The Final Mission of the Orbiter Atlantis

For those tiki peeps who are also into spaceflight, take note that this Friday (July 8, 2011), weather and systems permitting, the final Space Shuttle mission will launch from Kennedy Space Center. Here’s a great web site for real-time mission updates...

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts135/status.html

And here’s an essay on the final mission...

http://thespacereview.com/article/1876/1

As Atlantis lifts away, it will be a poignant moment for many, especially those of us who have worked for years in the US manned spaceflight program, as well as those who live in the communities near Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center. This CNN video focuses on one such community, Titusville, located directly across the river from the Kennedy Space Center’s launch complexes...

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/07/04/foreman.space.town.farewell.cnn?iref=allsearch

The late Howard Nemerov, former poet laureate of the US, wrote this poem after viewing a launch of Atlantis many years ago...

http://spaceshuttle.wikispaces.com/Space+Shuttle+Poetry

Witnessing the Launch of the Shuttle Atlantis

So much of life in the world is waiting, that
This day was no exception, so we waited
All morning long and into the afternoon.
I spent some of the time remembering
Dante, who did the voyage in the mind
Alone, with no more nor heavier machinery
Than the ghost of a girl giving him guidance;

And wondered if much was lost to gain all this
New world of engine and energy, where dream
Translates into deed. But when the thing went up
It was indeed impressive, as if hell
Itself opened to send its emissary
In search of heaven or "the unpeopled world"
(thus Dante of doomed Ulysses) "behind the sun."

So much of life in the world is memory
That the moment of the happening itself—
So much with noise and smoke and rising clear
To vanish at the limit of our vision
Into the light blue light of afternoon—
Appeared no more, against the void in aim,
Than the flare of a match in sunlight, quickly snuffed.

What yet may come of this? We cannot know.
Great things are promised, as the promised land
Promised to Moses that he would not see
But a distant sight of, though the children would.
The world is made of pictures of the world,
And the pictures change the world into another world
We cannot know, as we knew not this one.

-Tom

Man, what we wouldn't give to see that baby go up for the last time. At least we'll have the Endeavor permanently on display here in L.A. starting next fall.

Are you going to be there for the launch?

Tobor64, I'll be only a few miles away at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station when the final Space Shuttle mission designated as STS-135 lifts off from Launch Complex 39A. The end-of-mission landing of Atlantis is planned to occur at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on July 20, assuming launch on July 8. It will then be safed and go on permanent display at the KSC Visitor Complex.

-Tom

Ken Kremer posted some beautiful photos of the final Space Shuttle on the Pad in these two online articles:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1541

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1542

Here's one and part of his commentary...

"It was both relentlessly breathtaking and surreal to find oneself at a historic crossroads - looking skywards from directly beneath the wings of the very last shuttle orbiter that will soon be orbiting Earth some two hundred miles overhead. NASA's Space Shuttle's are the most complex and magnificent machine built by humans, constructed with over two and a half million moving parts."

-Tom

Looks like the weather is going to make the final launch something of a letdown. Be prepared for a quick dive into cloud cover followed by long hours on the drive home. I'm walking the dogs down to the Indian River and then a farewell cocktail at The Storm Shelter.

After witnessing the launch of Columbia in April 21, 1981 as special invited guests of NASA, RUSH wrote the following song that appears on their album Signals. The song itself includes STS-1 control room communications and the video features crowd and control room footage from the launch itself:

COUNTDOWN by RUSH

Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline

Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon

Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount

The air is charged
A humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife
Technology...high, on the leading edge of life

The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding

Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound

Like a pillar of cloud
The smoke lingers high in the air
In fascination
With the eyes of the world
We stare...

Nice post, Doctor Z.

The launch countdown has progressed to T-9 minutes and holding (a preplanned hold). The weather is "go" for the moment, but still threatens to scrub the launch.

-Tom

Liftoff occurred at 1129 EDT (0829 PDT) this morning... so begins the final voyage of Atlantis. This was also the closing launch of the Space Shuttle program, a bittersweet moment. NASA’s manned spaceflight plans are a bit murky from here...

Legends by Bill Roper

Once upon a time,
You could hear the Saturn’s roar
As it rose upon its fiery tail to space.
And once upon a time, the men that we sent out
Landed in a strange and alien place...

Once upon a time, they tore the gantries down
And the rockets flew no longer to the Moon.
And once upon a time,
We swore that we’d return,
But it doesn’t look like we’ll be back there soon.

**And as the Moon shines down
On the shattered launching ground,
I remember Apollo,
Who flew the chariot of the Sun.

And I wonder of the legends they will tell
A thousand years from now.**

-Tom

double post, somehow...

[ Edited by: Doctor Z 2011-07-08 13:57 ]

The final voyage of Atlantis and the Space Shuttle program ended with a safe touchdown at 0557 EDT this morning on the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF). Later in the day, KSC employees were allowed to get up close to Atlantis, including my wife, Pat. A colleague took a photo of Atlantis near the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), with Pat in the foreground...

NASA’s “Face in Space” program gave an opportunity for members of the public to upload digital photos that were then carried into space on Atlantis for the final mission. I uploaded this photo of me taken at the Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island of Hawai’i...

So, in a virtual sense, I flew into space with two tikis, presumably the first to go into space...

-Tom

Tom and Pat.
Thanks to you and all of the hard working folks down on the space coast for a job well done. Every launch from the Cape over the years has given me goosebumps and has made me hold my breath at the moment of liftoff. I just hope those feelings are just on hold for awhile and not gone for good.