Space Shuttle Atlantis Blasts Off Into History

July 9, 2011 at 11:51 am | Posted in Regular Feature, Science News | Leave a comment
Tags: atlantis, International Space station, nasa, space shuttle

Good morning Earth. As I write this on Saturday morning, July 9TH 2011 I sit here once again astounded at the level of human achievement in my lifetime. I have wondered at what point those wonderful stories we read about a galaxy far far away, or a television show in which we travel through stargates to other worlds, would stop being science fiction and just become fiction. Just stories of people doing things in an environment which might be very real. In places where the science is secondary to the story.

This week brought us to the end of an era in space exploration. It was the final launch of the Space Shuttle as the Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday morning at 11:26 EDT. Atlantis carries only four crew members on this final trip to the heavens. Mission Commander Chris Furgeson , Mission Specialist (and possessor of the coolest astronaut name since Neil Armstrong) Sandy Magnus,  Mission Specialist Chris Walheim, and Pilot Col. Doug Hurley. Their mission will be to pack the International Space Station with as much Tang and beef paste in a tube as possible before the venerable fleet is taken apart and shipped to museums where they will remain into posterity.

Using video clips that were provided by your tax dollars and mine and generously assembled by the good folks at NASA I have compiled the following video of the highlights. It is all or portions of five different videos that I edited into one short documentary on the launch. It starts with a few messages from the ground crew whom I presume will be looking for work as of this morning. From there we follow our four crew members as they get suited up, and then strapped into the orbiter. If you want to cut straight to the launch it begins at 8:12 of the video and continues through the separation of the rocket boosters from a camera in the nose of the vehicle with the ever shrinking planet we call home disappearing in the background. It ends with a production that explains what happens next for the space program now that the Shuttle fleet is retired. I hope you enjoy the entire piece as I have so enjoyed bringing you these reports and updates on their progress. While the shuttle fleet will now be retired I will continue to report the happenings on the ISS and with the Orion project and other projects as we seemingly move forward toward exploring the larger solar system and in time, our galactic neighborhood.

Without further ado here is the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

by Revmacd For Roqoo Depot – All The Latest Star wars News and real space news too.