Woohoo, another beautiful launch of the Space Shuttle (1 Viewer)

[.]

Atlantis just lifted off from the launch pad a few minutes and everything looked absolutely beautiful.

Cheers and shouts can be heard throughout the space center as Atlantis, carrying the STS-122 crew and Columbus Laboratory, roars off the launch pad into the mid-afternoon sky to begin the 24th mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Steve Frick commands a crew of six, including Pilot Alan Poindexter and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love and the European Space Agency's Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts. This is the first spaceflight for Poindexter, Love and Melvin.

During the 11-day mission, the crew's prime objective is to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station, adding to the station's size and capabilities.

Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani, who arrived at the station aboard Discovery in October, will return to Earth with the Atlantis crew as Eyharts takes his place on the station.

NASA - Space Shuttle

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/204820main_STS122Fact_Sheet.pdf
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/203212main_sts122_presskit2.pdf

 

[MM]

i watched it from outside....Kennedy is only about an hour south of here....very cool!!! it's pretty overcast here today so i only got to catch about 3-4 seconds of it but it was still sweet!

 

[Ted]

NASA: One of the few things I don't mind paying taxes for.

 

[nra]

It will be a somber return for Dan Tani as his mother passed away while he was on the I.S.S.

It never gets old watching them s.r.b.'s light up. Godspeed to another shuttle mission.

 

[Jim]

If anyone will be in Gainesville a few days early and wants to get up early, or stay up late :

Event: Shuttle Endeavour * ISS 1J/A
Date: 3/11/2008 (Tue)

Time: 02:31:00 AM EST
Details: STS-123 will be the 25th U.S. mission to the International Space Station. The flight will deliver the Japanese experiment logistics module to the station for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

If anyone is staying late:

Event: Atlas 5 - ICO G1
Date: 3/21/2008 (Fri)

Time: 05:46:00 PM EST
Details: The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket (AV-014) will launch a mobile communications satellite for ICO North America. Space Systems/Loral is building the geostationary spacecraft. The rocket will fly in the 421 vehicle configuration with a four-meter fairing, two solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage. ULA will conduct this commercial launch for Lockheed Martin.

Check out:
Space Shuttle Launch Schedule

 

[vegasnitro]

I got to see 2 shuttle launches back in the late 80s. Went on a Carribean cruise that left out of Port Canaveral in '04 and got to see a Titan V rocket launch. They are sights to behold ....

 

[Nitrohaulic]

A good friend of mine, Rocky Roxlau, in New Jersey was describing to me their vacation from hell in Florida a few years ago (lost a transmission, etc, etc, etc.). Part of the plan was to go watch a space shuttle launch.

He said that after crawling in traffic for three hours trying to get there, his eight year old son in the back seat, who was listening to a small radio, asked "Hey dad! What does scrub the launch mean?"

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Are you guys really believing this stuff? This thread could convince you otherwise.
http://www.nitromater.com/lounge/12216-did-we-really-land-moon.html

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Are you guys really believing this stuff? This thread could convince you otherwise.
http://www.nitromater.com/lounge/12216-did-we-really-land-moon.html

Wow! I never thought of bringing that up to modern times. Those are probably all little space shuttle models that everyone assumes are large when viewed from a distance! They probably faked those, too! (just to get the conspiracy people started!)

LOL, I hate to be lumped in or classified as a conspiracy theorist. That sounds too much like the labels that NASA guy was using over and over to attack anyone who would doubt. On the one hand, I think going to the moon would almost be too big to be able to fake. On the other, like I said in that thread, I know how the easiest lies to pull off can be the ones you'd never suspect, especially if it's something you wouldn't want to believe for one reason or another. Couple that with our government being involved?

I don't think everyone in mission control would have to be in on it. Just the people who would have rigged in advance what they saw. I'm not saying I believe it was faked but, I definitely believe it would be possible to.

 

[DrRocket]

The truth........

Maybe OJ can dig up the truth for us, while he's looking for the killer......