STS-120 MCC Status Report #01

STS-120
Report #01
Noon CDT Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON — The Space Shuttle Discovery raced into space this morning with an on-time launch at 10:38 CDT. Onboard are seven crewmembers led by veteran astronaut Pam Melroy. Discovery’s crew will join the International Space Station’s Expedition 16 crew Thursday morning.

Melroy, Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Paolo Nespoli and Dan Tani began unstowing equipment and checking systems after reaching orbit.

On the way to the space station, Discovery’s crew will oversee a complete checkout of orbiter systems, including the robotic arm which will see extensive use throughout the mission beginning on Wednesday when it will be used to inspect the thermal protection system of the shuttle.

Discovery and its crew will arrive at the station at about 7:30 a.m. CDT Thursday and Tani will swap places with astronaut Clay Anderson. Anderson will come home aboard Discovery after serving 4 ½ months as a station flight engineer.

The launch of Discovery on its 34th mission begins a flight that will see the space station grow in size and capability with the addition of the first U.S. pressurized module since the Quest Airlock was delivered in 2001. The Harmony module, also known as Node 2, will add 2,600 cubic feet of living and working space to the complex. It will serve as the permanent docking port for international laboratories from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The shuttle astronauts are set to go to bed about 4:30 p.m. CDT today and awaken at 12:38 a.m. CDT Wednesday to begin their first full day in space.

As Discovery launched, the station crew, commanded by astronaut Peggy Whitson, watched live via a laptop computer as they sailed 218 miles above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.

Official Status Reports…

I have to admit that I like to keep this blog, even though its original purpose has been solved. As a starter, I’ll post the NASA status reports to it. The reason is that I have seen there is no official archive and I think it is neat to have all here together at a single place. If you are interested in them, search for the keywords “statusreport” in this blog. I’ll add them as separate postings.

And, btw: I am currently quite busy over here with my family and I have not yet found time to go in full depth. More personal opinions and views are coming. So stay tuned…

Launch Pictures from NASA Causeway

Discovery rockets into Space (October, 23rd 2007, STS-120)Over the night, I managed to upload some of my STS-120 launch pictures. All of them were taken from NASA Causeway. There are more to come and I’ll also post a number of them on Flickr. However, I thought it would be a good idea to put them up so everybody can have a look.

I also intend to do a write up of all launch day activities, which is quite interesting. I have a number of facts that I haven’t seen somewhere else before. Stay tuned for more, but I am on the road today.

View and Share the Pictures!

My friend Armando had a great idea: he created a STS-120 group on flickr! I have just checked and there are already a number of great shots from the launch. The interesting thing is that they are from all different locations, so you can compare your view.

If you made pictures yourself, please share them for the enjoyment of all of us.

I think this is such a beautiful resource, I wanted to make it know before I finally fall to sleep. Folks, it has been a veeeeeeeery long and exciting day. I think I’ll have to write much for the days to come, so stay tuned! Also, you own comments and experiences are very welcome. But now it becomes harder and harder to type … ;)

Tickets for December launch (STS-122) go on sale!

STS-122 Tickets Sales is opens MondayNASA seems to have just waited for the successful STS-120 launch. I just received notification that tickets for the STS-122 launch go on sale next Monday (October, 25th) at 9am EDT. If you’d like to see Atlantis launch, hurry up! Tickets typically sell out within minutes (really!). So be at your computer at 9a sharp and get those tickets as fast as you can.

After whitnessing the STS-120 launch, I can definitely say that it is a very good idea to get launch transportation passes!

Update: If you could not get launch transportation tickets, there is still a chance to go to the causeway. Read my article on using tour operators to view a launch from NASA causeway.

Launch Day Notes …

As i can not send anything online, i’ll probably cover the rest in one post. Today’s previous posts and events can be found here:

8:10 astronauts arrived at the pad and inspect shuttle. We are watching nasa tv from inside ksc.

8:30 countdown status briefing: weather has improved (and, yes, it is sunny)

9:00 in the bus line, ready to board the next one. Many astronaut invited guests also on these busses

9:10 boarding the bus, let’s see when we go off to the causeway. Its really sunny now, but the still seem to be some clouds over the sea. I think I would be quite disappointed now if the launch is really scrubbed. And, by the way we have handed over our LTTs, so if it scrubbed, we have lost (except if we could get new ones) – the bus driver is right now explaining this once again.

More explanations: there is a roped area which we are not allowed to leave. After launch, there may be some harmless drops from the exhaust, which causes irritation at most. We are recommended to go back to the bus quickly. This happens only occasionally (probably depending on the wind). You always stay with your assigned bus. There seems to be a one-to-one mapping, and that is probably because of safety reasons. The bus leaves back 1 hour after launch.

9:20 off we go to the causeway

10:05 we are on the causeway for quite a while now and i have set up my camera and taken some shots from the shuttle as it sits in the launch pad. There is some commentary via public speaker system. The still talk about the weather and a potential scrub. Oh man, am I excited. I hope sooo bad that Discovery will launch.

10:25 more clouds move in … Nasa continues launch preparations. We are currently in the t-20 hold.

10:50 still clouds. Lots of clouds.. Lots and lots of clouds … Nasa is still proceding, now at the t-9 hold. I guess they will scrub, if needed, within the last 10 minutes or so. I still hope we get away without a scrub. And if it is scrubbed, I hope we’ll manage to get new tickets. Oh man, this is so cool here, I woukd really not like to give that up. But lets keep optimistic.

11:03 the public announce system has very bad quality. Especially for me non-native speaker its hard to grasp what’s going on. We get shadedue to the clouds. Doesn’t look promising. Discovery is in shade now too. The crowds get bigger and bigger and more and more cameras appear…

11:07 right now low clouds are directly above the shuttle — or are they not? Maybe its a question of perspective. Btw… Did I mention that I had forgotten to turn off my vide camera? Thankfully, it turned itself off, so I hope to be able to take some shots if the shuttle launces (well, as it looks I seem to be positive about that….)

11:15 still low clouds, shuttle still in shade. We are at t-9 and holding. Less than half an hour now…

11:17 now it looks like it starts raining close to the shuttle. If so, that’s it…

11:21 ice buildup on the shuttele (if I got the announcement right). Still go for launch…

11:26 still go! Cloud moves away, discovery is in the sun again – as we are, becsuse the clouds clear up. Ist probably a question of how fast they move (out)

11:28 still go! Announcement that booster droplets should be avoided

11:30 T-9 and counting! I am crossing my fingers…

11:57 I still can’t believe it – we had a liftoff! What an excitment. And all that sound. Hat surprised me the most was how bright the exhaust was. I nearly couldn’t look without hurting me eyes.I even managed to take some pictures without distracting me too much. Oh man, am I happy! I whish the crew an excellent mission and I am extremely grateful that I could witness the launch! We are now waiting inside thebus (as advised). It probably takes around an hour to go back to the main complex. The next thing I do is save my pictures, as I definitely do not want to loose them!

Also, my deepest thanks to all who helped me make my trip. Special thanks to Armando for the launch photography link, which enabled me to take pictures without being detracted.

One note: I’ve written this on my pda, there are for sure some typos in it. However, I refrain from editing the post as it covers my excitment and fears as things progressed. I don’t want to destroy that by editing. Even typos may convey my excitment level ;)

13:05 we are back at the main complex for roughly 20 minutes now. The space center is so full of people – even though there already is big traffic jam going out. Getting something to eat is extra challenging. But does that matter after such a great launch? ;) Interestingly, all the temporary facilitiesat ksc are already being taken down. On the causeway, they dismantled everything even while we waited in the bus. These guys seem to do everything highly efficient. Through the public speaker system, I listen to shuttle ground communication. From what I grasp, everything went well, not just the launch.

EDIT: you can now view my space shuttle launch day pictures. I have uploaded them into my gallery. They contain comments, and I think give a good impression of the overall experience.

And here is the picture that probably shares the most enjoyment:

space shuttle launch

Arrived at ksc

I am for 2 hours now inside ksc. The weather currently is not so well, some rain and clouds. But lets hope for the best. We just finished lunch with an astronaut, which was a good experience. During the lunch Space Shuttle Astronaut Bob Springer talked about his space experience. A very friendly and caring guy, who also took quite some time answering questions individually.

Me and Family with Shuttle Astronaut Bob Springer

I am reporting now from a pda, for which i unfortunately just now lost the stylus.

Still clouds, no cell coverage

Ok, looks like i need to send all these notes when i am back at the hotel. No wireless internet here, can not connect via cell network.

Its 7:45 now and tehere are still a lot of clouds above us. Ksc gets busy now, mire and more folks come in.

to launch … or not to launch ;)

Today was a quite good day. The weather was OK, with lots of clouds in the morning and only very few ones in the evening. No rain at KSC, but there would have been too many clouds if it were a launch day.

The Internet connectivity in the Super 8 Titusville where I managed to stay is even worse than expected, my room seems to be too far away from the wi-fi hotspot. So I’ll be brief with this post.

The bad thing this morning was that the Up Close tour was sold out, so we had to go for the regular program. But not that bad at all.

The cool thing of the days was that I actually met Armando (a frequent commenter on this blog) in person. Out of the sudden, he spotted my at Saturn V center. Armando, it was really great talking to you!

NASA so far sticks with tomorrows launch date. The constraint is still the weather. NASA officially says that there is a 60 percent chance that the launch will be scrubbed. On spaceflightnow.com, however, a knowledgeable meteorologist just said that he’d give a 80 percent chance for a launch. His data was probably more current, so I stick to his point of view.

I’ll need to get up by 3a tomorrow (yeah, that’s in roughly 6 hours) as we booked “Breakfast with an Astronaut” and the breakfast is scheduled for 5:30a. So don’t expect an early morning post from me. I’ll try to post via my cell phone from KSC, but I do not know if I get coverage (at the hotel, it looked bad).

Stay tuned … and cross your fingers, please ;)

only the weather seems to be the constraint

I was to Orlando’ attractions today, so I think I just quote NASA’s shuttle home page for now:

At the STS-120 Launch Readiness News Conference Sunday morning, LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager, pointed to the weather as the only question mark for the launch week ahead. He reported all is “ready to move forward to launch on Tuesday.”

Weather officer Kathy Winters called Tuesday’s weather “promising” at 60 percent favorable. She explained that they continue tracking a frontal boundary that may now arrive on Wednesday, earlier than previously predicted. The front should be out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, but the timing of the front’s arrival could cause problems for a Wednesday launch attempt should Tuesday’s launch not occur. Weather should improve once the front passes through the area. There is still only a 10 percent chance that weather could prohibit tanking for Tuesday’s liftoff.

That’s excellent news. The weather, however, seems to be a problem. Again, we had rain over here in Orlando and so it looks like viewing the launch becomes a betting game. We’ll see.

I’ll drive over to Titusville tomorrow and try to catch Kennedy Space Center’s “up close” tour. I hope the weather is well enough so that we can really see something.