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The Last Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, Live

Vincent

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Currently set for 2:20 PM EDT, watch it on NASA TV.
 

Vincent

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T-minus 9 minutes and counting.
 

Vincent

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A beautiful launch.
 

Snowstorm

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Woo hoo! I just caught this thread and just missed the actual launch. I picked it up about 100 miles down range and saw the heads-up roll. Awesome.

Safe flight, Atlantis!
 

Snowstorm

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I get emotional with any launch.

Great commentary and explanation by the speaker.
 

benbradley

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Only two more Shuttle launches left (no more for this shuttle) on the schedule as NASA is now funded, and though I heard they could keep going if they had funding, it's very unlikely such funding will appear. Obama dumped Dubya's plan to return to the Moon and go to Mars, and as I understand the current situation, no one knows what year NASA will again send humans into space after the Shuttle flights end.

It's an 8-hour drive (maybe it would be faster to fly - maybe), and I've never seen ANY launch there. I'm afraid of going down there and the launch being delayed for a month, but the last few launches have been on time.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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Only two more Shuttle launches left (no more for this shuttle) on the schedule as NASA is now funded, and though I heard they could keep going if they had funding, it's very unlikely such funding will appear. Obama dumped Dubya's plan to return to the Moon and go to Mars, and as I understand the current situation, no one knows what year NASA will again send humans into space after the Shuttle flights end.

It's an 8-hour drive (maybe it would be faster to fly - maybe), and I've never seen ANY launch there. I'm afraid of going down there and the launch being delayed for a month, but the last few launches have been on time.

As someone who grew up during the space race, Alan Sheperd, John Glenn, the Mercury Program, Gemini Program, Apollo Program. The flights to the moon and finally the moon landing, the last several decades have been rather anticlimactic, but I always felt MAN would return to space. NASA is the reason I care about Sci-Fi. Because I always believed Man would one day colonize space. The news that Obama is abandoning everything and killing NASA is very, very upsetting and depressing.
 

dpaterso

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More footage (or same footage on another server):

Atlantis launches on final voyage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8681451.stm
Page last updated at 19:07 GMT, Friday, 14 May 2010 20:07 UK
The US space shuttle Atlantis has launched from Florida on what is expected to be its final outing.

The orbiter soared into blue skies above the Kennedy Space Center, leaving the pad at 1420 local time (1820 GMT).

Its 12-day mission will take it to the International Space Station (ISS) where it will deliver a Russian module.

Only two further flights remain after this one, by Discovery and Endeavour. Nasa is trying to get these missions concluded before the end of the year.

The orbiter fleet will then be retired to museums.
 

Sophia

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This is slightly OT, and this video has been mentioned a lot lately, but if you enjoy launches, the Apollo 11 launch at 500 frames per second might interest you.

"This amazing video by Spacecraft Films shows the July 16, 1969 launch of the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the moon. The camera was rolling at a whopping 500 frames per second, allowing the first 30 seconds of the launch to be slowed down into this 8-minute narrated video of pure awesomeness."​
 

Snowstorm

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This is slightly OT, and this video has been mentioned a lot lately, but if you enjoy launches, the Apollo 11 launch at 500 frames per second might interest you.
"This amazing video by Spacecraft Films shows the July 16, 1969 launch of the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the moon. The camera was rolling at a whopping 500 frames per second, allowing the first 30 seconds of the launch to be slowed down into this 8-minute narrated video of pure awesomeness."​

Freakin' organsmic! Yesterday I watched the History Channel's history of horsepower. They mentioned this Saturn V rocket had the highest horsepower of any item ever made: 160 million.
 

lpetrich

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It's now back, having successfully completed 32 flights and having flown 120 million miles over 25 years of service.

As to what will succeed the Shuttles, it will likely to be the SpaceX Dragon. In the meantime, the International Space Station will continue to be serviced with the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
 

TMA-1

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Obama didn't kill the space programme really. From what I heard he wanted to skip the Moon for now and focus on deep space missions instead, such as near Earth asteroids, Lagrange points and then finally Mars as the goal. I do think we shouldn't skip the Moon though, and I suspect we will go there. Other countries have shown interest in doing that, so our civilisation could do both.
 
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