Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread...

[Johnny Rico]

STS-122/E.1 Columbus Module via Shuttle Atlantis

After a rather lengthy delay from its originally scheduled launch in December due to fuel sensor isses, Space Shuttle Atlantis is finally ready to launch in the next couple days weather permitting. NASA has finally gotten the fuel sensor problem fixed, so this should no longer be a problem.

Astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Monday 2.4.08.
Went through some additional flight training practice in the shuttle-like landing planes and in the T-38s on Tuesday 2.5.08.

Launch scheduled for Thursday 2.7.08 at 2:45 ET. However weather is looking to be a concern for Thursday, so launch may be postponed 'till Friday.

Also the first ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) is scheduled to launch around March 8th, but won't dock until late March or even early April. As this spring sees a decent sized traffic jam up there around the station with a new Progress docking Thursday morning, then the Shuttle around the weekend, then later on, a Soyuz.

So this is going to be a very busy couple months in space.

 

[Johnny Rico]

From the shuttle section on the NASA website:

Weather is the watch word at NASA's Kennedy Space Center after meteorologists updated their launch forecast to give space shuttle Atlantis a 30 percent chance of acceptable conditions on Thursday.

Liftoff is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. EST, which is the middle of the 10-minute launch window. The timing is precise so Atlantis can catch up and dock with the International Space Station.

Forecasters expect a cold front to move over Kennedy on launch day and bring with it clouds and storms. Meteorologists also think the front may stall over Central Florida, so they also lowered the chances for acceptable weather if launch attempts are made Friday or Saturday.

Friday's forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather, while Saturday's forecast sets the odds at 70 percent for acceptable conditions.

NASA has strict flight rules for weather that include limits on cloud height, storms in the area and clouds that could produce lightning. The criteria are set in part by the conditions a shuttle would need if it has to make an emergency landing soon after liftoff.

The good news for Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts is that the shuttle is showing no technical issues and liftoff preparations are continuing at the launch pad and in the launch team facilities.

So it seems that the front that has passsed through the south over the lasst couple days is going to go through Floriday tomorrow.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Well, as of T minus 11 minutes, it looks like it's a "Go" for launch.

 

[Johnny Rico]

And LIFT-OFF!!!!

 

[T'Bonz]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

DH and I ran out to see it...only to find a huge bank of clouds in the place where we would see it in the sky.

$*#@

 

[bigdaddy]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

They aren't showing it on the news! Bastard!

 

[Johnny Rico]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

bigdaddy said:
They aren't showing it on the news! Bastard!

Yeah, I noticed that. Fox News was covering the CPAC deal during the launch.

But I watched the launch on HDNET. Bit disappointed this time as the sound wasn't as impressive as it's been in the past. Usually, you get kind of a muffled lift-off sound, and then you start getting a low LFE rumble about 15-20 seconds after lift-off, followed by the engine crackle in the rear speakers as it climbs. Didn't get that this time at all.

 

[T'Bonz]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

I can't remember if I was on FOX or CNN (I switch back and forth when watching the news.) but one of them showed it live. I think it was FOX.

 

[Mark de Vries]

Johnny Rico said:
So this is going to be a very busy couple months in space.

Don't forget Endeavour launching only three weeks after Atlantis comes home. I guess that the advantage of the postponement: less waiting until the next mission.

Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to the arrival of Columbus and other modules, and the ATV as well. It's a new spacecraft! We haven't seen that in a while.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

Might have been both FOX and CNN, I listened to the launch on XM on the way into work on CNN. Miles O'Brien (real name) is always covering NASA and space topics for CNN. A few years ago I found it funny he was co-anchoring the news there with Kira Phillips. Miles and Kira finally together!!

 

[Mark de Vries]

hey, there's a new room on the ISS!

I watched part of the EVA on NASA TV yesterday, and it struck me that Stan Love was really quite serious about his job, having to ask for confirmation from the onboard crew and EV1 Rex Walheim all the time. I suppose that makes sense, though: he didn't train for the job, but was moved up on the schedule because Hans Schlegel had a bout of space sickness.

All the same, they're opening the hatch to Columbus in the course of today.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Mark de Vries said:
hey, there's a new room on the ISS!

I watched part of the EVA on NASA TV yesterday, and it struck me that Stan Love was really quite serious about his job, having to ask for confirmation from the onboard crew and EV1 Rex Walheim all the time. I suppose that makes sense, though: he didn't train for the job, but was moved up on the schedule because Hans Schlegel had a bout of space sickness.

All the same, they're opening the hatch to Columbus in the course of today.

Yeah, I too was quite impressed with Stan Love doing the fill-in job for Hans.

His voice thru the ISS/shuttle PA system sounds a bit more masculine than it does on the ground. If you know what I mean.

The problem today though is that they've got a piss-poor camera angle shooting into the new lab. It's too high and all you can see is the bottom floor of the lab plus a little bit of the right hand side racks.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

This isn't the Big Brother house, you know. Besides, I'm sure they can move the camera if need be to better cover things - Harmony has almost as much space, but it ain't THAT big.

Mark

 

[Starbreaker]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

Ironic I just opened this thread, because I just stumbled upon this about 30 seconds ago:

http://oboylephoto.com/ksc/ksc4.htm

 

[Johnny Rico]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

Starbreaker said:
Ironic I just opened this thread, because I just stumbled upon this about 30 seconds ago:

http://oboylephoto.com/ksc/ksc4.htm

It'd be a bit more interesting if he had pictures of the current Flight Control room's control panels for comparison.

Today they just have workstations or even just PCs then which run about 3 different flatpanel monitors off of them.

This is why I hope that the new Star Trek film takes this into account.

Today's tech, in terms of control computers is way ahead of what they used back in the TOS days. So it'd make no sense to outfit the new NCC-1701 Enterprise with out-dated tech even by today's standards.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

Well, this mission commentary thread is a bit slow as pretty much everything is going as planned with little to no problems, so there's very little drama going on up there.

That said, the Columbus module looks to be much bigger on the inside than it does on the outside. Which makes me anxious to see how big the JEM module will be once its up there. That thing is like 7 bays long. 6 actual with the 7th being the internal airlock for the exposed facility.

 

[Mark de Vries]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

It's going great, isn't it? But who knows how things'll go come landing day.

Yes, looking forward to the arrival of the Japanese module as well. It's going to be the largest module of the enitre station, with its own robotic arm and everything.

By the way, I found NASA has been updating launch dates for the rest of the year. it's going to be a busy spring:

7 March: Launch date ATV Jules Verne
11 March: Launch date STS-123
8 April: launch date Soyuz TMA-12
24 April: Launch date STS-124
16 October: Launch date STS-126
4 December: Launch date STS-119

 

[Naraht]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

Landing is likely to be 9.07am EST today. Flight director is Bryan Lunney.

 

[Mark de Vries]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

I'll be watching. NASA TV starts covering around 7.30am EST.

Anyone in southern Florida keeping an eye out?

 

[Mark de Vries]

Re: Time for your regularly scheduled Shuttle Mission thread

That was probably the most by-the-book landing I've seen.