Any Minute: Space Shuttle Ready For Launch

[bananas]

Source: Atlantic Wire

Today's the day: the long-delayed launch of the Endeavour is set for 8:56 am EST from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After wrestling with several weeks of technical glitches after a hydraulic system failure scrubbed the mission on April 29, NASA has once again given the green-light. And with it, the crowds, TV cameras and web viewers (live stream embedded below) are set to return.

While the tourist levels at last month's launch were originally said to top 700,000, the space agency is still expecting robust crowds of 500,000 to attend the second-to-last launch of the space shuttle era (the craft scheduled to be last, Atlantis, is currently set to launch in July). The highest-profile attendee, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, arrived on Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center to see off her husband, NASA commander Mark Kelly.

"The system looks good, the weather looks good, and we should be in good shape for launch," Mike Moses, NASA launch integration manager, told CNN. "In our minds, we are good to go." Watch the countdown, and the lift-off, below:

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Read more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/05/shuttle-launch/37743/

[Tanelorn]

1. T- 1m50s

[Fuddnik]

2. I just saw it lift off from the Gulf Coast.

A little hazy, but I could see it rising about 20 seconds after lift off.

Night launches were the best. It was as bright as a streetlight, and you could see it all the way up to engine shut-down.

[Cetacea]

3. Tool making is highly over rated.

Whoppee humans!

Cool though. Thanks for the thread.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. Saw it! Thanks for the link!

[Red1]

5. Fantastic!

Boosters...15000 lbs of fuel burn / second