Discovery, STS-128 (Yep, it's that time again)

Calibos

I missed half of it because a drunk chose that very moment to walk past and shout, "Oi, what are you lads doin in that Garden" and got the effing dogs barking to boot. The drunk was very impressed with the shuttle though when I turned him around

ynotdu

Deleted User wrote: »

I didn't see a single thing.

bunnykelly that is why i lost interest in Astronomy,light pollution,cloud cover,looking out for meteor showers and comets that i never got to see.
not much can be done about the weather but some of the Scandanavian countries have installed street lighting that is Astronomer friendly!

Still i got lucky for sightings this week,might rekindle an interest in Astronomy,instead of just Spaceflight.

So dont get TOO disheartened!:)

ronbyrne2005

Damn missed it. Was outside from 5.10am and sky was clear but must have been blocked by tree or neighbouring house. Dog distracted me too for a bit. Any vids?

le_girl

Hmmm... if it was planes it was a few of them because they were really far apart (I'm bad at measurements I held my arm out straight and counted fists heights and one was abuot 4 fists high, another 7 fists, etc.) and going in different directions. Some were way ahead of others too. This was about 2-3 mins after the shuttle had disappeared completely.

I saw the ISS pass the night of the last shuttle launch and each of the lights looked like the ISS did but there was 4 or 5 of them all in different places, slightly different directions but from the west.

I'm bad at descriptions . And sleepy.

Bodan

I just saw the space station which by comparison felt like it was creeping through the sky. Thats me done for the night.

... I cant wait until the middle of next week when both the ISS and shuttle come into view at descent times, around late in the evenings. These early mornings are ok for once offs, but you wouldnt want to be doing it every morning.

ynotdu

Bodan wrote: »

I just saw the space station which by comparison felt like it was creeping through the sky. Thats me done for the night.

... I cant wait until the middle of next week when both the ISS and shuttle come into view at descent times, around late in the evenings. These early mornings are ok for once offs, but you wouldnt want to be doing it every morning.

oh well at least i was earning some money whilst awake..........:P

well my eyes were open!:)

Jeez even by my bad standards my spelling suffers big time when tired,i even used Central European time on a post earlier!:D

hope you will post times and where to look for the iss/sts sightings?

cheers

now how do i come down from this andrenalin buzz:o

Calibos

Just reading back over my thread last night in Afterhours. Pretty chuffed to have caught so many Nightowls and Nightshift workers browsing over there who got to see the shuttle as a result. Its the reaction that made it really worthwhile. Loads of "OMG, that was so cool"....."So glad I saw this thread, that was class!...."Thrilled I had insomnia tonight"....etc etc TBH its the same type of reaction that makes public outreach so fulfilling when we bring out our telescopes for the public to look through. The motivation is almost selfish, I really get a kick out of peoples reactions when one shows them something amazing that they normally wouldn't have a chance to see. Its kinda like re-living your own WOWs the first time you saw something vicariously through them.

jumpguy

****....missed it. I slept in, don't even remember turning off the alarm clock.

ynotdu

jumpguy wrote: »

****....missed it. I slept in, don't even remember turning off the alarm clock.

Jumpguy,sorry no excuses,You let the team down last night,YOU BAD!!!!!!


Beeker,Lord lucan,Kevster,................You,s all enter the hall of shame as well

Kelda09

OK, time for me to fess up, Looks like im entering the hall of shame as well, set three alarms and don't remember hearing even one of them. Im so pissed off. Can someone please be nice to me and say that there was cloud coverage or something in the west so it couldnt be seen anyway....... Please:o:o:o. I was tellin all my friends about it as well so was V embarrassed today when people asked me what it was like. Damn,this sleep thing is over-rated..

lord lucan

ynotdu wrote: »

Jumpguy,sorry no excuses,You let the team down last night,YOU BAD!!!!!!


Beeker,Lord lucan,Kevster,................You,s all enter the hall of shame as well

I was on the beer after a game at yankee stadium,missed the launch and it was pissing down here last night so couldn't see ****!

That's my excuse and i'm sticking to it!:p

Beeker

ynotdu wrote: »

Jumpguy,sorry no excuses,You let the team down last night,YOU BAD!!!!!!


Beeker,Lord lucan,Kevster,................You,s all enter the hall of shame as well

Sorry lads I was in Turkey on hols but did get to see the launch on the Internet. It was not visible in the sky from Turkey as it was already daylight there. Home now so will get the chance to follow the flight a lot closer. Just as a point of interest this is the last flight of the shuttle that is not a penultimate or final flight of an orbiter. They each have 2 flights left each. Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour unless some flight are added, fingers crossed!

Beeker

Just noticed the date Aug 30th. Discovery launched for the very first time25 years ago today {1984}. It was mission STS 41D the 12th shuttle flight. I was luck enough to be there for the flight. What a sight!
This flight is the shuttles 128th and Discoverys 37th,

Sorry about image quality its a scan from a photo I took that day.

Stargate

You lucky devil Beeker

Kevster

I stayed up to watch the launch that night but something seemed strange. The guy who was talking through the countfown on NASA TV seemed to be a bit unprepared or something. It's usually a lady who does it, right? It just seemed strange... ...anyone else think this?

Nightwish

I'm open to correction, there are 6 or so NASA staff who usually do the countdown. There are 2 women and 4 men. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time with NASA tv on in the background of my laptop. 9 Hours or so over the past 2 days! I would love to watch docking but I think thats not til around 2am. I dont think I'm able for another late night.

ynotdu

sorry again i cannot do the multiquote thing:)

Lord Lucan LOL,well ok being on the beer does mitigate in your favour(you got Your priorities right:D

Beeker as always you are a fountain of knowledge on the STS.
enjoyed the photo(as has been said you lucky devil for being there)
I was sure If the Airspace exclusion zone was breached,it would be by You having hijacked a plane from turkey if you had not found a hot spot for your computer,:D,would have been a shame if you missed it since you have heard/saw every shuttle ever launched!

I know the old hands here have many sources but for a newbie who might just read this.

The *flip* by the shuttle while it is 600 feet below the space station is due for 01.02.Really cool sight the first time you see it,especially if the Earth is in daylight below.
some times if the space station is out of range of the tracking and relay satelites the picture is lost.

the docking is set for 02.02,the shuttle often switchs its high gain antenna to radar mode so since that is the antenna used for live tv from the shuttle picture may be lost.
even so you can watch the docking from the iss camera,s once they are in range of the tracking and relay satellites.
if you are a newbie reading this thread details of how to watch nasa tv in full screen mode a few pages back.

Does anybody know if there are sighting opportunities of the shuttle/iss catch up tonight and what time?
cheers!

ynotdu

Kevster wrote: »

I stayed up to watch the launch that night but something seemed strange. The guy who was talking through the countfown on NASA TV seemed to be a bit unprepared or something. It's usually a lady who does it, right? It just seemed strange... ...anyone else think this?

Hi kevster,yes i did notice something at one stage.
There was a really ratty exchange between a female and a male voice(dont know what part of the launch team either were)
a guage was showing readings just outside normal parameters,the guy said it was fine and had happened before.
she done a roll call of Launch control members as to wether the guy was telling the truth about it happening before,many said yes.
i dont think it was meant for public broadcast.
the real *fun* audio wise from nasa takes place on the private loop they use,not the public one we normally hear were they are ever so nice and diplomatic:D

Beeker

Kevster wrote: »

I stayed up to watch the launch that night but something seemed strange. The guy who was talking through the countfown on NASA TV seemed to be a bit unprepared or something. It's usually a lady who does it, right? It just seemed strange... ...anyone else think this?

The normal "Voice of Launch Control" is a guy called George Diller, he has been doing the countdown now for many years including ther current STS 128. Sometimes other Public Affairs people cove a launch including 2 women {cant recall their names}. The bit you are talking about was from one of the flight directors "loops" During the countdown there are many radio loops in operation between the various controllers and normally you only get to hear what the Public affairs people transmit. It can be very interesting to listen to the background stuff. Try this site and download the "STS 120 Flight Directors Audio of Launch"

You can also download audio from older flights including STS-1 from 1981
http://www.shuttlesource.com/content/?page=audio

Kevster

Hmm, thanks guys. I know that this i off topic but how's everything back home? I'm getting a bit homesick to be honest. Mods, close the thread if ou want!

ynotdu

Beeker thanks for the link but currently i am getting a message this page cannot be displyed from it(hopefully that is only tempory as i would love to listen to the audio)


Kevster,i dont think a mod of a new horizons thread(like spaceflight) would close someone who is feeling homesick at the mo,as you have only been in your new horizon since Thursday,and that is not off topic as it has been studied for a long time now how Astronauts would cope with a mission to mars that they estimate would take three years min to complete.

The Russians have studied it for years also and discovered that simply by painting the inside of their saylut space station a color brighter than grey helped to stop their cosmonauts becoming homesick and depressed.
Ireland has not changed,it is still overcast and peeing down most of the time!:D

back to sts128!:)
some great pictures last night from NASA TV,the final burn by the Orbitor to put it right on track for the iss was caught clearly by iss camera,s,something i had never saw before,it appeared like a ripple as if a stone had been thrown on water!

the Rendevous pitch manouvere(the 360 flip)was a minute earlior than NASA had said,It is only a 90 second exercise but they lost live video for 45 seconds as it left Austrailia and headed towards New Zealand:mad:

The docking was bang on time and had full TV coverage,they were then over the Atlantic Ocean so the Earth was in darkness:(

there was a slight concern after the *soft docking*as the iss and shuttle were swaying relative to each other but was quickly sorted out and the hard docking went ahead.

Beeker

ynotdu wrote: »

Beeker thanks for the link but currently i am getting a message this page cannot be displyed from it(hopefully that is only tempory as i would love to listen to the audio)

Seems to work for me ok. If you want to send me a PM I can e-mail you on the file its 4.33mb.

jumpguy

Kevster wrote: »

Hmm, thanks guys. I know that this i off topic but how's everything back home? I'm getting a bit homesick to be honest. Mods, close the thread if ou want!

Eh, you're not missing much nationally....Kerry are going to win the all-Ireland. Weather is ****e and the recession is still...recessionary.

That's all.

ynotdu

Hi,just areminder that the sts is NOT just about launch and landing but also about what the Astronauts on the shuttle do in between!:D

the sts128 spacewalks were really too boring to watch for long,especially as when the iss and sts are mated and a good overview of whats going on is impossible,be a great view sometime if only there was a third craft to send TV!

this mission has been the first in quite a few that were not a constuction mission for the space station,but instead delivered spare parts,resupplys heavy in nature,and clean underware:)

the 3rd and final spacewalk was not a complete sucess as wir ing for node 3 to be installed next year was in one of the two connections could not be mated.NASA decided to put them in protective covers until they solve the problem.

Really all thats left is the installation of the Tranquility module which will allow the Astronauts on the iss to *get out of each others face on the usual 6 month stay:))it will have so many windows it will allow an Astronaut to go in for some R+R with a 360 degree view of the cosmos(imagine what famous Astronomers from history would have given for that!)

STS 128 has to leg it on tuesday as both the Japanese HTV craft and a Soyuz have to Launch to the iss by end of september:eek:

Nightwish

I had the spacewalk on in the background for about 2 hours yesterday! I love what goes on in the ISS, especially the press conferences with the crews. Yesterday they were showing the STS crew trying to pack stuff to bring back to earth, which obviously has its difficulties in micro-g. It was actually very entertaining!

Ghost Train

Yep, do the same, turn it on every now and then to see whats happening or see the higlights. Always like the press conferences and when they go into all the practical and technical details and problems

ynotdu

Lol Nightwish and Ghostrain,Oh ok may,be i was spoiled by the EXTRA brilliant TV coverage of the last and final Hubble repair mission.

The orbit they had to go into meant they could not dock with the iss even if they had lost an entire wing!!!It was the last *space cowboy*mission by the shuttle and the Video was BRILLIANT and the audio hilarious at times.The Astronauts had to improvise to an extraordary extent!

this is an excuse for me to post the link below for which i cannot take credit(it was posted i think in the AH,s forum and i asked the poster to post it in the Astronomy/Space forum,He/She did,nt and sorry i cannot remember there nickname)

It is literaly out of this world and shows how the shuttle has not just been the only craft that could have built the iss but also without the Heroism of the Astronauts the World would never have got to see what an *uninteresting*part of space turned out to be....................... http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6530/245mq9z.gif

Beeker

Another flight nearly done. Discovery undocks Tuesday at 20:36 and lands back in Florida 00:05 Friday morning.

jumpguy

It must feel sickening leaving the ISS for possibly the last time...

Beeker

Discovery now undocked from the station.