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I am now covering the Shuttle launch live on Twitter using my BA News feed. Launch is scheduled for 14:01 Eastern time (18:01 GMT) today! You can also watch on NASA TV.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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May 11th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Good luck, Atlantis!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Go Atlantis!
(although there seems to be some ice buildup on the LH2 umbilical. We shall see if we’re a go today or not).
May 11th, 2009 at 11:31 am
When I moved to the west coast of Canada when I was 8, I was so excited because I thought I would be able to see rocket launches from cape Canaveral! LOL
Now I can, thanks to the internet! Go Atlantis!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I wonder if I can get them to show this on the big screen here in the WOC?
May 11th, 2009 at 11:37 am
What is the direct url to the feed. When I try to go to the nasa site to watch the video, I keep getting prompted to install various plugins which I already have. A url to the live stream would be best.
May 11th, 2009 at 11:39 am
NASA TV via satellite on my 60ft planetarium dome! If only the sound was loud enough for my sub woofers to convey the feel of a launch. I’m just “up the road” for Kennedy in North Florida.
May 11th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I was just watching the coverage on HLN, and they showed the clip of the astronauts walking to the transport van to take them to the pad (from earlier today, of course). Behind the astronauts was a woman walking in civilian clothes, and I could swear, she looked exactly like Elisabeth Sladen…
Does anyone know, is MS Sladen visiting NASA, or is Sarah Jane doing some of her investigative work?
Or is it simply a case of someone who looks uncannily like someone else?
May 11th, 2009 at 11:53 am
DB, try this:
http://www dot nasa dot gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows dot asx
Where I wrote dot, put . I did it this way to avoid the BA filter!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:55 am
DB, try this:
nasa dot gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows dot asx
Type in as you would a normal www addy. I did this to avoid the BA Spam-o- merter
May 11th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Did capcom actually just say Hubble will “increase our knowledge for light years to come”?
I bet it’ll make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs too!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
CNN is covering it live as well, they are a few seconds ahead of NASA TV
May 11th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Liftoff!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
What a beautiful launch!!!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
@Michael,
Thanks. That worked.
Nasa needs to put the basic links back in their pages rather than trying to
guess if my machine is capable of viewing their videos.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Dang, I just missed it! I was too busy discussing how to create more more just society with one of my co-workers when I remembered the launch…
May 11th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Fox News ran the feed of the fuel tank camera full-screen for about five minutes longer than CNN or MSNBC, who both cut to a Pentagon briefing.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Brian – yes, I heard that too! Never thought I’d hear NASA dropping that particular clanger.
I’ve also noticed that the NASA TV feed is delayed approx 2 minutes, since I was watching on BBC News 24 at the same time. So I saw it take off twice!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
That was the first shuttle launch I watched in realtime since I was in 4th grade watching with the rest of my class. I was always kinda of creeped out by watching them after that. Watching a successful launch is definitely pretty cool.
Say what you will about America, but, man oh man, we have some cool toys.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
No problem DB, I agree. When I logged on to NASA TV, there was sound but no image. It took a second to figure out what was going on.
That was a beautiful launch and view from the rocket cam! Look forward to the live coverage of the repairs.
I find it sad that news agencies really do not consider this newsworthy any more. This is STILL an amazing human achievement!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Elwood Herring:
Yes, NASA TV is about 1 minute behind CNN. Maybe Phil can fill us in on the reason???
May 11th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Missed it by 15 minutes. Rats.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Woot!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
the space shuttle is really one of man’s greatest accomplishments!! we can all thank Obama if we never see this again… since he’s cutting funding. Found this interesting video on the launch of Atlantis; definitely worth a look:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/heavenly_mission_hubble_repair/
May 11th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
A beautiful launch. Now, let’s hope for a perfect mission
May 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
i just watched the shuttle launch from my bedroom window. i LOVE living on the space coast.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Dancing Nancie:
Obama is not to blame! The decision to retire the Shuttle Fleet came from the previous administration. Also, the Shuttles cannot continue to fly forever. They are, after all, 30 years old! Safety is an issue. Also, you cannot have both funding for the Shuttle Program, AND the Constellation Program, which is supposed to get man back to the Moon. Personally, I think the decision to retire the Shuttle Fleet is a wise one. One more accident, and I think the entire manned Space Program would be halted for many many years to come.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Brian: Yeah, I cringed when I heard that. I wonder who wrote that gem. “For light years to come”? No proper nerd would say something like that.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
DancingNancie: Obama had given us more money. Just not for shuttle, since it’s supposed to be phased out to bring in bush’s “vision” rockets. End of shuttle was decided long before he took office (long before he ran for president even).
Back on topic: pictures of the launch at the link in my name. Enjoy!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
@DancingNancie:
The Obama administration funded the shuttle AMS mission, which GWB left mandated but unfunded. How exactly is that “cutting funding”?
The near-term funding (next 2 years) is higher than anticipated. The long-term funding was cut by around $3B for the Constellation program. However there will also be a comprehensive independent review of the program this summer. It makes sense to me; provide funding to keep going for the time being but take a careful look at the direction. Especially in light of the orders from GWB to start the Constellation program without sufficient funding – a lot of other programs got their funding redirected to pay for the mandate. We *do* have a shortage of money to go around; let’s be sure we’re spending it wisely.
I do hope Obama can be convinced to keep at least the occasional shuttle flight going – having to thumb rides on Soyuz for five years or more until Aries is ready is not appealing…
Check out the article on the NASA budget on spaceflightnow dot com.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
They can’t possibly top “Full power for full science”.
They just can’t.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
[...] this massive undertaking is successful it will add as many as five additional years of life to the 19-year-old [...]
May 11th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I don’t want to be a party pooper, but I really hope this is the last time manned space flight is used for an astronomy mission. It’s very simple:
estimated cost of Hubble servicing mission, at least 1.7-2.4 billion $
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0534.pdf
estimated cost of JWST 2.4 billion $ until lunch, 1 billion $ for 10 years of operations.
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/newsletter1.html
In other words, for essentially the same price as refurbishing an old 2.4 m space telescope, we can get a brand new 6.5 m primary mirror robotic space telescope – with no need to risk the lives of 7 people. Insane if you ask me. The only valid reason for doing this is to practice complex space walk procedures. But please do it in a different context so that we astronomers do not end up with blood on our hands!
May 11th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I flicked between the Science Channel and HDNet (totally forgot about the NASA channel, but would have remembered, if no one else covered it). HDNet had great camera work, letting us just watch the proceedings with minimal interruption. SC (for all their blasted on-screen advertising of it) had talking heads most of the time, commercials, and kept interrupting the video feed to put their talking heads back on (or in PIP).
My vote for coverage goes to HDNet.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I saw the launch from Fort Lauderdale. It was a spectacularly clear day. Seeing could not have been better. I saw the orange glow of the thrusters from hundreds of miles away.
AWESOME!
YAY!
May 12th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Spiv : Excellent pictures. Reminds me of watching STS-118 launch (Endeavour) in August 2007. Phoenix launched just a few days before and we saw that go too. I’ll never get over witnessing those events. Brilliant.
May 12th, 2009 at 5:29 am
About half of our middle school went out and watched the launch. We’re several hundred miles away (on the gulf coast) and we still were able to see the flame and smoke trails. Pretty cool stuff!
May 12th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Seems like the exhaust was browner than previous launches. Is there something different with the boosters these days, or was it the light on this particular day? Just wondering.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
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