Reporting from Florida’s Space Coast.
Special Correspondent for the City-County Observer, Glen Kissel
Friday July 8, 2011
Today Space Shuttle Atlantis thundered from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A marking the final launching of the Space Shuttle program which commenced 30 years and 3 months ago.
Atlantis’ launch day began with only a 30% chance that weather would allow the 11:26 a.m. EDT liftoff. However, no serious storms materialized and only a layer of clouds above 10,000 feet blanketed the launch complex.
From this reporter’s vantage point, just three miles from the launch pad, the Shuttle Training Aircraft could be heard flying mock Return to Launch Site abort scenarios to the Shuttle landing strip, further confirming acceptable weather, and allowing for a final waiver of a minor weather rule.
As key points in the count were passed, shouts of approval could be heard from the assembled crowds, located near the Vehicle Assembly Building where components of the Space Shuttle had been brought together months earlier prior to transport to the launch pad.
The countdown proceeded normally until the T-minus 31 second mark when the Ground Launch Sequencer noted an apparent failure of the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm to fully retract, resulting in a halt to the countdown. This vent arm, known as the “Beanie Cap,†vents off gaseous oxygen from the very top of the orange External Tank as a means of preventing ice buildup on the tank.
With the short launch window beginning to close, retraction of the vent arm was confirmed, and, astonishingly, the launch team was able to quickly restart the countdown at T minus 31 seconds. At the T minus 6.6 second mark the three main engines lit causing steam to billow around the vehicle, until taken over by the smoke of ignition from the Solid Rocket Boosters and liftoff from the pad.
After clearing the tower, Atlantis rose on breathtakingly bright flames whose heat could be felt three miles away, with the thunderous roar of the engines soon hitting the cheering crowd. After the Shuttle pierced the cloud layer, a huge pillar of smoke from the Solid Rocket Boosters could be seen extending all the way back to the pad. This cloud pillar, looking something like a giant gray twisted rope, gradually floated north of the pad.
The eight and a half minute ride to orbit proceeded smoothly, after which Atlantis began its orbital chase of the International Space Station for which it would supply a new Italian-made module. The four crew members, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, along with Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim were scheduled to be in space 12 or 13 days before landing at the Kennedy Space Center, ending our nation’s
135th and final Space Shuttle mission. Fittingly, Atlantis will remain on display at the Kennedy Space Center, and forever be a reminder of one of America’s greatest technological feats.
America will now have another void in its human spaceflight program. We will have to pay the Russians to take our astronauts to the ISS and return.
The shuttle program has long been criticized for not delivering on the original promises made and excessive costs per flight. During the development stage, the program was continually “refined” until the shuttle became something nobody was happy with.
Although I am sad to see the shuttle program end, I am even sadder for the United States. All great societies became great because of its willingness to take risks, explore (and exploit) new resources found and advance society as a result. Those once great societies were diminished when they decided to no longer take risks. This is the frame of mind I’m afraid we are in and the US role as a leader in technology will be diminished.
Just consider what our space program could be if just a fraction of the TARP money was in NASA’s budget.
Nasa’s budget is already astronomical, and space exploration does not pay dividends.
The best thing that comes out of Nasa is research – and not just related to space.
It is unfortunate that the glamour of space travel is extremely unprofitable, but that is the way it is.
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