Over the night, the Rotating Service Structure (RSS) has been rotated away from space shuttle Atlantis to get it ready for its STS-122 mission launch.
The RSS is used for servicing the shuttle prior to launch. Tonight’s retraction was the final one in support for today’s launch to the international space station ISS. I created the animation based on public NASA webcam imaginary, which I animated later. The difference in retraction speed may either be actual small holds or just an artifact of NASA webcam updates (sometimes an update is missing). I have polled pictures once every minute. The whole retraction took roughly 50 minutes.
The retraction was originally scheduled for around 8pm ET and begun at almost that time. This, plus the absence of any bad news, makes me believe we still have a flawless processing flow for STS-122. The weather also still looks excellent, so I expect Atlantis to roar into space in about 13 and a half hours from now!
Wow, this is great! Finally, I am going to Cape Canaveral but it’s raining once again here. So, this is a short comment. I have to check my equipment and drive safe.
My best wishes and keep posting your comments in flickr. This time, I have internet in my mobile so. I think that I’ll upload my pictures as soon as I take them.
Cheers, Armando
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sts122/