Hello guys 'n' girls.

Im currently sat in my hotel room in Florida but I thought Id share a few pics with you because...well...it was jus an awesome experience.

After three previous failed trips over to Titusville area (Kennedy Space Centre) the other half and I finally got to see the shuttle go up in the air.

Once in a lifetime experience...which we were not expecting when we set out here.

Originally a test of a new shuttle carrier was planned for 11th July, but that was cancelled and this put in its place.

It failed to go up on the 11th due to lightening strikes to the launch area on the evening of the 10th.

It was resheduled for the 12th, we spent all day at Kennedy visiting the exhibits,waited until 9 minutes before launch, and it was called off for bad weather, resheduled for the 13th.

Went again to the area on the 13th, called off about 15 minutes before launch...bad weather.

So today, took an airboat ride about an hour away from Kennedy, parked up in the carpark at the space center...and the big bird flew.

Such an amazing site, and I doubt I will ever experience it again.

Only got a few snaps as the other half and I wanted to enjoy it too.

 

fantastic i'm very jealous, i'd love to see (and hear and feel) the shuttle go up.

 

awesome, what was the sound of it like?

 

Watched it live last night on NASA TV, not the same as being there.

Must be a awesome sight

Steve

 

As above, Thats something I'd just LOVE to witness first hand. What did it feel/sound like??

Awesome piece of machinery.

 

What an experience that must be. Come on Punkie - what did it sound like and how far away were you from it?

 

Awesome, would love to be strapped into one of those bad boys and fired up into the unknown, nothing but respect for those guys.

Imagine being the first man in space? Not knowing what to expect, strapping yourself onto what is basically an enormous bomb and lighting the touch paper?

 

Lucky, lucky, lucky Punkie.

Soooooooo jealous. I'd love to see/hear/feel that, the power is just unimaginable.

Not sure I'd wanna be in it tho.......

 

Awesome !!

 

If anyones ever been close to a eurofighter as its coming by you giving full berries (think low level pass by at an air show) thats kind of what it sounds lke, but less crackly and at a much lower pitch and more rumbly...And just as lound, if not louder even as far away as we were.

We must of been a good couple of miles away at least.

Kennedy itself is just awesome too, I learned loads! If they delay the shuttle launch by 60 seconds, by the time they reach "space" they are 300 miles away from where they are meant to be.

And, if you are within 400 feet of the launch pad at go...the heat from the thrusters will kill you...At 800 feet the sound will still kill you!

 

Amazing, would rather be inside the shuttle rather than watch it But that's an awsome experience!

 

me too...apart from when they call it off they load you in in a seated position, but so your back is parallel to the ground...you get in three hours before go...that must be torture....three hours on your back () to be told "no sorry, out you get, we'll do it all again tomorrow"

 

i watched it online last night, they even had the sound as well, with the flight radios on so you could here what was being said, cool

 

Yeah I know, I've seen Apollo 13 too

 

Very cool.

 

Quality! Ive always wanted even as a little boy to go over there and watch this! And visit the centre!

 

Fantastic, its one thing id like to do, go and watch a take off !

 

My brother and I went there on a family holiday in 1994. We got up at 5am IIRC, and sat on top of the RV we rented to watch the thing launch.
It sat on the pad, main engines fired, and then shut down. Some safety system had a spaz and aborted literally a second before launch

Even from 3 or 4 miles away across the swamps, the noise and the light it kicked out was awesome. Deffo going back to Florida soon, be great to time it with a launch, but doubt we'll get that opportunity again.

Great pics Punkie

 

Brian

 

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo jealous !!!!!!!!!!!

 

If memory serves correctly, it was this very same Endeavour we 'thought' we were going to see launch

 

lucky git, pics superb there mate

 

now that i would love to see.

 

Ive been to see the shuttle take off a couple of times now. As Punkie says the sound is amazing and the way it dissapears into a tiny bright dot in the sky in no time at all is amazing. Its also amazing how many people go out to see it off.

The size of the flames are just huge compared to the Shuttle too!

I remember getting back in the car and switching on NASA radio hearing the guy say "Its in orbit now" such a short time after it took off!!

Couple of my pics.

 

Good memory

It was STS68, Endeavour yet again, which actually shut down 1.9 seconds before lift off.

Video of the failed launch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VELY...layer_embedded

Spiel about failed launches can be found on the site: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/06...-launch-abort/

Holy Moly! Not to wish anything like this for Saturday's launch, but I came across this video of the STS-68 launch attempt in 1994 that was aborted at the very last second. Watching it is enough to make your heart stop. Everyone involved must have experienced a tremendous rush followed by extreme let-down! The main engines had lit, but were shut down 1.9 seconds before liftoff when on-board computers detected higher than acceptable readings in a sensor monitoring the discharge temperature of the high pressure oxidizer turbopump in main engine #3. In the history of the shuttle program, five launch attempts were aborted under five seconds from the planned launch. STS-68 came the closest to hauling the mail before being aborted.

The main engines light at six seconds before launch, and within that time, the on board computer decides from hundreds of inputs and constraints if it's safe for the three liquid fueled engines to keep burning and whether to light the two solid rocket boosters. Once the solids light, there's no turning them off.
In STS-68's case, the computers noted the anomaly and shut everything down in about four seconds of time. Endeavour had to be brought back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be outfitted with three replacement engines. A test firing of the original engines confirmed that a slight drift in a fuel flow meter in the engine caused a slight increase in the turbopump’s temperature. The test firing also confirmed a slightly slower start for main engine #3 during the pad abort, which could have contributed to the higher temperatures.
The other launches that aborted under five seconds were STS-41 D in June of 1984 which went down to 4 seconds before launch before calling it quits, and these three were stopped at 3 seconds before launch: STS-51 F in July, 1985; STS-55 in March 1993, STS-51 in August 1993.
Here's a link to a video with a compilation of all five launch aborts, (and includes STS-93 which aborted with 7 seconds to go) and here's a link to an article that describes what a crew would have to do if they were forced to bail out of the shuttle before launch because of an expected explosion. Yowza!