A Thing of Beauty

Okay, I watched tonight’s launch of STS-126 Space shuttle Endeavour from my computer, via three NASA feeds and a CNN feed of a NASA feed. It was an absolutely stunning launch and I watched it with dozens of my BFFs as we Twittered the launch to each other.  Here are a few screen shots I took.

The first one showed the launch complex with the shuttle and a stunning-looking Moon rising behind it.  They kept switching back and forth between this view and some closeups of the shuttle and engines, and then some interviews with folks at Kennedy Space Center and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Then came the planned launch hold at T-9 minutes, where they did final checks, polled the mission managers about current issues, and waited for the launch window to open that would bring Endeavour to the best path for the International Space Station (where it will be for the next 16 days).

Then, an agonizing discussion about an open door on the launch gantry. You could see it swinging back and forth as the gantry moved back from the shuttle. In the end, the launch managers decided that the door didn’t pose a threat, so they polled everybody and the situation was “go for launch” at just a few minutes before the planned launch time.

Then, it was time for launch!  I must admit that I find it hard to watch launches, even though I’ve been to several. I sit here and urge them on, hoping all the while that no harm will come to the crew.  And, it didn’t. Launch went off flawlessly! I was silently cheering them on until they got past 72 seconds… I think you all know why.

One of the coolest things about launches these days is that they attach little cameras onto the main tank. Which means that you get to watch as the SRBs detach all the way through the main tank separation. And, it’s a pretty cool view, as you can see here. I was madly taking screen shots as the launch progressed to “press to MECO” and so on, in order to get these views.

I watched it until there was no more to be seen and the scene switched over to Mission Control in Houston, TX.

Scenes like this just blow me away because sometimes it’s hard to believe that I can sit here in my office on a Friday night and watch a shuttle launch on my computer, and watch via a tiny little camera on a fuel tank as that tank separates from a shuttle orbiter speeding away from Earth into orbit.

If anybody had told me as a kid that I’d be doing this routinely as an adult, I would never have believed them. But, here we are — and there they go. What a ride!

And, it may be geeky, but what a way to spend a rainy Friday night in November, watching the nation’s space agency send folks up to orbit, safely and on time.