I came across this just now, and after reading it, thought I would share it. Its a really well put together time-line based story of Discovery’s days. I never put together all the ‘firsts’ that she did and how she’d come through when things were tougher than ‘allowed’. She carried Hubble Telescope aloft then not too long afterwards, I stayed up all(!) night long watching ‘live on CNN’ as Storey Musgrave used her arm to do the most awesome Space repair I could ever have imagined (at that point in time). I felt like a kid watching a new Space Hero, and those Shuttle workers continue to deliver the best loving care Discovery and her sisters could ever ask for.
As I kept reading the longer-than-I-expected story, it reminded me of how far the Shuttles have brought us and the stories of each individual. I am pretty sure I will be kinda emotional when this lady comes to full wheel-stop on her last mission. She is pretty special, imho, and I never thought I would feel that way about a ‘machine’. I hope to see her in person one day
I probably sound a little sappy, but I grew up just north of Houston and getting ‘non-public access’ walk-arounds/go-to-works with parents (engineers/Directors) of friends/classmates in some of my elementary classes. I have fuzzy memories of plenty of the ‘famous’ early Astronauts, and loved every second of the environment. I saw and experienced neat things, through the eyes wondrous eyes as a kid at NASA’s JSC during mid-late Apollo years and early, early Shuttle development testing. I feel like a part of me is dying, now that I think about it, as the clock ticks towards The End.
Absolutely not. I agree with you entirely, it’s going to be a pretty sad moment when she rolls out at Kennedy. I was only 7 when I watched her first launch (STS 41-D) live on TV… can’t even remember where I was, I was that enthralled. I must have been at school I guess as it was 13:41 on a Thursday here in the UK. We had some pretty enlightened teachers that let us watch stuff like that when they could… up until 51-L which they let us stay after school for
It will be Endeavour for me… possibly as much of a workhorse as Discovery in terms of days flown compared to age, and I was lucky enough to see her (relatively) up close on 39-B in November 2001 while she was waiting for launch on STS-108.
The next decade is going to be pretty dull…
ETA… isn’t the launch the day after tomorrow? Nasa Countdown Clock is now showing just under 1 day 20 hours to launch (excluding holds).
The launch had been delayed, I believe, already when I posted and I had not caught up in the thread at Nasaspaceflight as to when the next launch was ‘scheduled’ - weather seemed to be playing a role and things that may - or may not- require a rollback, etc. So, yeah, my statement as to scheduled launch prolly ain’t accurate.
I can’t believe I almost missed this launch - been running fever/sick a few days and kinda avoided any news as I felt bad enough (!).
Ah… fair enough. I’m gutted that I missed the launch of STS-108. I was actually in Florida staying at Cocoa Beach on honeymoon at the end of November 2001, after having visited the Keys, Miami and Fort Lauderdale earlier in the month. I seriously thought I was going to see a launch and was pretty excited (as was the new Mrs Dave.B) until it was scrubbed. I can’t imagine we’ll ever get a chance to see anything like it again.
Launch tentatively slated for Thursday morning. Hope to resume count from 11-hour hold Wednesday night, so tos speak, and weather looks ‘iffy’ at this time.
Here’s a great run-down (video link) of why things slipped to Thursday, with Mike Moses giving his ever-great technical explanation as to what’s up with things and how they relate to schedule(s). ~Evaluating data and giving the console-folks time to rest after troubleshooting and making solutions, so to speak. I’m gonna miss M Moses as much as anyone else in Shuttle history (as much as Dwayne Hale) - I LOVE listening to how Mike explains things so I can understand 'em easily.
Fwiw, that NSF website has the best launch ‘coverage’ thread(s) you could ever expect - you just have to refresh the page a LOT as it gets close to liftoff to keep up with the details of events (!).
Sorry, but I must correct myself here. I hate being febrile and trying to think coherently at same time, but the fellow’s name is Wayne Hale, not Dwayne. I knew that - oops. Now that he’s retired, he continues with outstanding writings about inner workings of Flight Directors/managers and their working ‘families’ and cohorts and giving backgrounds on past issues, etc. Misspelling his name is rather embarrassing, hence my correcting myself. Sorry to add nothing new. Carry on, please…
