Countdown starts for NASA's last shuttle launch

[silko]

Countdown starts for NASA's last shuttle launch

Space shuttle Atlantis STS-135 sits on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Countdown clocks at the Kennedy Space Center began ticking on Tuesday toward the final flight in the 30-year-old U.S. space shuttle program, a cargo run to the International Space Station.

Liftoff of shuttle Atlantis carrying astronauts is set for 11:26 a.m. EDT (1526 GMT) on Friday, though meteorologists are concerned about the weather.

An approaching front is expected to cloud central Florida's skies beginning on Thursday, stirring up thunderstorms right around Friday's launch time.

"I wish I had a better weather briefing for you," Air Force meteorologist Kathy Winters told reporters on Tuesday.

Overall, the chance of an on-time liftoff is 40 percent, Winters said.

Conditions improve for Atlantis launch opportunities on Saturday and Sunday. An unmanned Delta rocket launch from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which uses the same launch support personnel and equipment, would bump the next flight opportunity for Atlantis after Sunday to July 16.

Whenever Atlantis is launched, it will be the last launch from Kennedy Space Center for a while.

NASA is in the midst of remodeling one of the shuttle's two launch pads for a variety of commercial uses. The agency hopes to use the second shuttle launch pad for a future heavy-lift rocket, capable of sending astronauts and cargo to destinations beyond the space station's 220-mile-high (354 km) orbit.

But the shuttle program is ending with no firm details of NASA's human space ventures beyond the station, which will be serviced by a mix of commercial and partner countries' launch vehicles.

For now, the Kennedy Space Center launch team has one goal in mind: getting Atlantis safely into orbit.

"The team gets into the mode of 'this is launch countdown' and that's really the focus that everybody has," said NASA official Jeremy Graeber. "To do it one more time is a great feeling."

Countdown starts for NASA's last shuttle launch - Hurriyet Daily News

 

[Jon Snow]

does that mean no more shuttles???

 

[anon45]

does that mean no more shuttles???

Yep, only in Museums.

Here's hoping this is just one step back in order to take a jump forward.

We should find out in the next 5 years.

 

[Avisheik]

I hope NASA comes up with a much faster and cooler spacecraft. I know this is wishful thinking, but i hope NASA can invent something that flies at the speed of light during my lifetime

 

[Haseebullah]

does that mean no more shuttles???

Yep, only in Museums.

Here's hoping this is just one step back in order to take a jump forward.

We should find out in the next 5 years.

I hope NASA comes up with a much faster and cooler spacecraft. I know this is wishful thinking, but i hope NASA can invent something that flies at the speed of light during my lifetime

Waiting for USS Enterprise(Startrek)

 

[anon45]

I hope NASA comes up with a much faster and cooler spacecraft. I know this is wishful thinking, but i hope NASA can invent something that flies at the speed of light during my lifetime

Wouldn't count on it. It's Congress that's setting the specifications, expect it to fly at the speed of Congress

 

[StormShadow]

Wouldn't count on it. It's Congress that's setting the specifications, expect it to fly at the speed of Congress

Is "Congress" some kind of disease/ curse to mankind? Indian congress also $ucks.

 

[Chogy]

We generally hate politicians too. If there is a single thing that unites mankind, barring an alien invasion, it's a universal hatred of politicians.

 

[Chogy]

The main problem is that we have run into a technology wall. Until we can come up with something better than chemical rockets, manned space exploration will remain freakishly expensive. Need to send a liter of water to the astronauts? It'll cost you $4,000 to $10,000, the current cost per kilogram to low-earth orbit.

That water they drink cost $5 per CC to get it there. A can of coke would cost $1,500. Just insane.

We need breakthrough technology... maybe some day. But not now.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

I will miss the Shuttle it was thing of dreams , now there are no dreams just idiotic politics

With just 10-100 billion man could have landed on Mars and may be even setup a colony on Moon with another 40 billion dollars , but instead man wasted 13 trillion dollars in Afghanistan what a shame

Now space program suffers and we say good by to an era

Space shuttle is /was my favorite ship

 

[chops3d]

We generally hate politicians too. If there is a single thing that unites mankind, barring an alien invasion, it's a universal hatred of politicians.

there are no aliens

 

[illuzioN]

I hope that we discover an alien threat where all humans in Planet Earth can be united and be one for god sakes....

its shameful that we have to fight ourselves.... instead of spending money of building Air Craft Carriers and Billions of dollars for only 20 F22s Jets (which can take out any nation's airforce in this planet with just 20 BTW) we should be spending this money for nuclear powered space ships and battle ships... create jobs around the world to make many star ships and conquer other planets.....

 

[Chogy]

With just 10-100 billion man could have landed on Mars and may be even setup a colony on Moon with another 40 billion dollars , but instead man wasted 13 trillion dollars in Afghanistan what a shame

Oh how I agree with this. Instead of fighting over words in old books, or over small pieces of land, if we combined defense budgets in the last 50 years, we'd have bases on Mars, the moon, in the Asteroid belt. We'd be moving asteroids that weigh a billion tons and are loaded with precious rare metals into an Earth orbit, and we'd mine the heck out of them.

We'd have scientists who are now making atom bombs, working on advanced power and propulsion systems instead.

 

[Ajaxpaul]

I will miss the shuttle, just like Concorde. Wait, more than Concorde.

What is the next plan after the shuttle episode?

 

[silko]

I will miss the shuttle, just like Concorde. Wait, more than Concorde.

What is the next plan after the shuttle episode?

what do you mean? like what will government do now, as far as i have heard. private companies are starting to rise up in this sector, and especially in USA.

i heard something like a company could make an agreement to send astrounauts to space, wich is like some couple of km away from florida, cape canavveral. they have like their own launch pad!

anyone from USA that can provide us with some info on that?