NASA~ENDEAVOUR, DISCOVERY and ATLANTIS last flights~

[Maggot]

Amen

[Lady Cop]

Feb. 1, 2011~~8 years ago today~~COLUMBIA~~

[Lady Cop]

STS-133, Discovery's last scheduled flight, has rolled out to the pad.

Discovery will launch final scheduled mission on Feb. 24

[Lady Cop]

countdown begins today for Thursday launch of Discovery.

[Lady Cop]

on the pad and ready to fly tomorrow! thanks for wonderful photo Elvira~~

click to enlarge--->

[Lady Cop]

today! you can probably watch at CNN or NASA website~~The final flight of Discovery is scheduled for Thursday, February 24, 2011, at 4:50 p.m. eastern.

[Elvira]

I prefer NASA television. Channel 212 on Dish Network, 283 on Direct.

[Lady Cop]

CAPE CANAVERAL -- With clear skies and no technical issues, the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery – marking the beginning of the end of the U.S. space-shuttle program – has begun taking on a festive atmosphere at Kennedy Space Center.

Discovery is set to launch at 4:50 p.m., with a crew of six commanded by Steve Lindsey, a retired Air Force colonel. Its 11-day mission – ferrying supplies and a humanoid robot to the International Space Station -- will be its 39^th since 1984, and its last.

One potential hurdle was cleared at 10:59 Thursday morning when an unmanned supply mission launched from South America successfully docked at the International Space Station. If there had been any issues with that docking, Discovery might have had to hold for a day or more.

NASA's shuttle launch team reports no issues. The weather, clear skies, with 73 degrees and a light breeze, appears near-perfect. The forecast has improved to a 90 percent chance of favorable conditions.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to watch the launch from vantage points all along the Space Coast.

[Lady Cop]

this is poignant for me. i've been to many launches, my family (dad and uncle) were scientists, part of space program. my uncle lived there at the Cape, he was a rocket scientist. he's died and the area is dying now too with the space program shutting down. people are leaving, the economy is going to hell, businesses failing. it's going to be a ghost town.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Nearly four months after it was supposed to launch, Space Shuttle Discovery is full of fuel; its six astronauts are strapped in; and all systems are clear for its final launch – marking the beginning of the end of the U.S. space-shuttle program – later this afternoon.

[Lady Cop]

and we have liftoff! Godspeed!

[Lady Cop]

[Lady Cop]

Discovery docked with the space station this afternoon.

NASA photo

[Lady Cop]

wonderful NASA photo~~

Conjoined
The docked space shuttle Discovery and the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, are featured in this photograph taken by the STS-133 crew aboard the station. The blackness of space and Earth's horizon provide the backdrop for the scene.

[Lady Cop]

cousin in florida just sent me this great launch shot...click to appreciate.

[Lady Cop]

another beautiful photo...they'll be home soon.

The Journey Home

The space shuttle Discovery is seen from the International Space Station as the two orbital spacecraft accomplish their relative separation on March 7. During a post undocking fly-around, the crew of each vessel photographed the opposing craft.

click~

[Lady Cop]

you can see landing soon online or on TV.

It's the last landing day for Discovery, NASA's most traveled space shuttle, which returns to Earth today to cap a 27-year spaceflight career before heading to a museum.

Discovery and its crew are scheduled to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 11:57 a.m. EST. They will touch down on the same runway where, just over two weeks ago, Discovery's six astronauts arrived to begin the orbiter's final journey into space.

[Lady Cop]

~HOME~

[Lady Cop]

how beautiful~~

NASA

Endeavour on the Pad
Bathed in xenon lights, space shuttle Endeavour, attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, took one last journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 3.4-mile trek, known as rollout, began at 7:56 p.m. EST and took about seven hours to complete. This is the final scheduled rollout for Endeavour, which is attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters atop a crawler-transporter. Endeavour and its six STS-134 crew members will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS), a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for the Dextre robotic helper and micrometeoroid debris shields to the International Space Station on the shuttle's final spaceflight. Launch is targeted for April 19 at 7:48 p.m. EDT.

[Lady Cop]

final resting places~~

Fighting back tears, NASA chief Charlie Bolden announced that Atlantis will remain where it is, in Florida's Kennedy Space Center, where its storied history can be shared with as many people as possible over the coming decades, Bolden said. The California Science Center will get Endeavour, he announced, while a Virginia branch of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum will get Discovery.

New York City will be the new home of space shuttle Enterprise, the prototype shuttle used for test flights more than three decades ago. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said Tuesday that Enterprise will go to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

[Midwest Spy]

Nice, very poignant information, LC. Great photos, too!