Astronauts get in shuttle, ready to go to Hubble

Astronauts get in shuttle, ready to go to Hubble

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APE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Astronauts strapped into space shuttle Atlantis on Monday for one last flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, an extraordinarily ambitious mission that NASA hopes will lift the celebrated observatory to new scientific heights.

The six men and one woman who will attempt the complicated, riskier than usual job shouted, waved and raised their fists as they headed out to the pad, eager to get going after waiting seven months to fly. Their flight was delayed last fall, two weeks before the scheduled launch, after the orbiting telescope broke down.

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Well here they go, i fear that i must mention that there are so many things that can go wrong with this mission. Lets hope they will not need the back up crew for any reason, but deep down in my stomach i have the weirdet feeling that we are going to see something extraordinary about this mission. You can view the live feed via this link www.nasa.gov...

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(visit the link for the full news article)

I have made a double post for some obvious stupid reason on my behalf. please post what ever you would like to post on the original post below


www.abovetopsecret.com...


Apologize for the inconvenience..! Sorry guys :-(

I posted this in another thread on this topic.

I link it here for some who can think outside the box of what passes for news and informations..

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Enjoy,
Orangetom

Here is a link to a website with a lot of information on this launch, including photos, streaming video, and the full pre-takeoff shuttle countdown timeline:


spaceflightnow.com...


It should be taking off in just about a half hour from now. Also, they say there is another space shuttle waiting to take off just in case this Hubble service mission gets into trouble.

Update 11:05am California time -- we watched a perfect launch ... solid rocket boosters were just jettisoned ... way to go!

[edit on 5/11/2009 by Uphill]

I hope for a good launch and a successfull mision and I hope the first images of the new gadgets and updates will be of a alien world with life on it or a spacecraft not of our design ..

great week for space exploration and greater good of humankind HST service mission and the planck and herschel space telescope launches later on in the week.
ET life will be found very soon if we send this kind of great high tech detection devices in space.

reply to post by Uphill


2mins to launch .

Thanks for the link. It looks like it went well minus a small problem that didnt cause any major issues. They look safe so far.

Originally posted by Uphill


Update 11:05am California time -- we watched a perfect launch ... solid rocket boosters were just jettisoned ... way to go!

[edit on 5/11/2009 by Uphill]

Wow, you could see the launch all the way from Cali?

I live in Orlando, just a few miles west of Canaveral, and we saw it go up. It's always a sight to see the shuttle go up from so close, I used to live further south and the difference is staggering. That's why I'm so surprised it can be seen all the way across the country.

reply to post by drwizardphd


Oh i only got to see via Internet, but to see it with your own eyes would be something that is almost impossible to forget. I'm jealous..

reply to post by drwizardphd


No we didn't see it in person, but simultaneously via the internet and television ... sorry I didn't state that, but it was so exciting I forgot. My favorite picture of this launch is the one displayed on that spaceflightnow website ... they had their own photographers there as well.

www.spaceflightnow.com...

That website should also have a lot more information in the coming days about how this shuttle crew is coping with the sickeningly dangerous space debris conditions around the Hubble. I never knew before that there is much more space debris at high earth orbit than lower orbit levels.