NASA

Wow, thats all really cool!
Thanks for showing us!

 

Thanks for posting. ; The Apollo rocket is also in the rocket garden. ; If my memory serves, it is the one lying down on it's side. ; It looks like the tour hasn't changed too much, I like the addition of the work area where you can see what they are working on. ; It is a cool place to go, and quite a rare site to see not one but two shuttles on the pads.

 

Excellent...thanks! ; I would like to get back over there someday soon. ; I haven't been there since I was a kid, and it didn't really sink in then as it would now.

 

They are both there, because if there is a problem with the mission launching in a few minutes, they can launch the second crew to rescue or complete the mission, as I understood it.

 

Yep...looked good headed up in my north sky from my office terrace!

 

I watched it on TV. ; It was a pretty launch, in a typically beautiful central Florida Day!

 

Must be nice to be able to see it from work Justin! ; How far away from it are you?

 

I'm about 140 miles south...I don't see it break the horizon for about 25 seconds after launch...then it pops up on the horizon as a fairly bright orange fireball. ; We can just make out the boosters splitting away from down here. ; It's amazing how far you can see it - it's visible even over on the left coast down where Craig is, over here on the southeast where I am, and over in Tampa directly west of there. ; I imagine Jacksonville in the north has the same view as we do, since they are the same distance away to the north.

The only factor we have to be lucky with is weather...when it's cloudy, we don't see a thing!

 

That's amazing that it can be seen that far away. ; Is that the same with all launches or just the shuttle?

 

BTW...here was the last night launch I caught from my backyard at home...to give you an idea of the size and brightness...if you look reeeaal close, you can see the boosters fall in a slightly different arc and fade out near the center of the photo, while the shuttle continues on all the way to the right and off screen as a very faint streak:

 

I'd say half of the launches. ; The smaller rockets delivering satellites aren't always visible. ; Some we can see at night, but not during the day. ; It's only the bigger rockets, and of course the shuttle, which shows up pretty clearly day or night.

 

I couldnt see it today from Fort Myers. The last one we could see no problem. Sometimes we can see the booster rockets fall off.

 

And on another note, did everyone see the news that Endeavour may be needed? ; (Since Atlantis had a Columbia-style incident during launch)

 

Latest word we're hearing around here is that Endeavor is just being kept prepared and on watch in case of an incident with any of the space debris up there. ; They are writing off the minor scrapes on the wing edge as non-dangerous and are mission-as-usual. ; Hopefully no space junk will mess with them. ; Much as I love watching shuttles streaking up to space from my yard, I'd rather not have a shuttle in danger to get my little show!

 

Dan, I believe that they are looking for a star wobble with that CCD array, because it will indicate that there is a planet pulling on it as it orbits the star.

As for the Shuttle, if anyone is interested, and a frequent twitter user, you can follow one of the astronauts from space. ; His user name is Astro_Mike. ; He tweets just enough to keep you up to date on what they are doing or about to do. ; About an hour ago, this came up: From orbit: Rendezvous and grapple were great, getting ready for our first spacewalk