Hey all,

Usually when I talk to people about watching Space Shuttle launches live it ends up in a frown on my side when they tell me that they are hoping for it to go wrong. I myself am a reasonably big space-nut, and so I follow most Shuttle-launches live if I can (at the craziest times, with all the previewing included )

Either way, Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch in roughly 1h20m, and can be viewed life by opening http://playlist.yahoo.com/make ... 369080&segment=149773 in a media player ("Open URL in Windows Media Player), or going to http://www.nasa.gov and clicking the "NASA TV" link.

I don't know if anyone is interested, but I'm just giving a heads up for those who want to see the launch live, or are interested to see what goes into launching that 'ancient' piece of kit into orbit (up until the launch you will only see still 'images' of the shuttle, and hear various operators run checks on the Shuttle's systems)

I hope some will enjoy! :>

Hey, thanks!

Always glad when someone else expresses interest in space exploration.

so what time will it launch? (be, nl...) i know u said 1h20 so very soon?

Thanks for informing me I didn't even know one was launching!

Hopefully if the sky clears up a little bit here where I am I might be able to catch a glimpse of its trail.. dunno.

Quote from Scrabby :

so what time will it launch? (be, nl...) i know u said 1h20 so very soon?

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/calendar/index.html
On the right side is the real-time launch countdown. In the actual stream the time to launch will be much closer, but these launches have built-in holds to catch up on any lost time. For example, when the count-down timer reaches 20 minutes, they will stop the time there and wait 10 minutes before continuing the count-down. So right now the actualy time to launch is 55 minutes (as of this post) although they may say 9 minutes in the live stream.

There's still some weather concerns though, so we can only hope that they it will be clear enough for a launch

Edit: Oh, the actual GMT+1 time for launch is somewhere around 20:40 then

I'll be watching during my physics lecture!

Bummer, neither I nor my 7 year old will be home from work/school. I have the NASA channel on TV and she has been wanting to watch the space shuttle launch on TV. The last launch that I was aware of, she was really into spaceships at the time but the launch was canceled due to weather and we missed the reschedule.

Sounds like it's gonna be scrubbed for return-to-launch weather issues.

Weather seems to be green now, and should remain so until launch in about 4 minutes.

Woot! I like launches

Less than two minutes...

That was sweet.

Was kind of hoping for some foam fireworks tho...

j/k

wass a nice launch indeed , glad they made it

Yay

wow 8000Mph maybe a challenge for LFSTweak?

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I was 6 minutes too late to this thread. I've always wanted to watch a live launch.

a crap the external tank separated the cam is on the tank!(how long will it float in space) (i like spacetravelling to )

Quote from Mattesa :

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I was 6 minutes too late to this thread. I've always wanted to watch a live launch.

Well, next launch is scheduled for the 11th of March, and that's planned to be a night-launch (way prettier ;>)
I'll make sure to bump this thread 3-5 hours ahead of that one anyway.

Quote from Jertje :

Well, next launch is scheduled for the 11th of March, and that's planned to be a night-launch (way prettier ;>)
I'll make sure to bump this thread 3-5 hours ahead of that one anyway.

Yeap, I just found STS-123 on their calendar. Looking forward to that one!

This was the first time I can remember that I thought of starting up NASA TV in time. I watched quite a lot of the pre show but of course at the time of the actual launch I got lagged out like crazy.

thats because u need to buy S2

To bad I was in Calculus....

Quote from XCNuse :

To bad I was in Calculus....

That's no excuse - I was in PHYSICS!

Quote from Scrabby :

thats because u need to buy S2

He HAS S2. Lets not go down this route again...

I saw the launch at work - we have a big TV in the lobby and I was able to get the receptionist to turn it to CNN. I'm a huge fan of NASA (one of the coolest things I've done was visit KSC) - I watch all the launches, follow the missions, watch the landings. I'm a geek, I know.

Can't wait for the next one! I *WILL* make it down there to see one in person before the shuttles are retired. Might even be able to catch one this year!

When the first space shuttle went up, my mum told me I could watch it on my lunch break from school if I came home for lunch. All the way home I was staring at the sky, then I found out she meant it was on TV. How disappointed was I...