Shuttle launch

[onrecess]

Loaded up the Rv and we are off to see the shuttle launch. Ya know the shuttle is going out of service soon and you shouldn't miss seeing this big son of a gun go off at least one time. The rockets are okay, but the shuttle shakes the ground miles away and you can watch the sound wave roar across the water toward ya. 
Worth a drive across the country if you have kids. It is awe inspiring, to say the very least.
This one is a night launch, the best kind. Mankind turns night into day, for a minute or two anyway.
We like to RV right across the river from the pad, being as the darn thing is delayed a few days half the ime with our daily Florida thunderstorms. If you come for a launch, better be prepared to stay a few days or go home disapointed.
Woo-hoo!  We are taking off for the take off!

[Texas_Bryan]

Good luck on the delays, we all know how fond NASA is of them.

[CurrieS103]

I follow every one on the Internet.  Being a couple hours south of the Cape you get a spectacular show, especially at night, when the sky is clear.  Godspeed Endeavor!

[Steyr M40A1]

Living on the south end of Daytona Beach, Fl has its advantages. I can just go out my door and watch launches. Night launches are the best as long as its a clear night!!!
I have been closer to the cape during launches and its very cool.
In fact I have a bolt from two launches ago, one of 4 that hold the SRB to the pad, then the top nut is blown off and that releases the SRB. Its a 18" long 3" solid piece of stainless steel. Weighs about 15lbs.

[Ping]

Rock on Floridians. Can't tell if there are more of you folks or Texans. You all enjoy lift off if it ever quits storming.

[Sponsor]

[Kid Shelleen]

Rock on Floridians. Can't tell if there are more of you folks or Texans. You all enjoy lift off if it ever quits storming.

Cancelled again!!!

[philw]

Cancelled again!!!

yep 


http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/green-light-for-fifth-attempt-to-launch-space-shuttle-20090713-di9u.html

http://July 13, 2009 - 1:41PM
The US space agency plans to launch the space shuttle Endeavour on Monday after stormy weather forced the fourth postponement of its mission to the International Space Station.

"Looks like the team is ready but the weather is not. At this time we are no-go," the US space agency's launch director Pete Nickolenko said with the crew aboard and little more than 10 minutes to go before the planned takeoff on Sunday.

The shuttle launch was rescheduled for Monday at 6:51pm (0851 AEST on Tuesday) , Nickolenko said.

However, forecasters said the likelihood of favourable conditions was just 40 per cent, far below the forecast leading up to Sunday's scrapped attempt when meteorologists predicted a 70 per cent chance of good weather.

The cancellation was forced by a storm system that developed late afternoon near the launch site in Florida and gradually moved within 32 kilometres of launchpad 39A, where the Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew were waiting to take off.

NASA officials waited until just minutes before liftoff to scrub the launch, hoping that a sea breeze might shift the weather system further afield, as has happened before.

But as the minutes ticked down, there were reports of lightning strikes within miles of the Kennedy Space Centre, forcing the cancellation.

Lightning strikes were responsible for the third of four delays to Endeavour's mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to assemble the Japanese Kibo laboratory.

A Friday night storm produced at least 11 lightning strikes that hit the shuttle's pad, but did not damage the shuttle.

Takeoff had been delayed previously twice after the discovery of potentially hazardous fuel leaks, apparently caused by a misaligned plate linking a hydrogen gas vent line with the external fuel tank.

The US space agency said the problem had been fixed, and had filled Endeavour's external fuel tanks with some two million litres of low-temperature liquid hydrogen on Sunday before the launch was scrapped.

Endeavour's crew - including six Americans and one Canadian - are expected to install a platform on the ISS for astronauts to conduct experiments in the vacuum of space, 350 kilometres above Earth's surface.

Canadian Julie Payette, an electrical and information engineer, is the only woman on board.

She has been into space before, as have two other members of the crew, including shuttle commander Mark Polansky.

The crew's four other members will be on their maiden space voyage.

American aerospace engineer Tim Kopra, 46, will replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, spending several months aboard the floating space station.

He would be the latest addition to the permanent crew of the ISS, which is a joint collaboration between 16 different countries.

The astronauts were also expected also undertake repair and replacement work, including installing six new batteries in the ISS.

That mission will require two astronauts to conduct five space walks totalling 32.5 hours.

Kibo's two pressurised modules were attached to the ISS in 2008, along with the European lab Columbus.

[MikeBjerum]

yep 


http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/green-light-for-fifth-attempt-to-launch-space-shuttle-20090713-di9u.html

Sitting on all them thar tons of fuel and they are nothing more than a giant NASA lightening rod 

[onrecess]

  It went up... finally! We stayed a while but we did see her go. What a thrill. Wasn't exactly dusk... looked more like mid-day, but it was still spectacular. While waiting I "bumped into" a gun store and bought a Hi-Point 9mm. I've heard so much arguing over them I had to try one. (And, at $155, why not one more handgun?) Had to stay 5 more days (3 day wait, weekends don't count?)  They checked my background on the phone in 5 minutes. Okay, a 3 day "cooling off" period... Why can't I "cool off" on weekends??? That is the only time most of us do cool off! (Guess they figure most shootings are spouses and you have to see them all darn weekend!  )
Stupid. Of course, camping at my favorite campground- Manatee Hammock- for two extra days wasn't too much of a hardship. Still, most people would probably not be willing to wait that long (and trust a gun shop with your cash) so one more evil gun purchase might be prevented. 

[twyacht]

Congrats on the Hi-Point, post some range pics or general gun porn pics,...

It's a new gun tradition...

Glad they finally launched that thing, got a glimpse from S. Florida as it left.