Shuttle Returns To Space

The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on schedule at 10:39 eastern this morning.

The American fleet is back in space, and the ISS will be glad to see them. The Russians have been sending supply flights to the ISS, but they carry a limited amount of supplies. Discovery is bringing several tons of much needed supplies.

I watched it over the 'Net this morning! At last update, before the feed stopped, the Discovery was at 98 mile altitude over the North Atlantic

Wouldn' t have missed this one for the world. Started watching the tv coverage at about 8am...

Where we are in Lake County, on a perfectly clear day we can see the shuttle and trail with the naked eye (about the size of a nailhead). Unfortunately, although skies at the cape were all clear, there was enough cloud cover to obscure our view... :mad:

Still, exciting stuff, especially with all the new cameras being used... :)

I saw the lift off and watched for about 1/2 hour. So exciting! I almost forgot - until I saw the news this morning. I'm grateful I saw it go up. God bless the astronauts and keep them safe. :)

Thanks for posting this Speed.

Liz

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Originally Posted by Speed

The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off on schedule at 10:39 eastern this morning.

The American fleet is back in space, and the ISS will be glad to see them. The Russians have been sending supply flights to the ISS, but they carry a limited amount of supplies. Discovery is bringing several tons of much needed supplies.

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I really wanted to see this today, but that damn job keeps getting in the way. I will check it out on the news tonight tho.

The new onboard camera is awesome, but did anyone also notice the shots of the lift off? I don't know what they are using for the land cameras, but the footage was incredibly beautiful.

I agree Lara - it was awesome.

I don't know what they are using for the land cameras, but the footage was incredibly beautiful.

Must be Canon (had to say it - just couldn't help myself)

Liz

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Originally Posted by Axle

I watched it over the 'Net this morning! At last update, before the feed stopped, the Discovery was at 98 mile altitude over the North Atlantic

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I wanted to watch it sooo bad, but I was at work and couldn't. And my computer doesn't have Flash on it, so I couldn't watch the video feeds streaming over the internet either.

But I kept watching the news updates, and I'm thrilled that it's back in space. They dock at the ISS tomorrow.

Now on to the Hubble Telescope!!! :-D

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Wouldn' t have missed this one for the world. Started watching the tv coverage at about 8am...

Where we are in Lake County, on a perfectly clear day we can see the shuttle and trail with the naked eye (about the size of a nailhead). Unfortunately, although skies at the cape were all clear, there was enough cloud cover to obscure our view... :mad:

Still, exciting stuff, especially with all the new cameras being used... :)

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Wish I could have watched it. It must be awesome to live where you can watch it on a clear day. Guess we should have a photogathering at the Cape one day to watch a shuttle launch. Something to think about.

:-D

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Originally Posted by Liz

I saw the lift off and watched for about 1/2 hour. So exciting! I almost forgot - until I saw the news this morning. I'm grateful I saw it go up. God bless the astronauts and keep them safe. :)

Thanks for posting this Speed.

Liz

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Yes it is exciting! I watch every lift off that I can. I'm always thrilled to watch them, and I'd love to go up on one. I remember watching the first shuttle launch after the Challenger disaster, and that one was just as exciting as the first one. I really wish I could have watched this one as well.

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

I really wanted to see this today, but that damn job keeps getting in the way. I will check it out on the news tonight tho.

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"but that damn job keeps getting in the way."

I can relate! I was stuck at my desk, and my computer doesn't have Flash so I couldn't watch it online either. Errr!

But I'm still tickled that the shuttle is flying again! :-)

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Originally Posted by Lara

The new onboard camera is awesome, but did anyone also notice the shots of the lift off? I don't know what they are using for the land cameras, but the footage was incredibly beautiful.

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I saw a thumbnail of the new onboard camera, and it was awesome. Love that shot down between the shuttle and the external fuel tank. I'm guessing it's mounted on a mounting brackett that holds the tank to the shuttle. Great view though.

I heard that NASA was going to have 100 cameras watching this launch. They wanted to watch the shuttle from every angle for any potential problems. I wonder how much that cost? And I wonder if it would have been cheaper to pay for the folks at PR to fly down and photograph it for them? :-O

;-)

Here's an article on it:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8720919/

Looks like we might not be seeing another launch for a while.

A chunk of insulation fell, but luckily didnt hit the shuttle. Let's hope they will land safely.

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Originally Posted by Speed

Guess we should have a photogathering at the Cape one day to watch a shuttle launch.

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Speed, in a perfect world it would be awesome to simply invite you all over, meet up, then cruise over to the cape, find a great viewing spot, and take amazing shots of a perfect shuttle launch.

The problem is EVERYONE has the same idea. Folks come from all over the world for these events, and camp out in all the best spots long before the launch time. Drive time in or out of the Space Coast on launch day means hours of gridlock, IF you're lucky enough to get through at all.

It's like Woodstock for space nerds... :D

Then, there's the many many things, both technical as well as natural, that can easily cancel a shuttle launch. The rescheduled lauch day can be anywhere from a day or two to a week or two to a month or two later. Obviously, that's a huge bummer for those that aren't locals, and may have planned entire vacations (and spent large amounts of money) around the timing of the launch.

On the other hand, perhaps we SHOULD give it a try sometime. If the launch gets canceled, we can just head over to WDW and ride Space Mountain or Mision: SPACE... ;)

BTW, one of my goals in the coming year is to get credentialed into a shuttle launch as a photojournalist. I have a friend of a friend who works at NASA, as well as friends on various magazines and newspapers, so, I think I have a good shot... :cool:

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Originally Posted by Speed

I wanted to watch it sooo bad, but I was at work and couldn't. And my computer doesn't have Flash on it, so I couldn't watch the video feeds streaming over the internet either.

But I kept watching the news updates, and I'm thrilled that it's back in space. They dock at the ISS tomorrow.

Now on to the Hubble Telescope!!! :-D

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We actually stopped working briefly during the final countdown. The joys of having really nice machines at work and lots of fast Internet to go around. It was really cool to see it take off again. But now....yeah, grounded again.

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Speed, in a perfect world it would be awesome to simply invite you all over, meet up, then cruise over to the cape, find a great viewing spot, and take amazing shots of a perfect shuttle launch.

The problem is EVERYONE has the same idea. Folks come from all over the world for these events, and camp out in all the best spots long before the launch time. Drive time in or out of the Space Coast on launch day means hours of gridlock, IF you're lucky enough to get through at all.


Then, there's the many many things, both technical as well as natural, that can easily cancel a shuttle launch. The rescheduled lauch day can be anywhere from a day or two to a week or two to a month or two later. Obviously, that's a huge bummer for those that aren't locals, and may have planned entire vacations (and spent large amounts of money) around the timing of the launch.

On the other hand, perhaps we SHOULD give it a try sometime. If the launch gets canceled, we can just head over to WDW and ride Space Mountain or Mision: SPACE... ;)

BTW, one of my goals in the coming year is to get credentialed into a shuttle launch as a photojournalist. I have a friend of a friend who works at NASA, as well as friends on various magazines and newspapers, so, I think I have a good shot... :cool:

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I hear ya! I could only image the traffic.

But I still like the idea of trying a photogathering there one day. It would be soooo cool.

Good luck on getting your PJ credentials for shuttle launches. That would be awesome!!!

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Originally Posted by 92135011

Looks like we might not be seeing another launch for a while.

A chunk of insulation fell, but luckily didnt hit the shuttle. Let's hope they will land safely.

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That's what I heard. I also heard that one of the heat tiles near the front landing gear door was damaged. After the Columbia breakup, everyone is hyper sensitive to anything that could potentially destroy the shuttle. Other shuttle astronauts are saying that they've seen much more damage on other flights, and they returned safely. I'm just hoping NASA doesn't go nuts with the safety thing and decide any damage is too much. I'd hate to see the shuttle fleet grounded for another 2 1/2 years.

Also, despite the loss of two shuttles, NASA still has applications pouring in to be shuttle astronauts. If I had my PhD, I'd be one of them!