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

08/24/09 | Kevin Davis

[KevinDavis]

DVR GO!!!

[KevinDavis]

For other space news go to: http://www.spacetoday.net

[smokingfrog]

NIGHT LAUNCH !

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Great, I live in Jax and I love to go down near NAS and watch the night launch. Many months ago we even went down to Cocoa Beach for a night launch and the dang mission was scrubbed for that night.

[mojo114]

Night launch, coming up the East Coast, should be able to view in CT.

[KevinDavis]

Astronaut Jose Hernandez just tweeted on his Twitter page: “Folks this is my last tweet before I go into space! Will start to suit up in

[advertising guy]

so tonight 10:30 west coast time ?

[KevinDavis]

Yes...

[advertising guy]

thanks

[Rapunzel]

Camera battery has a clean charge and am ready to try and take pics from the frontyard. Alarm set for 1:30am, should be enough time to check the TV and watch it launch and then outside to watch from home.

[KevinDavis]

If you can post pictures.... I’m going to record it on the DVR...

[21twelve]

And some music to set the mood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BM9IdRMOps

Countdown (by RUSH)

[KevinDavis]

As predicted, the local weather in the Kennedy Space Center is clearing out.

[tapatio]

Commander Rick Sturckow is from my hometown,Lakeside Calif.His father Karl was our family doctor.
This is just great!

[TexasCajun]

What time pls?

[Rapunzel]

Send me the code for inserting pics. I have lost the info somewhere. I wanted to post pics earlier today about a Mud Snake (not native to my area) and couldn’t remember how. Yes, I am a blonde, an Artic Blonde.

[crghill]

Would i be able to see this from Key Largo Florida?

[KevinDavis]

1:36am/12:36am

[SunTzuWu]

Thanks for the Ping. I'll be at Wrightsville Beach to see it.

[Daniel II]

“Astronaut Jose Hernandez just tweeted on his Twitter page”

No! No! No! No! No! It’s Jose Jimenez.

My name Jose Jimenez.

[KevinDavis]

The astronauts are donning their day-glow orange launch and entry partial pressure spacesuits. After final adjustments and pressure checks, the astronauts will depart the suitup room and take the elevator down to the ground level of the Operations and Checkout Building to board the AstroVan for the trip to launch pad 39A around 9:46 p.m.

[KevinDavis]

The odds of weather being acceptable at the 1:36 a.m. EDT remain at 80 percent. Air Force meteorologists say the rain and clouds will continue to dissipate.

[KevinDavis]

The Final Inspection Team reports a small piece of ice around the liquid hydrogen umbilical between the pad’s service mast and the aft engine compartment of Discovery that is about 4.5 inches long and .25 inches thick. Ice in this area is not unusual.

[crghill]

Would this be viewable from Key Largo Florida?

[KevinDavis]

I think so.. Provided you don’t have clouds in your area..

[KevinDavis]

It’s starting to rain at the Kennedy Space Center again. At the present time, the current weather conditions are “no go” for launch due to lightning concerns, cumulus clouds and anvil clouds. Meteorologists continuously monitor the weather and update launch officials are rules go red and green. The outlook says the conditions will improve by launch time.

[KevinDavis]

T-minus 3 hours and counting. The countdown clocks are ticking again after the planned two-and-a-half hour built-in hold. Clocks will proceed to T-minus 20 minutes when the next hold is scheduled. A final hold occurs at the T-minus 9 minute mark to synch up with the 1:36:04 a.m. EDT launch time.

[KevinDavis]

The astronauts have emerged from the suitup room.

[KevinDavis]

Running a few minutes ahead of schedule, crew just departed their quarters. The astronauts are boarding the AstroVan for the ride from the Industrial Area to launch pad 39A on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Commander Mark Polansky, pilot Doug Hurley, flight engineer Julie Payette, spacewalkers Chris Cassidy, Tom Marshburn and Dave Wolf, and station-bound astronaut Tim Kopra emerged from crew quarters at 2:12 p.m. EDT.

[Bushbacker1]

Awfully late, but I’ll have the camera set up and take pics from Lakeland....if there’s no clouds.

[KevinDavis]

The AstroVan is passing the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building where Discovery was attached to its external tank and solid rocket boosters and the adjacent Launch Control Center.

The Press Site is located across the street, and reporters went outside to watch at the passing convoy. This is a launch day tradition to say farewell and good luck to the astronaut crews.

The rain has stopped and the concern about lightning has passed.

[cva66snipe]

Or a few months Quantum leap back in time LOL.

[KevinDavis]

Discovery’s crew arrived atop launch pad 39A at 10:01 p.m. EDT. The AstroVan came to a stop on the pad surface near the Fixed Service Structure tower elevator that will take the seven-man crew to the 195-foot level to begin boarding the shuttle.

[NCC-1701]

What launch are you watching? That crew went up a month or so ago.

[manc]

in st augustine and can see it from my back garden on a clear day

won;’t be up for this though

[KevinDavis]

Shuttle commander Rick Sturckow, a 48-year-old Marine colonel who grew up on a ranch outside of San Diego, California, leads this voyage of Discovery. It will be his fourth spaceflight to the International Space Station, having been a pilot on STS-88 and -105 and commander on STS-117.

He is the first astronaut to board the shuttle this evening, taking the forward-left seat on the flight deck.

[KevinDavis]

Nicole Stott, the station-bound astronaut set to join the Expedition 21 crew living aboard the outpost, serves as Discovery's mission specialist No. 5 for the launch. The 46-year-old from Clearwater, Florida attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University before going to work as a structrual design engineer at Pratt & Whitney. She then became a Kennedy Space Center worker on space shuttles and station hardware.

Once at the space station, she will exchange places with astronaut Tim Kopra, who then will return to Earth on the shuttle to conclude a month-and-a-half in space.

Stott just crawled through Discovery's hatch to take the right-hand seat on the middeck.

[londonfog]

I am sorry. We can not afford this futile endeavor. Money is gone.

[manc]

I agree

another point

SS gets topped on going up due no rise in cost of living but Govt wages go up due to cost of living

shows how mad the left have become

[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.