Posted on 08/23/2006 6:42:04 PM PDT by KevinDavis
CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA is poised to pick up the countdown to launch of shuttle Atlantis this week after swapping out two suspect bolts securing a key communications antenna inside the ship's cargo bay.
The work, which was finished Sunday at Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B, put NASA in position to start a three-day countdown Thursday. Liftoff of Atlantis and six astronauts remains scheduled for about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
"Everything is looking good," said KSC spokeswoman Tracy Young.
Working atop a platform and scaffolding near the top of the shuttle's six-story payload bay, technicians replaced two of the four bolts holding the antenna in place with longer bolts.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I still love watching these lift offs. I haven't been to KSC for one but I can normally see them from where I live in St Pete. Night lift offs are really cool!
That is my one true goal.. Since I can't be an astronaut, I might as well see a launch live...
I'm 150 miles from the Cape and the first time a saw one I was amazed. It seemed as thought it didn't really go that high. It is pretty darn fast. Night launches are very easy to watch.
Sweet.....
I saw one while doing push-ups at USN bootcamp in Orlando.
When I was in the Navy, we were coming up from Gitmo to Mayport and were several hundred miles off the coast when they had a night launch. Lit up the whole sky.
Kevin
the Launch window does not open until Sunday afternoon at 4:30 EDT
"...Night launches are very easy to watch...."
They are also a thing of the past, as far as the Shuttle is concerned. NASA want to see as much as they can during the trip uphill. That can't be done at night. However, the shots from the ET and SRB's would be really neat if it was a night launch. I hate to see night launches done away with. As the both of you said, they are great viewing.
Countdown starts later today. Launch is Sunday.
The countdown is underway
spaceflightnow.com
While the afternoon weather is expected to be favorable this weekend, forecasters predict afternoon thunderstorms Friday and Saturday. As a result, the launch team moved up the start of Atlantis' countdown from 6 p.m. to noon today to give engineers a better chance for loading on-board oxygen and hydrogen for the shuttle's electricity producing fuel cells.
A hold at the T-minus 19 hour mark that normally lasts just four hours will be lengthened to 10 hours to make up for the early start of the countdown. When the count resumes at 2 a.m. Saturday, all subsequent activities will be synched up with the original schedule.
The goal of the 116th shuttle mission is to deliver and install a $372 million set of solar arrays and a complex rotary joint on the international space station, a complex job requiring back-to-back spacewalks, dual robot arm operations and tight coordination with flight controllers in Houston. It is the first in a series of assembly flights that rank as the most complex ever attempted by NASA
This could become the LIVE THREAD
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