STS-130

[Moonwalker]

Launch Preparations Remain on Schedule:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

T-00:17:14:00 and counting!

[spaceboy7441]

RSS has been retracted.
Still in T-11:00:00 hold
Are we going to have a simulated launch for this? I haven't done one yet but this one I probably could

[Moonwalker]

Good Morning everyone

Huh, nobody got up yet? Come on, it's the last Space Shuttle night launch we're going to witness within the STS program and within our life time!

So, everything is looking fine. The crew is aboard. Can't wait to see the launch...



http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

And here we go for live coverage: the NASA TV High Bitrate Stream:
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1368163

(copy and paste into your "open URL" menu of your media player)

T- 2 hours, 8 minutes and counting.

[Moonwalker]

Low clouds approaching the KSC launch site. Not an issue yet, but potentially an issue for the launch at 10:39 a.m. Let's hope it won't.

[Moonwalker]

By the way, the CBS News STS-130 Flight Plan, very useful:

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/130/130flightplan.html

The Flight Data File Flight Plan (pdf) the crew carries aboard:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/420433main_FLT_PLN_130_B.pdf

The STS-130 checklists in case someone is interested:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/flightdatafiles/index.html

And some more info about the crew...


High Res: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-130/hires/sts130-s-002.jpg

mage above: (From left) Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick, Pilot Terry Virts, Mission Specialists Robert Behnken and Kathryn Hire, Commander George Zamka and Mission Specialist Stephen Robinson. Image credit: NASA

Commander George Zamka will lead the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour. Terry Virts Jr. will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists are Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire. Virts will be making his first trip to space.

Endeavour will deliver a third connecting module - the Tranquility node - to the station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

STS-130 is the 32nd shuttle mission to the station.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts130/index.html

[Moonwalker]

And the hatch is closed.

[Moonwalker]

The AMC 3 Satellite NASA TV changed to does not seem to be the best choice. Damn! I never had that much laggs on NASA TV since then...

[Moonwalker]

80% weather chance has dropped to 30% weather chance due to low clouds. Let's hope there'll be a window at the time of launch...

[Moonwalker]

Weather reconnaissance flights continue to monitor the cloud banks and a possible break in the cloud ceiling is possible at launch time.

[Moonwalker]

And the close out crew is taking pictures before they leave the pad...



Historic launch indeed.

[Moonwalker]

Last build-in hold.

[Moonwalker]

Good news at that moment:

We currently are "go" for weather. Launch managers are cautiously optimistic and they will look closely at expected weather conditions at launch time before deciding whether to go ahead with the countdown.

[Moonwalker]

The only constraints is weather. No technical issues.

[Moonwalker]

Scrub. Weather is too dynamic.

Next try tomorrow night...

[RANT]
Time to change back to capsule design and usual rockets and so to less sensitive weather constraints and less annoying launch scrubs and mission delays.[/RANT]

[erk84]

yea i stood up all night...whats the big deal with an overcast at 5000ft dont you have instruments in case of a RTLS Abort idk just frustrated thats all im done ranting now