'll be watching it for sure.
I watched the first one go up when I was 16, so I must watch the last one.

To help get into the spirit of things I've got a new desktop and I thought others might like to use it as well during this time. It's of a huge picture of Atlantis surrounded by staff and crew holding up a large banner saying, "We're behind you Atlantis".

http://http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/multimedia/atlantis/gallery-index.html


Oh, have the news on and it just said ...
There is only a 30% chance of those storms clearing in time for the lift off of Atlantis tomorrow morning.

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

There is a delay in inspection due to unfavourable weather...

[Suzy]

I'm throwing up the picture here anyway - it's a great memento for this thread.

I wonder how many of us will have dry eyes after this final launch...

[Noele Faulkner (Noelene)]

I've watched all of them..I'll be watching this one

[gary]

ABC News 24 television interviewed one of their own science reporters this morning
for some expert coverage of the last Shuttle flight and we were somewhat bemused
when he described the famous heat insulative silica tiles on the body of the Shuttle
as being made of "polystyrene foam" that "you could push your finger through".

What one assumes is that he is confused between the tiles on the Shuttle
and the spray on foam insulation used on the external tank (ET).

Either that or he was thinking of the 1/72 scale foam model of the Shuttle he
bought once as a souvenir at the Kennedy Space Center Gift Shop.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

ABC News 24 will be broadcasting this live so us with slow internet can watch it pause free

[stephenb (Stephen)]

Watching it on the big screen through the 'puter, and recording ABC24, thanks for the heads up, Warren!

Nice pic, Suzy

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

After lift off, how long does it take the Shuttle to reach orbit anybody knows? Hours? 24 hours? The reason I ask is whether I could see a flyby here in Sydney in the morning twilight.

[alistairsam]

Hi,

Watching the online HD stream on the plasma TV through the computer. amazing detail.

http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

there was an astronaut providing details earlier on. amazing amount of granularity in their procedures and checklists. I guess they'd have to have that detail to triple check everything.

[gary]

Originally Posted by cookie8

After lift off, how long does it take the Shuttle to reach orbit anybody knows? Hours? 24 hours? The reason I ask is whether I could see a flyby here in Sydney in the morning twilight.

Hi Vicent,

They reach orbital velocity not long after takeoff and an orbit only takes about 90 minutes.

To give you some feel for the speed relativities, putting re-fuelling aside, you could fly in a 747
from Florida to Sydney in the order of 20 hours.

[Zubenel (Wes)]

Just heard on NASA TV that the weather is looking more promising

[stephenb (Stephen)]

ABC News 24 program guide now updated and stating Launch broadcast 0:30-02:00

[alistairsam]

very detailed launch sequence here under launch section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle

I was surprised to read that the offset thrust from the 3 SSME's cause the whole stack to pitch by 2m at the cockpit level, NASA jargon for this is the "twang" or the "nod". at this stage, the SRB's are still bolted and it takes 6 seconds for it to right itself.

[Suzy]

9 mins. to go!