Space Shuttle Discovery Launch Live Thread (1:36 AM EDT 08/25/09)

08/24/09 | Kevin Davis

[KevinDavis]

DVR GO!!!

[KevinDavis]

Whatever troll.. So what should we spend on the money???

[KevinDavis]

Kevin Ford, a 49-year-old retired Air Force colonel from Montpelier, Indiana, will be Discovery's pilot. He was an F-15 pilot and an F-16 test pilot.

This spaceflight rookie is making his way to the flight deck's front-right seat right now.

[KevinDavis]

Another ping... Ignore the trolls..

[KevinDavis]

Danny Olivas, raised in El Paso, Texas, is mission specialist No. 3 and the lead spacewalker for the flight. The 43-year-old mechanical engineer was working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when selected as an astronaut.

He will ride into orbit in the middeck's left seat.

[londonfog]

Not a “ground hog day” shoot of politically correct crews into orbit again at a $ billion a shot to give the standard “damage report so we have to spacewalk but we are going nowhere on your dime” BS. Shut this crap down. I have grand kids that can’t pay for this and eat too!!!

[SunTzuWu]

[advertising guy]

why not keep your crap to yourself....

[KevinDavis]

Whatever luddite.... I wish numnuts like you complain more about social welfare programs like social security, that cost more than NASA...

[crghill]

That’s a handy graphic. Thanks for posting it. Now I have to decide if I want to stay up for 3 minutes of awesome.

[KevinDavis]

Three hours and counting until liftoff time. No significant technical issues are being worked in the countdown and all weather conditions are acceptable right now.

[KevinDavis]

European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, a particle physicist and avid sailor with one previous shuttle flight to his credit, is taking the center seat on the middeck for ascent. He’ll be a spacewalker on this flight as mission specialist No. 4. The 52-year-old is a native of Stockholm, Sweden.

[KevinDavis]

Retired Army colonel and helicopter pilot Pat Forrester has boarded the space shuttle tonight to be seated in the flight deck’s aft-right seat and serve as mission specialist No. 1. He grew up in Springfield, Virginia, attended West Point and has flown in space twice before.

[Moonman62]

Sure, there isn't much new being explored or discovered by the Shuttle and the Station, but there are much more wasteful government programs, and there is still the prestige of operating the best manned space program.

And I'm pretty sure Shuttle launches are much less than a billion dollars a piece.

[JerseyJohn61]

Checking in.

I’ll be up tonight.
Gonna’ read thru the thread now.

Over

[KevinDavis]

Going to do a final ping before I go to bed..

[KevinDavis]

The final Discovery astronaut has boarded the shuttle today. Jose Hernandez, mission specialist No. 2 and flight engineer, has now entered the hatch. He will sit in the flight deck center seat, giving an extra set of eyes to aid the commander and pilot watch displays and switches during launch and landing.

The 47-year-old, born in Stockton, California, is the son of a Mexican migrant family who worked to harvest fruits and vegetables. He earned degrees in electrical engineering and worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Johnson Space Center before becoming an astronaut. This will be his first spaceflight.

[KevinDavis]

Final ping before I go to bed... DVR GO!!!

One favor, if anyone could post some pics on this thread that would be nice for the non Florida Freepers.. Also ignore luddite and trolls here

[JerseyJohn61]

Good night Sir.

We’ll keep the vigil.

JJ61

[JerseyJohn61]

Troll Shields up.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.