Bye Bye Shuttle
Space Shuttle Atlantis blasted off for the last time from the launch pad here at Cape Canaveral this morning. It was a cloudy day and so the 1 million+ estimated onlookers (including us) could only see it for a few seconds before it disappeared behind the many, many clouds in the sky. This was the last launch of any space shuttle from Cape Canaveral.
About 30 seconds after liftoff
And that's all she wrote....the final countdown is now over.
Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery finally launched into orbit on Thursday afternoon to a crowd of aprox. 1 million viewers. We chose to watch from the water, due south of launch pad 39A. Andy, Annie, and Frank (Annie’s Dad) all cruised Seadee up to the closest possible spot on the North Banana River, right next to the cruise port. There were already thousands of people on the land around there, but we were among the first few boats to get there in the early afternoon. Since Andy is a HAM operator, he brought along his portable HAM radio and we were able to listen to the NASA feed broadcasted from inside the launch command center — which made it very exciting, but also a little stressful when something went wrong!
The countdown proceeded flawlessly except for one “no go” from the RANGE computers (from my naive understating, the RANGE computers assure that NASA can monitor the shuttle’s launch and ascent properly). It got fairly exciting as the countdown proceeded with the single “no go” and we got down to T-minus 5 minutes, then they put on a hold and held for their maximum possible launch window, which on this particular day which was a little over 2 minutes. 2 minutes! So we all waited while the RANGE computer director was polled again, and finally he gave the “go” with 30 seconds to go in the launch window. Unfortunately, he forgot to flip the switch on his console from “no go” to “go” and apparently the shuttle will not lift off without that switch flipped. As we entered the last 5 seconds before which the shuttle would miss its launch window and have to abort the launch everyone held their breath. FINALLY the switch was flipped and the countdown was recommenced at T-minus 5 minutes! From there it was smooth going and it seemed like no time at all until it blasted off for the last time.
Watch NASA’s video of the launch.
We were able to see the shuttle from the time it launched until the solid rocket boosters separated, which is fairly good visibility. There were beautiful white puffy clouds about which did obscure the long view but Discovery found just the right hole in the clouds for us to see the solid rocket boosters separate, which was very exciting. The sound of the engines starting and liftoff actually hurt my ears a bit, because on the water it was totally unfiltered.
After all that excitement we stayed on the hook for the night and meandered back the next morning. We shall not see another launch of Discovery again, and may not see many more shuttle launches in my lifetime. It is exciting to see them go up — especially when you have a totally unobstructed view.
Here is the mission information for STS-133 if you get curious.
The cloudcover wasn't optimal, but you can see that the vapor trail left by Discovery was still lingering long after the shuttle was in the atmosphere.
About 200 boats showed up to watch Discovery from the North Banana River (luckily we got there early). It's important to mark your territory and declare your intentions with a cocktail flag.
There were several volunteer Coast Guard boats patrolling the security zone around Kennedy Space Center and the launch pad. As you can see from this photo, Seadee was anchored very close to the line!
The party crew listening to some tunes on the flybridge before the launch. Of course, as we entered the final 5 minutes we played the Europe song "The Final Countdown" -- what else??
This balloon is just awesome. Come on, who else has a shuttle balloon?! Needless to say, Annie was the one who actually procured this balloon.
May 11 Shuttle launch
Merritt Island Weather
