STS-130

[Satanic Mechanic]

They canceled today's flight of Endeavour due to weather.  Tomorrow (02/08/2010) they will try for 4:18am EST.  I don't think I will stay awake for this one.

SM

[LunarOrbit]

I stayed up for this mornings attempt and I'm paying for it now. I won't be able to watch the second launch attempt because I work tomorrow.

[spacecat27]

Work day tomorrow for me too- so driving up there is out of the question.  So- I'll see if an alarm will actually roust me at 3:30 and if they're still Go I'll at least run out to the beach. VERY clear night here!

[Satanic Mechanic]

I stayed up for this mornings attempt and I'm paying for it now. I won't be able to watch the second launch attempt because I work tomorrow.

I did the same thing Sunday morning.  I did manage to wake up one minute after launch to watch it on NASA-TV this morning.

SM

[spacecat27]

I'm bummed- clear nights in South Florida also mean chilly nights (for here) and that means everybody turns on their electric heaters- which the utilities can't quite handle.  Numerous brown-outs & black-outs screwed up my alarms- I didn't wake till 5:00 and had to watch NASA TV replays. 
Reports say it was visible as far south as Miami, and with the northern inclination to ISS it was even seen from Long Island, New York! 

[Satanic Mechanic]

Take a look at the photo on NASA Watch: http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/02/in-a-picture-in.html
Great photo and look at the detail of the Soyuz docked on the nadir port.  It almost looks like a toy.

SM

[evancise]

A couple more awesome photos from STS-130.

A new iconic photo of the shuttle program?
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-130/html/iss022e062672.html

The ISS window on planet Earth - well, 7 of them - have been opened and the views are amazing.  Star Wars fans may think this is really a view from a certain other spacecraft, but it really is from ISS.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1594.html

[LunarOrbit]

Oh, I'd love to look out those windows in person.

[evancise]

Here's a video of ascent highlights.  You can't deny the awesomeness of 7.5 million pounds of thrust...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEDLASr3QN0

[spacecat27]

Watched the landing on NASA TV- very cool the way they mixed IR/night vision cam with regular shots, and seeing the puffs of flame from the APU burnoff.   Even though the landing track was 60 - 80 miles west of my location, could hear the sonic booms- not loud, but noticable.

Dawns on me, even though I've seen at least 50 STS launches, have never been up to see a landing.  Need to do that before the end.

[Satanic Mechanic]

When I turned on the tv on Sunday morning to watch NASA-TV, they were talking about a computer failure on two of the three.  I thought there were six shuttle computers but they were talking about a Command and Control Multiplexor on the ISS that switched to places between the primary, secondary and backup computers.
It was one of those "Ah $?&*!" moments.


SM

[evancise]

When I turned on the tv on Sunday morning to watch NASA-TV, they were talking about a computer failure on two of the three.  I thought there were six shuttle computers...

Five, actually - 4 running the primary flight software and cross checking each other.  The fifth is running the Backup Flight Software; sometimes you'll hear CAPCOM mention BFS as it sometimes does minor functions to offload the other 4.  Each computer is officially a General Purpose Computer (GPC).

...but they were talking about a Command and Control Multiplexor on the ISS that switched to places between the primary, secondary and backup computers.
It was one of those "Ah $?&*!" moments.

Yes, that it was.  It started just after shift handover and (thankfully?) I was in the parking lot putting the van in reverse to go home after 13 hours on console.  By the time I came back in 12 hours later, it was all cleaned up.  Crew and flight control teams across the world did a great job!