Space Shuttle Images: Boston The Big Picture

[rodsky]

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Tomorrow night, Philippine Time, the last space shuttle, Atlantis, Mission STS-135, will lift off from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A, in Florida USA. This is the last time a space shuttle (STS) will fly into space.

In commemoration of the 30 years of shuttle missions, I'm sharing this link:

First of the last Space Shuttle launches - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Farewell to the Shuttle Program.

-RODION

[BeerBreeze]

OMFG!!!!.... totally awesome.... i wonder what future generations will have to say about this...

[mr.a]

Nice dig.



.

[THE SKULLS]

let's wait for China for their space programs.
and Malaysia is having an Astronaut na.

[vladmire]

payter kaau ug mga camera oie.. hehee...

Ang pinas kanusa pa kaha? hmmm.. 1 century after guru.. lol.

[rodsky]

Sharing a fascinating video from the vantage point of shuttle engineers and technicians, particularly those who work with post-mission image/video evaluation and processing.


Photographic documentation of a Space Shuttle launch plays a critical role in the engineering analysis and evaluation process that takes place during each and every mission. Motion and Still images enable Shuttle engineers to visually identify off-nominal events and conditions requiring corrective action to ensure mission safety and success. This imagery also provides highly inspirational and educational insight to those outside the NASA family.

This compilation of film and video presents the best of the best ground-based Shuttle motion imagery from STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions. Rendered in the highest definition possible, this production is a tribute to the dozens of men and women of the Shuttle imaging team and the 30yrs of achievement of the Space Shuttle Program.

The video was produced by Matt Melis at the Glenn Research Center.
Finally PAO uploaded a 720p version, not sure if we will get 1080p like you wanted, but at least we are making progress.

The film is called "ASCENT" and is a 46 minute long YouTube video, so better grab some popcorn before you click the link

YouTube - ‪Ascent - Commemorating Shuttle‬‏

Incidentally, to avoid redundancy, this thread will also act as a sort of update thread for the STS-135 launch.

-RODION

[yhokz101]

the launching of the "last shuttle" may be delayed due to bad weather.. as what they said. . . but im definitely waiting for this one.

[xtianubec]

@Sir Rod
unsay rason nganong hunungon nila ang shuttle program sa US?
naa kay links Sir?

[rodsky]

@Sir Rod
unsay rason nganong hunungon nila ang shuttle program sa US?
naa kay links Sir?

a) The 3 shuttles are over 15 years old (Columbia and Challenger were oldest at 25+ years, but both were destroyed in accidents). You can't keep maintaining old hardware for spaceflight--the safety margin decreases over time.

b) The ISS is practically complete--that was one of the main objectives of the shuttle program--to provide support for an American space station (Freedom, American's original space station program, was cancelled, so the ISS was actually a product of a combined effort from countries which cancelled their own plans for a space station).

c) NASA's budget has been significantly reduced since the 1980's--this is primarily the public's "fault"--most people think/believe that spaceflight is useless, so there has been lesser and lesser support from the citizens of the US, toward space exploration.

Space Shuttle retirement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

UPDATE: Tanking has begun about 2 hours ago. This doesn't necessarily mean that the flight is a go--but it's a good sign that, systems-wise, everything is ok and there will be no delays due to computer, instrumentation and/or mechanical issues--the only thing really holding back things now is the weather.

-RODION

[rodsky]

Just bumping this...live webcast:

Ustream - You're ON - Live Streaming Video

-RODION