Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Live Thread Friday 7:38 PM EDT

06/07/2007 | Kevin Davis

[KevinDavis]

his is the official live thread for the Space Shuttle Atlantis.. The shuttle is suppose to launch at 7:38 PM EST.

Mission updates can be found at Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Updates

If you can't view the launch on Cable or Satellite you can go to the Nasa site to view launch live.

AD ASTRA!!

[glock rocks]

It’s one of the great things about America.

an icon of the American spirit.

[hole_n_one]

Nice job, g r!

[glock rocks]

I’ll probably need to replace my mouse batteries now. That was some furious clicking for a minute there :o)

[higgmeister]

I’m envious. I’ve yet to see a live launch. Would love to see one.

Two of my brothers were stationed at Patrick but I've never seen a launch either. I was in Huntsville when they static tested the Saturn Booster. We lived ten miles away from Marshall Space Flight Center and the Ground rumbled louder than the 7.0 New Years Day 1980 earthquake I went through in the Azores.

[Moonman62]

Why does it take two days to reach the ISS? Orbital mechanics?

That's a good guess. They want to conserve fuel and have the closing speed as slow as possible. Less chance of a bad accident that way.

[synbad600]

"How I would absolutely love to travel down to Florida to watch a shuttle launch."

Get down here before the borders are closed. The border(s) out, that is.

Sorry to hijack the thread. I stole the FL border line from another brilliant FReeper. : )

[yield 2 the right]

I saw the Space Shuttle Atlantis Liftoff from a Lowe’s parking lot in Jacksonville Fla. About 140(give or take 10 miles) miles due north and a bit west of the launch site...BTW I was with my sis and Bro and his kid(a girl age of 8) going to drive-thru at a nearby Wendy’s and just happened to look at my watch and remembered that the time for liftoff was a few minutes away, and told my sis to drive to a look out spot facing to the south and a bit to the east.......We looked at the contrails and the flames of the shuttle and its rockets and the view as as good as we hoped for.....

[Fitzcarraldo]

Excellent launch, I pray the rest go as well.

[Issaquahking]

What an awesome country we live in! Where else, for that matter, who else, has the strength of their nation, to show the world something this great? Watched the whole thing on FOX, and realized that even live I was watching history in the time gap of real time (By the time they said 50 miles, at that second, the time delay of the signal getting to my house must have seen the Shuttle at least at 62 miles)


After 8 minutes, they were way over blasting at 100 miles a minute, at what speed? Somewhere over 14,000miles an hour

[Alas Babylon!]

Just got back from Cocoa Beach to our hotel in Orlando. I’ve been working the Microsoft convention there while my family went to the theme parks.

We saw the whole launch. Awesome!!!!!! So short, but an experience of a lifetime.

[NormsRevenge]

The contrail from the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis floats above the massive Vehicle Assembly at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 8, 2007. Atlantis begins Mission STS-117 to the International Space Station. REUTERS/David Carlson (UNITED STATES)

[don-o]

They’re working late, aren’t they? Limbering up the robot arm.

[NormsRevenge]

Cool, Practice Practice Practice
:)

[publana]

It was unspeakable horror. I hate to even think about it again, but I always do with every launch.

[dfwgator]

I always get a pang of fear when they hit “Go With throttle Up”...

I think we all do.

[NCC-1701]

Orbital mechanics has a lot to do with it. Also, if they tried to reach ISS on launch day, it would take too much fuel to achieve that. That was done in Gemini with a same day docking with the Agena docking vehicle. It worked but it was very fuel costly. Another thing not as critical, it gives the crew a chance to better adapt the the space environment. Better to have a healthy crew rather than to have a few with space adaptation syndrome.

[null and void]

I’m envious. I’ve yet to see a live launch. Would love to see one.

I saw and heard the first Saturn V launch live.

From Jacksonville...

[Frank_Discussion]

Just saw some video of some torn fabric around one the OMS pods. Not an emergency, since fabric is in places where the heat does not build up a lot. Damn annoying, though.

[sig226]

Nobody at CVS in Titusville to develop my film. Nertz. Photos will be up tomorrow.

I didn’t realize so many people are so close to Titusville. We should FReep the next one.

[Political Junkie Too]

Did I just hear the astronauts report that they can't find any eating utensils in the food lockers? Did TSA confiscate all the knives and forks?

-PJ