STS-133

Summary:

A final hurrah for Discovery....

STS-133

TheGreatJuju 24 Feb 2011 22:32

Space Shuttle Discovery has beautifully launched into orbit for the final time. It's kind of a bittersweet thing. I both do and do not look forward to STS-134/135, whichever ultimately is the finale.

All of the images below were capped from the NASA TV live stream.

All systems go….
Lift-off….
In flight….
SRB separation….
External tank separation….

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"They tell you, but do you believe it? If so, why?"

http://www.undeadrufus.com

Re: STS-133

Alene Y 24 Feb 2011 23:15

Yes, it is kind of sad to see it retired. I narrowly missed watching shuttle launches twice. On both occasions, I was in Florida for seminars and learned after I got there, that there were going to be shuttle launches. The first was in the morning while our seminar was going on and we couldn't leave.

The second time, our seminar was ending at noon on Friday. The launch was to be at 2:00 PM if I remember correctly. We were in Orlando and hadn't rented a car, but one of the guys attending the seminar said he would drive us across to Cape Canaveral. We rushed through our test and left for the Cape. It turned out that he hadn't put gas in the car and there was no place to stop along the way. We had to go back about 10 or 15 miles to gas up. We were about halfway across the peninsula when Rhonda said, "There it goes." We could only see a small shape with the flame at the bottom of it. So, technically I saw a launch, but one gets a much better view on TV.

Re: STS-133

3WMElliott 24 Feb 2011 23:24

First live launch I've seen, albeit only through the wonders of the Internet, and it's the last for the Discovery. And, shortly after marveling at how 'simple' it is to send humans into space, my connection drops, my router freezes up, and I have to go and kick something off and on again. Didn't even get to see the tank separation.

Re: STS-133

TheGreatJuju 25 Feb 2011 03:40

Alene, Elliott, that is some horrible luck.

The closest I've ever come to seeing a shuttle in person was when one of the more recent missions passed over Arkansas en route to landing. I stood outside and waited for the sonic boom.

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"They tell you, but do you believe it? If so, why?"

http://www.undeadrufus.com

Re: STS-133

Alene Y 25 Feb 2011 04:09

Yes, and I had to be nice because the guy was driving us over there, but all the way back, I wanted to leap across the seat and throttle him for not putting gas in the night before.
However, things don't always happen that way. I have always been fascinated by volcanoes. A friend and I were at the Hawaii Volcano Obsrvatory talking to the ranger when a call came in on his radio that an eruption had started. We got him to tell us how to get there. We had to park and walk to where we could see it. Actually, we ran over about 3 miles of old lava flow and skirted around the base of Mauna Ulu, which was still smoking out of the top from its eruption a year before. Anyway, we got to watch Pu'u O erupting for several hours before we had to head back to the airport. It was just pure luck that it started when we were there. It was the first eruption from that new vent and they named it Pu'u O because on the map, it was located just above the o in word Volcano. Somehow over the years, it has changed to Pu'u O'o, but that wasn't what it was named that day.

dextrose (guest) 25 Feb 2011 03:54

I've been to Edwards AFB to see one of the shuttles (can't remember which one) land because of bad weather over in Florida. I was lucky enough hear the sonic boom and see it descend. The military personnel wouldn't let the public close enough to actually see it land though. Shame.

Alene Y 25 Feb 2011 04:16

Well, I suppose mine counts as seeing a shuttle launch, even if it was from about 40 miles away. It was just so frustrating that we could have seen it up close and missed it for such a dumb reason. But, living in the midwest, I had never expected to see one in person at all.