The Think Tank

Here is video from the shuttle launch!  I warn you, this is a little bit PG-13.

Joel started recording at T-60 seconds.  Be sure to turn the volume up because you can hear the NASA TV announcer calling out the progress as well as communication between Launch Control and Endeavour.  (I apologize for the generator motor.  The noise is irritating but you can still hear everything.  It’s funny, I don’t remember hearing it at all in the moment).

You can see the full size version by going here.

Here are a couple of my favorite pics from last night.  I haven’t really had a chance to look at all of them yet, but I will be doing that this afternoon and hopefully will be able to get them up tonight.  But, we are on our way down to the Keys so I may wind up being distracted tonight.  I figured some of you might want to see at least a couple of the pictures, so I thought I should put a few up right now.

Update:

All of the launch pics are now up on the Gallery page.  You can get there by clicking on “Think Tank Gallery” in the Page List (upper right corner), or by clicking on one of the images on this post.

Well, we are back in line for the shuttle launch tonight. It did not make sense for us to drive 3 hours back to Saint Petersberg just so we could turn around and drive 3 hours back to the Cape, so we stayed in a little dive motel in Titusville. We ate breakfast after the launch – barely able to stay awake – while our room was being cleaned, then we slept the day away. We didn’t get up and moving until 5pm. We went to a nearby sports bar and watched the Saints whoop on the Colts, then we came back to Kennedy Space Center for attempt #2 for this launch.

What a different experience: last night there were approximately 10,000 people on 200+ busses. Tonight there is not even a quarter of that. It’s nuts. For contrast, the picture above was taken tonight, the one at right was taken last night. Last might we were standing where tonights shot is facing, and we had thousands of people behind us.

I will be trying to post the rest of the pics tonight, these are all from my phone so far.

Launch Status:

As of now they Are predicting a 60% chance of successful launch. Right now it is clear skies, but there is a cloud bank moving in. We’ll just have to wait and see…

Update, 12:33:

We are in line for the 4th bus, 4 better than yesterday. No tech issues and weather is “go” as of now.

Update, 2:08am:

We are around T-1:00 hour and the weather conditions are currently “red” but the weather officer is optimistic for “green” conditions in the launch window.

On an up note, we managed to sneak in 4 beers, which was better than last night: we had a six pack of Guinness and a bottle Belvanie confiscated at the gate.

Update, t-9 and holding:

All weather conditions are go at KSC, and the prediction is that this will continue. Now the problem is the emergency landing sites in Europe. All three of them are “no-go” right now. We need one to be green in order to launch.

Update, T-9 and counting:

We are Go For Flight!!!! It’s time to go flying!!

Update, 4:25am:

Shuttle Endeavour launched successfully tonight carrying six astronauts into orbit. What an incredible sight!! Everyone is right, there’s nothing like it!

I’ll upload pics and video tomorrow.

We are officially on the bus! We’ve been in line since 10:15 Eastern time (7:15 Pacific) along with about ten thousand other crazy people.

We were pretty far up in line, but somehow or other we wound getting on to the second wave of busses, but it will probably be fine.

We are very excited! We should be moving out any minute!!! Let’s just hope this turns out better than that sucky Blazers game…

Update, 2:45am;

We are in place on the causeway, but a damn cloudbank is moving in and we are now down to a 30% chance of acceptable weather. Starting to seem like a bummer…

Update, 3;49am;

The weather continues to look like an issue. The clouds here aren’t so bad, but all three emergency landing areas are a no-go. We are at leas than T-minus 20, and as of now we are not cleared for flight…

T – 9 minutes, built in hold:

We are still not go for flight. They will soon due the system poll and determine is this launch is going to happen…

Update, 3:59am, T – 9 minutes and holding:

Airforce reports all weather conditions are green at all sites, but they are still concerned for the launch window. We are still at 30%. Apparently the eyes-on pilots at the emergency landing sites say they are better than they were initial reports indicated, and the clouds here are thinning. They are “cautiously optimistic.” We are anxiously cautious.

Update, 4:38am:

The launch was officially scrubbed due to low clouds on the range. The next launch window opens tomorrow at 4:09am. We will try again then.

We stayed up late last night having fun with Ansel and Tiffany, so we didn’t get moving until about 9am. We had breakfast at A neat little diner, then we hit the road for Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.

I didn’t realize it, but our launch tickets also give us two days admittance to the Space Center.

We are doing the touristy stuff in advance of the launch tonight (weather permitting). Right now we are on the bus headed out to the assembly areas and the closest spot where we can see the shuttle on the pad.

More to come later, along with pics of course!!

Update:

We are in line now and waiting for our bus, which is not set to load until 1:30 (two hours). Then of course it will be three more hours until the actual launch.