Shuttle launch Sunday 4:39am?

[cocheese 0]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=public

Set your alarm or you'll miss it.

[LongWayToFall 0]

Bill Von should be stoked, they are taking the cupola up. 1hr 38min till launch! 30 percent chance of good weather at launch however.

[LongWayToFall 0]

Launch canceled due to inclement weather.

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Crap!


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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - Clouds prevented space shuttle Endeavour from blasting off Sunday on the last planned nighttime shuttle launch, delaying its trip with a final few building blocks for the International Space Station.

The band of low clouds started moving in from the north late Saturday. NASA counted down to the nine-minute mark, but the sky remained overcast, offering little hope of a lucky break.

NASA managers said they would try again Monday, when slightly better weather was expected.
"We tried really, really hard to work the weather. It was just too dynamic," launch director Mike Leinbach told the six astronauts aboard Endeavour. "We just were not comfortable with launching the space shuttle tonight."

"Sometimes you just got to make the call," replied commander George Zamka. "So we understand and we'll give it another try tomorrow night."

Endeavour is loaded with a new room for the space station, as well as an observation deck.

Once both of those are installed, the orbiting complex will be 98 percent complete.

Launch time on Monday was scheduled at 4:14 a.m. That means the launch team will have to report to work right around Super Bowl time. Leinbach said late last week that his launch controllers knew going in that it might come to this, and that they might have to miss the game.

It's expected to be the last shuttle launch in darkness. The pre-dawn departure will mean the graveyard shift for Zamka and his crew during the entire 13-day flight.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden reminded journalists Saturday that there are only five shuttle missions left.

"You're going to have to figure out what else you're going to do, along with us," he said.

In an hourlong news conference, Bolden accepted the blame for the way the NASA work force was informed of President Barack Obama's plans to dismantle the Constellation moon exploration program. In the proposed budget that was released Monday, Obama set NASA on a new post-shuttle path. Specifics were lacking, but the moon was no longer at the forefront.

Neither were the Ares rockets that NASA had been working on for so long.

Shuttle managers on Friday used the words "shock" and "angst" to describe their colleagues' mood.

"Why wasn't the NASA work force better prepared for this?" Bolden said. "You're looking at the guy who's responsible. I will take the heat."

Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said he did not listen to his advisers on how to present the information, and has spent the past few days apologizing to everyone. "I was stupid, I admit that. I didn't do it right," he said.

As for the future, Bolden said the country needs a big rocketship to carry heavy loads if astronauts are to venture beyond Earth's orbit. He said he wants to use the lessons of Constellation to capture new technologies and build that rocket.

"While we will phase out the Constellation program per se, I don't want to throw away the baby with the bath water," he said.

Bolden said he envisions such a rocket -- capable of carrying astronauts to the moon, Mars or asteroids -- ready to fly sometime between 2020 and 2030. He personally favors Mars.

Whatever the destination or rocket, the new way forward will be "significantly better than what we got rid of," Bolden said.

[thedude325 0]

waited outside in the freezing cold for 3 hours.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

Can someone please explain why the launch pad is in Florida and not in the desert.

[sundevil777 94]

Why southern Florida? It is farther south than, say Arizona desert, so it get a bit more push from the rotational speed of the earth. It is also safer to launch out over the ocean. That's a couple reasons why that I can think of.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[dks13827 3]

Bolden is a dope, IMO, obviously not a fan of manned space flight, despite his background. The new Ares promised to be the most reliable vehicle ever, and for decades to come. Also, it was well along in development. The new tech stuff is a pipe dream. Many years in the future, if ever, which is my belief. Think about it, a modern Cessna 182 is not radically different than a 1955 model. Naturally, it can be built lighter, and great electronics, but the physics is still the same. That doesnt change.
Enjoy the last 5 flights, as I will, this is the end.
All the 'future stuff' they say is a lie. BO and his ilk hate manned flight, it makes us look good. He cant stand that !!!!!!!!!! You can deny it, but it is true.

[LongWayToFall 0]

STS130 is airborne as of 1 hour ago, everything looking great. Nice!

[muff528 3]

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STS130 is airborne as of 1 hour ago, everything looking great. Nice!

Forced myself to get up and stand out in the central Florida cold to watch this one last time. Still spectacular from over 100 miles away!

[pchapman 262]

What happened to them not doing night launches?

I thought that one one of their new strict rules after the first lost vehicle.

The answer is probably that was their only good launch window?

Still, that seems surprising. I don't know much about launch windows, but you'd think there would be one every day or something when trying to meet the space station. Going to a specific point on the moon, that's a different story, with understandably very limited windows for a particular plan if one learns about the details.

[warpedskydiver 0]

It has something to do with space junk as well, there is now so much crap up there they need to ensure there will not be a shotgun effect as it flies into orbit.

Otherwise it will look like opening day of goose season.

[cocheese 0]

We trashed the planet, we trashed space.

Great, we are going to Mars for a new life and we can't even get out of the driveway.

[NickDG 23]

Set my alarm for 1:15 AM (So Cal time) awoke and hit the snooze button out of habit. When it dawned on me why I set the alarm I missed the launch by 5 minutes . . .

NickD

[BillyVance 34]

I remember when NASA was getting ready to send the very first shuttle mission up - STS-1, the launch was going to be at something like 5 am, I didn't want to miss it and didn't have anything that would wake me up in time, so I stayed up all night. Well I tried to. It got boring real quick trying to sneak around inside the house without waking my parents up, so I went outside, got on my Schwinn 10 speed and rode off into the night. I covered some 30 miles going from one end of Huntsville to the other end and back. Hell, I even got pulled over by a patrol car and asked what I was doing out there. They let me go but told me to go straight home. Well, I get home and there's still 30 minutes to go to launch. I settle down on the couch and doze off. I woke up and saw the shuttle already up some 20 seconds after launch. I think I was 14 or 15 at the time. This was in 1982, right?

Just my fucking luck.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[NickDG 23]

I was 28 years old when the first shuttle went. Thanks for the perspective, asshole . . .

NickD

[BillyVance 34]

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I was 28 years old when the first shuttle went. Thanks for the perspective, asshole . . .

NickD

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[muff528 3]

Quote

I remember when NASA was getting ready to send the very first shuttle mission up - STS-1, the launch was going to be at something like 5 am, I didn't want to miss it and didn't have anything that would wake me up in time, so I stayed up all night. Well I tried to. It got boring real quick trying to sneak around inside the house without waking my parents up, so I went outside, got on my Schwinn 10 speed and rode off into the night. I covered some 30 miles going from one end of Huntsville to the other end and back. Hell, I even got pulled over by a patrol car and asked what I was doing out there. They let me go but told me to go straight home. Well, I get home and there's still 30 minutes to go to launch. I settle down on the couch and doze off. I woke up and saw the shuttle already up some 20 seconds after launch. I think I was 14 or 15 at the time. This was in 1982, right?

Just my fucking luck.

Lessee......I turned 14 after Gemini 1 but before Gemini 2, both of which were unmanned tests.

[Zenister 0]

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STS130 is airborne as of 1 hour ago, everything looking great. Nice!

Night launches rock! I saw several launches while stationed in FL and but had front row seats for STS 88... if it had not scrubbed the day prior we would have been stuck on the beach instead of standing behind the countdown clocks

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Fuck! I barely remember the end of the Apollo program and I was 15 when the first shuttle launched and thanks to Obama, I'll probably die never seeing the U.S. go back to the Moon or to Mars.

... um, I mean seeing a maned U.S. mission back to the Moon or to Mars.

[BillyVance 34]

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Fuck! I barely remember the end of the Apollo program and I was 15 when the first shuttle launched and thanks to Obama, I'll probably die never seeing the U.S. go back to the Moon or to Mars.

... um, I mean seeing a maned U.S. mission back to the Moon or to Mars.

Yeah, OneBigAssMistakeAmerica set the space program back a few years at the least, but vote the prick out with a new president in 2-2/3 years and we just might get it back on track....

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[riddler 0]

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thanks to Obama

Bush did so much for the space program? I remember him stating clearly his goals for NASA, and giving them zero money to accomplishing them with. We can all dream about going into space, but the only President with the courage to actually fund real exploration was Kennedy.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD