Posted by Florian Wardell | 1 comment
Watch NASA’s live feed of STS-130
We’ve posted a lot of space-related news lately, but this is hardly a surprise. This is the last operational year for the Space Shuttle, water was found on the moon, SpaceShip Two was unveiled and the Obama administration submitted a new roadmap for NASA’s future. Today, the Shuttle launches for the first time this year, and unfortunately for the last time at night. Endeavour, the spacecraft for this mission, will deliver a third connecting module – the Tranquility node – to the ISS and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.
Endeavour will be commanded by George Zamka, and this will be his second flight. “The appearance of the station is going to change forever, so we’ll be able to look at that station and be able to say, ‘Yes, we were part of that mission, and that station didn’t look like that until we were there,’ and we will also leave the station in its final envisioned configuration where the labs are for science and the environmental systems are housed for the most part in the nodes. So the space station will become what we have wanted it to be, a workplace for science and research with all the environmental systems that we need to sustain humans on board for a long time.” he says.
The pilot, Terry Virts, is a lucky rookie and is obviously looking forward to his first stay in space: “Everybody on their first spaceflight is just looking forward to going into space. It’s an amazing concept to think of leaving the planet Earth, and just not that many people have gotten to do that, so I’m really looking forward to that. A really unique thing on our flight, STS-130, is one of the modules. We’re bringing up the Cupola. … It’s like a giant bay window, and I’m really looking forward to getting in that module once we have it attached and opening up all the windows and looking out to Earth. That’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Stiff wind rattled the launch site Saturday night as the fuel flowed into the shuttle, but forecasters were hopeful the gusts would subside in time for the 4:39 a.m. ET liftoff. The odds of good weather were 80 percent. I sure hope the shuttle is going to lift off on time, because this mission will be extremely visual (which often rhymes with spectacular in space). Have you seen the cupola? It’s pure science fiction.
You have no idea how much I’d give to spend a few hours up there, floating while watching the Earth beneath me thanks to the breathtaking panorama the module is going to provide. But don’t worry, you don’t need to go to space to enjoy beautiful visuals. If you’re on the East Coast, there’s a good chance that you may see the Shutle’s beautiful fire trail rising up in the sky. And if like me, you’re in Europe (or any other part of the world), make sure to tune in at Spacevidcast’s live feed, my source of choice for NASA coverage because of their high definition image and amazing chatroom (click on the video). We’ll post a replay of the launch later today for those who didn’t make it.
Click for larger version
Here are some mission marks:
For those of you who want to be kept up-to-date with this year’s space-related events, make sure to bookmark this page. And TechHaze.
Update: The launch is scrubbed for today, due to the weather being too dynamic. They’ll try again at the same time tomorrow. Next launch attempt: 09:14 UTC / 04:14 EST
The launch was extremely clean, everything went on as planned. Here is the video (the feed above still broadcasts NASA TV, 24/7):
Contact the author via email
One Comments