I PROMISE to get over my obsession with the space shuttle Discovery once she lands at Kennedy tomorrow around noon, but there's one more historic opportunity worth mentioning. Throughout North America tonight, there will be chances to view the shuttle and the ISS as they pass overhead. You can see the ISS frequently if you know when and where to look. It's the brightest manmade object in the night sky, and second only to the moon, rivaling Venus as the second brightest object in the sky. This website details viewing opportunities for a variety of satellites, including the ISS, for a given zip code which you can input:
Tonight, though, you not only can see the ISS, but about a minute before it passes overhead, you will see Discovery leading the way. She undocked from the space station yesterday and is in final preparation for her landing at the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. If the clouds will just hold off a LITTLE bit, we should have a good chance to see them both. The ISS will clear the horizon to the WNW at 7:23:24 PM and pass overhead at a peak elevation of 78 degrees and a brightness level of 3.9 (very bright). Discovery is in the same orbit a minute or so ahead but a little fainter, although still very visible if conditions permit. The forecast calls for scattered clouds beginning around 7 PM. I'm optimistic that the view will be there.
Discovery and the ISS
Give it a go if the clouds cut us a break and see if you can spot them. They should be easy to see if you have a clear view. Discovery will be almost half way through it's pass before the ISS appears. Once both are in view, it should be especially easy to identify them since they will be chasing each other across the sky - cosmic tag. Below is a YouTube video of a shuttle and ISS pass over Denver in 2009. It will give you an idea what to expect. They are a little closer together in this video than they will be tonight, and of course, they are a mile closer to the sky out in Denver...
With two remaining shuttle missions to the ISS, we should have the opportunity to see both Endeavor and Atlantis playing the same heavenly game with the space station. This is Discovery's last time, though. After landing tomorrow, she will be an Earthbound relic.
I promised if the shuttle launched as scheduled, I would post my video from the event. Well, on Thursday afternoon, after some VERY tense moments when it appeared that range safety was a no-go due to a computer screen glitch, the problem was fixed with two seconds to spare in the launch window, and Discovery roared into the sky for her final mission. It was every bit as exciting and emotional as I remembered.
It has been over 18 years since I saw my last and only other shuttle launch, STS-53, which was coincidentally also a Discovery mission. It was early December, 1992. My husband was, at that time, my fiance, and I had won a NASA award that treated us to an all expenses paid early honeymoon to Cape Canaveral. The launch was supposed to occur right at daybreak, but it was unseasonably cold (I guess cold is always unseasonable in Florida), and ice had built up on the shuttle's external tank.
The launch window for the mission was several hours long since no rendezvous or time-specific orbit insertion was required, so we waited for the sun to rise and work her magic on the ice. By 8:24 AM, the ice was melted, and we watched in awe as Discovery shot into the morning sky. The astronauts were on their way to a week in the heavens, and we were left behind on Earth in disbelief that it was over so quickly.
As the excitement of that launch abated, the reality of our VERY early morning wakeup call and VERY cold bodies began to set in. We had been wrapped in blankets and sitting on icy aluminum bleachers for hours in the pre-dawn chill. While the launch was the primary purpose of our trip, we were feeling a little cheated by the weather. Upon returning to our hotel, my husband-to-be and I packed up our things, hopped in a rental car, and launched ourselves south to the Keys and warmer temperatures as quickly as a mere car could take us.
Fast forward 18 or so years, and things at the same viewing site are just a little different. The aluminum bleachers are still there, but a spectacular Apollo/Saturn Museum has been built adjacent to them with a snack bar, a gift shop, and actual restrooms. The Florida afternoon sun is shining, and we are in shorts basking in the 80-degree warmth. This time around, my husband and I have over 17 years of marriage under our middle-aged belts and two middle-school-aged kids along for the launch. The launch window is just six minutes long due to a planned rendezvous with the International Space Station, but all is green for an on-time launch with 20 minutes to go.
That's when we start to hear some ominous words over the sound system broadcasting comments from launch control and the various launch support elements. Range safety is reporting that they are no-go for launch due to a malfunctioning computer screen. Everything else is PERFECT, and for lack of a computer display, the launch could be scrubbed. There is precious little time with a six minute launch window to troubleshoot. We all hold our collective breath hoping that the range safety folks are pulling a rabbit out of their hat to fix the problem so we won't have to come out the next day and do it all over again. Launch control takes the countdown clock down to a hold at 5 minutes to give range safety a few extra minutes to work their problem.
The sound system breaks away from the conversation between launch control and range safety to ask us all to join in the singing of the National Anthem. We are all too distracted with the possibility of a scrubbed mission to lift our voices with gusto. It is a half hearted effort that seems to drag on forever as we are all still tense with worry over the status of the range.
As the Anthem finally ends, we rejoin the launch conversation, and hear the launch director announce that range safety is now, against all odds, green for launch. They have come through with "the right stuff", corrected their technical issue, and launch control will pick up the count immediately, leaving two seconds to spare in the launch window. The crowd erupts in delirious cheers as the final five minutes of the countdown clock begin to tick away toward the event that we all have gathered to witness - the final launch of Discovery.
3, 2, 1...
Our nervousness about the launch not occurring that day quickly shifted to nervousness and excitement about the actual launch. Shuttle launches are always accompanied by an element of fear for the safety of the astronauts. We've all witnessed the horror of a launch gone bad, and there's nothing routine about the power and explosive thrust required to get a shuttle and her crew off the ground. We went from holding our breath because the shuttle might not launch to holding our breath because it WAS going to launch.
Before we knew it, time was up and the launch was upon us. We saw the billow of steam start to engulf the pad and the shuttle and then the sparks of the main engines followed by the flame of the solid rocket boosters. After a couple of seconds, Discovery emerged from the thick cloud of steam with her rockets glowing like the sun, lighting up even the bright afternoon sky as she streaked up and across it, leaving a puffy white trail in her wake. After a few more seconds, the sound finally made its way to us, and it was as intense as I recalled - roaring and crackling with power. I won't try to describe the way it feels except to say that when the force of the launch travels the three miles from the launch pad and arrives at the viewing site, you feel the vibration with every ounce of your being.
I intended to make a fabulous video with my Flip camera, but I was shaking with excitement, and the result is pretty shaky as well. I did get the American flag in the foreground at one point, which is kind of cool. My Mom did a better job with her iPhone from her viewing site five miles away from the pad on the Kennedy Center causeway. We are both "woohoo"ing throughout our videos - I think it's genetic. I've included those videos below along with one I saw online that a guy took with his iPhone from an airliner after a late departure from Orlando - what awesome timing! I also included a slideshow that I put together of our day as a thank you to our friends who arranged our passes. It includes a cool stillshot photo sequence taken by my Dad with his camera on a tripod, all set to Katy Perry's Firework (come on, you can stand to hear it one more time...)
If you want to experience it for yourself, you have one or two more opportunities. I doubt you will be able to line up a Space Center pass for the April launch of Endeavor since there will be so much press (it's a lottery system, so give it a shot), but there are plenty of great viewing sites around Cape Canaveral and the surrounding area. Take your pick along the Banana River, the Indian River, the Cocoa Beach Pier, the cruise ship port, the Publix parking lot, or the side of the road. There also might be one more mission over the summer. NASA may get funding to launch Atlantis once more to the ISS.
Sounds like a good excuse for a Florida road trip to me! Even if you miss the launch, you'll benefit from a few days in beautiful Cape Canaveral or Cocoa Beach, and a tour of the Space Center is worth the trip alone, if a little bittersweet. The Space Coast could use the support of our tourist dollars with space shuttle jobs all but gone and the future of American spaceflight murky. It's inconceivable to me that the glory of NASA's manned space program from Mercury to the space shuttle is almost a thing of the past and hard not to see it as a reflection of the times. I'm not a fan of the commercial, for-profit approach. But hey, who knows, maybe Apple and Steve Jobs' next big product release will be an iRocket that will get us to Mars...
As astronomer Fred Hoyle once observed, "Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards..."
For you NASA fans out there (and really, who isn't), tomorrow is the scheduled launch of STS-133, the space shuttle Discovery's final mission. She is scheduled to liftoff at 4:50 PM Eastern Standard Time from Cape Canaveral en route to the International Space Station. I've added a countdown clock to my sidebar. It's supposed to play the sound of a shuttle launching when it gets to zero - or it might just blow up my blog. Either way, spectacular!
If the stars align, I hope to be there with my family to view the launch. Fingers crossed! A lot (millions) of things have to go right to get a shuttle off the ground. The last scheduled shuttle launch will be in April. That will be Mark Kelly's mission on the final flight of the space shuttle Endeavor. NASA is trying desperately to get funding for one more mission in June - one more launch for Atlantis to the ISS, but budgets are tight at the moment, as we all know.
Assuming Discovery takes off before the end of the weekend, I will post launch video and pictures next week. I wish I could share the whole body experience, but sound and images are the best I can do. If you want to watch the launch live, go to the NASA TV website. Your cable company might also carry the NASA TV feed. Maybe CNN, too. They've provided pretty good coverage of space shuttle launches in the past.
Tell your kids this is one of the last two or possibly three times they will see their country's storied space program send astronauts into space (sigh). The future of manned space flight in America is in the hands of the commercial sector once the space shuttle is retired. I'm not sure my heart will swell with quite the amount of pride when Americans start going into space for profit instead of as the national heroes that they have been throughout the history of NASA. It certainly won't be the same without the NASA meatball onboard.
