Up Up Away – Back In The Game
 

Discovery is off! :line:

Watching that moment of lift off on a tiny TV screen still gives me chills. :)

I find it hard to deal with many of mans actions when I know what we are capable of. :dizzy:

Shit, I meant to watch it, but I got caught up in pervin'...

It’s still happening. Haven’t even done first stage separation yet. Turn on your stupid tube.

Look up all of you sexy British Pixies!

I ran out onto my deck with the kids and we watched it go up in the sky. A very clear day so we had a great view of it. I prayed the whole time that it would go off without a hitch and will be nervous on re-entry.

OK! It's a lift off! Time to change your location, old man!!! :lickme:

Your location is the one I’m working on changing. :wiggles:

Oh fab...I was away from comp/tv/radio all day...was curious to know how the launch went. Good luck guys, come home safe!!!

Great...just what I needed was something else to keep me glued to my computer screen!


Thanks PF! 2346 points so far!

For those of you who missed it you can see a short video of it HERE

I too was pleased to watch the lift off. Still, NASA should admit that this is less a triumphant flight of a phoenix and more a swan-song.

Despite all the efforts of the past 30 months and who knows how many millions of dollars spent to increase mission safety, in at most five years the shuttle will retire. It is expensive (the shuttle absorbs almost a third of NASA’s annual budget), doesn’t go anywhere other than low Earth orbit and must be recertified in 2010.

And yet the shuttle MUST fly. It is required to complete the international space station (ISS). Many of the station’s components were designed to be launched by the shuttle, and NASA has to take these to the station. For example, Japan’s experimental module is to be launched by the shuttle in return for Japanese construction of a centrifuge for the ISS.

One big question is how many more shuttle flights there will be. NASA once hoped for 27 more missions after this one. I’ve read recently as many as 20 flights. I, for one, hope these will include a mission to service the HST.

It sure was satisfying to watch.

I am jealous as hell! I had to wait until I got home from work but was able to catch it on the NASA channel on satellite. Good to see after all the trouble they've had.

Even watching the video gives me goosebumps. It's so cool...the concept that if we throw something really fast, and keep throwing it...it'll stay up. Of course, I also have a big goofy grin on my face whenever I take off in a plane. :sun:

I really hope they find that whatever fell off is minor. :yikes:

Bad news.
 

NASA just announced that it is grounding the rest of the space shuttle fleet while engineers assess the videos of the debris which fell from Discovery during its launch.