Launch Day

The shuttle Endeavour launches today at 6:36 p.m. EDT.

If you are interested in watching the launch you can do so on "NASA TV"

I also suggest the Launch Blog. It provides all kinds of information about what is going on before the actual launch. For example, right now the STS-118 crew members are having the technicians help them climb into their orange launch-and-entry suits---So there you go.

Yay Space!


UPDATE:
1:02 NASA hauls the astronauts from the staging area to the launch pad in an Airstream trailer. Science!

1:24 The astronauts are getting strapped in. None of them look drunk to me.

1:37 Barbara Morgan is on this flight. She was the back up teacher slated for the Challenger flight. After NASA stopped the Teachers in Space program she went back to teaching. In 1998 she joined NASA and began training to be a bonafide astronuat.

1:47 So they just have to sit there inverted for the next ~3 hours. What do they do if they have to pee? Seriously, i wonder about that...

3:00 The door wont shut. Im no rocket scientist but I think that it doesnt work unless the door shuts.

3:30 Must have gotten some WD-40 out because the hatch is shut now...

4:12 Just in the middle of the T-9 minute hold which lasts for 45min. Can anyone explain that kind of logic to me? Check out this crazy shite though, "Today's launch window opens at 6:32:52 p.m. and closes at 6:43:46 p.m., and the preferred launch time comes in the middle of the window at 6:36:42 p.m." Can you believe how short that window is? Goddamn I say goddamn!

4:26 10min and counting.

4:33 The tower is pulling away from the shuttle...3min 30sec

4:35 The oxygen vent is pulling away...the little cap that I thought always held up the shuttle, to keep it from tipping over. Turns out I was wrong.

4:35 1min 30sec to go, my clock is off

4:36 holy crap!

4:37 One minute in and the shuttle is going 2000 miles an hour.

4:40 At 2.25 the shuttle is 40 miles high and traveling 3400 mph

4:41 The shuttles three main engines uses 1/2 ton of fuel per second. Lord...

4:41 They've hit the point of negative return where they are too high and too far to return to Kennedy. 60 miles high and traveling at 5000 mph

4:43 The shuttle flipped over...dont worry it was supposed to.

4:45 The shuttle is traveling 15,000 miles per hour with main engine cut off and external tank separation at 4:46