Endeavour's final mission and a look back! A read you must!

I had the awesome opportunity to be AT the launch of Endeavour today. I live on the Space Coast and the KSC is my view from my balcony, mostly the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). However today I was front and center. The VAB was behind me and Endeavour was infront of me. I got to share it with a good friend of mine who was the one who actually got the passes. I was at the previous launch that was scrubbed but living in Florida my whole life you learn fast that it can be scrubbed at any minute. I made a little video commentary and the launch video we took today. Hope you enjoy! I had a BLAST!

Its best viewed in 480p

Edit

Endeavours first mission was not to service the Hubble, I got incorrect information via online. I apologize for the misinformation. I have stated below what Endeavours first mission was for.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

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This is a picture from today's launch at the Kennedy Space Center courtesy of NASA/KSC
Space Shuttle Endeavour took off today, May 16, 2011 for her final space flight where she will meet up with the ISS on Wednesday.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour was commissioned by congress in 1987 to replace the Challenger which was lost in the STS-51-L launch accident in 1986, 73 seconds after take off. The decision to build Endeavour was favored over refitting Enterprise, which was never used in a space shuttle mission. It is currently at the Smithsonian. Structural spares from Discovery and Atlantis were used in the assembly of Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour was delivered by Rockwell International Space Transportation Systems Division in May 1991 and first launched a year later, in May 1992, on STS-49.

STS-49

Video of the first launch of Endeavour

Endeavour Construction Milestones

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Construction Milestones

February 15, 1982 Start structural assembly of Crew Module
July 31, 1987 Contract Award
September 28, 1987 Start structural assembly of aft-fuselage
December 22, 1987 Wings arrive at Palmdale, Calif. from Grumman
August 1, 1987 Start of Final Assembly
July 6, 1990 Completed final assembly
April 25, 1991 Rollout from Palmdale
May 7, 1991 Delivery to Kennedy Space Center
April 6, 1992 Flight Readiness Firing
May 7, 1992 First Flight (STS-49)

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Two of the more extensive modifications included the addition of the multi-functional electronic display system (glass cockpit), and the three-string global positioning system.

The glass cockpit is a new, full-color, flat-panel display system that improves interaction between the crew and orbiter. It provides easy-to-read graphics portraying key flight indicators like attitude display and mach speed. Endeavour was the last vehicle in the fleet to receive this system.

Endeavour had over 100 modifications during her Orbiter Major Modification period (OMDP) which began in December 2003. Click here to see the list of modifications done to Endeavour. Endeavour modifications

Endeavour History and Highlights

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Among Endeavour’s missions was the first to include four spacewalks, and then the first to include five. Its STS-67 mission set a length record almost two full days longer than any shuttle mission before it. Its airlock is the only one to have seen three spacewalkers exit through it for a single spacewalk. And in its cargo bay, the first two pieces of the International Space Station were joined together.

* Endeavour's name, where did it come from?
Endeavour was named after the HMS Endeavour, which was the ship that took Captain James Cook on his maiden voyage of discovery. This is also why it has the British spelling of endeavour. In 2007 NASA got some flack for misspelling the name on the launch pad , even NASA makes spelling errors Endeavour's name also honors the command module of
Apollo 15

Little more information on how she got her name.

Endeavour was named through a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools. Entries included an essay about the name, the story behind it and why it was appropriate for a NASA shuttle, and the project that supported the name. Endeavour was the most popular entry, accounting for almost one-third of the state-level winners. The national winners were Senatobia Middle School in Senatobia, Mississippi, in the elementary division and Tallulah Falls School in Tallulah Falls, Georgia, in the upper school division.

I wouldn't be surprised if the school I was in at the time entered a name into this contest. Since I lived so close to the space center we did a lot of things space involved. Wonder if that is how I came to love it so much! I do remember being in 2nd grade when my tomato plant went to space and came back. We had to see how they would grow after being in space. I even made the paper measuring my plant, which btw my grandparents had for years in their garden. Space had no effect on my tomatoes!

*In 1993 it made it's first mission to the Hubble Telescope (I apologize in the video I said it was her first mission, darn original site I got that from said that so I am correcting it here!) It was a service mission for STS-61. It was the 5th flight for Endeavour and launched from the KSC on December 2, 1993. If you remember my last thread, Shuttle Discovery A Look Back (total thread plug!) you will know that Discovery was responsible for getting the wonderful and glorious Hubble Space Telescope into space. I am a huge fan of that telescope

*The STS-118 mission, the first for Endeavour following a lengthy refit (see above), included astronaut Barbara Morgan, formerly assigned to the Educator Astronaut program, but now a full member of the Astronaut Corps, as part of the crew.

NASA press releases and media briefing documents stated that STS-118 was the first flight of an Mission Specialist Educator due to the presence of Barbara Morgan. The Educator Astronaut Project is the successor to NASA's Teacher in Space Project, which ended with the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.[6] Also, the official STS-118 mission patch included a flame of knowledge that represented the importance of education, and honored teachers and students everywhere. The tip of the flames touched Morgan's name on the patch.[7] However, NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin clarified at a post-mission press conference that Barbara Morgan was not considered a Mission Specialist Educator, but rather a standard Mission Specialist, who had once been a teacher.[8]

I hope you enjoyed my little thread on Endeavour. I hope all the astronauts return home safe and sound. It was the coolest thing being that close. I watch it from my balcony usually and I am always outside watching the skies esp shuttles and rockets. One day when I am done with school I plan on working for NASA. I hope to work on future missions to space be it the moon or Mars!

Great post and nice video! S+F!!

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Very well detailed thread you have here Mblah. Space travel is just the beginning for mankind and hopefully someday in the future it becomes a true reality. $&F

Your best thread to date, and the best thread on ATS at the moment!
You are too brilliant for filming that for us! Thanks Miss A!

Originally posted by Stop-loss!
reply to post by mblahnikluver

 

Very well detailed thread you have here Mblah. Space travel is just the beginning for mankind and hopefully someday in the future it becomes a true reality. $&F

edit on 16-5-2011 by Stop-loss! because: (no reason given)

Thank you SL, V and Zazz

Yup I hope to be apart of space flight in the near future too. I really want to work on the future Mars programs esp with my slight obsession of Mars

I am really all for privatization of it as well. I think it will help and they have the money!

I regret not going .

I didn't know that date they changed it too, so I didn't even get to see it from my house.



Cool beans anyways!

Star and Flag for such a great thread mblah!

It's pretty late here and I'm just about to sign off as well so I just skimmed through it so far, but you did a great job from what I did read and I'm really looking forward to going through this in a lot more detail tomorrow morning. Great job yet again.

Originally posted by Rising Against
Star and Flag for such a great thread mblah!

It's pretty late here and I'm just about to sign off as well so I just skimmed through it so far, but you did a great job from what I did read and I'm really looking forward to going through this in a lot more detail tomorrow morning.

Great job yet again.

Thanks RA and from you that means alot since you make some AWESOME threads yourself..and yeah my OCD and perfection was in full force lol I had to take some breaks hehe..You know how that is!

Originally posted by prolific
I regret not going

.

I didn't know that date they changed it too, so I didn't even get to see it from my house.

Cool beans anyways!

edit on 16-5-2011 by prolific because: (no reason given)

Awe Pro you should have asked I could have told you. I know I mentioned it in chat while you were there.



You have one left to view. You should come beach side to see it! There are plenty of great viewing places near the KSC to watch.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver

Originally posted by prolific
I regret not going

.

I didn't know that date they changed it too, so I didn't even get to see it from my house.

Cool beans anyways!

edit on 16-5-2011 by prolific because: (no reason given)

Awe Pro you should have asked I could have told you. I know I mentioned it in chat while you were there.

You have one left to view. You should come beach side to see it! There are plenty of great viewing places near the KSC to watch.

I'll probably watch the next one then . When would the be anyways?
2nd

reply to post by mblahnikluver


That was great! Thanks for sharing.

You witnessed a historical event. S&F

It was high pressure from Ronald Reagan white house officials on Nasa to go forward with Challenger launch so he could include it in the State of the Union speech the following day.
Nasa did not want to launch.
All from someone in the know and present at the WH.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Thank You, M'blah!

You made my day! Because, somehow I completely missed the launch schedule, and was bummed to wake up this AM (PDT) and find I'd already missed it...

reply to post by prolific


It's sometime in July but that could change lol

Atlantis will be the last one

Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by mblahnikluver

 

Thank You, M'blah!

You made my day! Because, somehow I completely missed the launch schedule, and was bummed to wake up this AM (PDT) and find I'd already missed it...

Awe you are welcome

Yup I was pretty close. It was cool though, really cool. I have never seen it that close before. I mean I have always had a great view living here but being that close (closer in person) was just awesome! I hope to be at the last launch as well, which will require an Atlantis thread

Originally posted by Granite
It was high pressure from Ronald Reagan white house officials on Nasa to go forward with Challenger launch so he could include it in the State of the Union speech the following day.
Nasa did not want to launch.
All from someone in the know and present at the WH.

Do you have a source for this or further reading?

Hey Mblah!

Great thread! You taught me much I didn't know about Endeavour. That footage you shot is brilliant. I can't believe how quickly the shuttle goes through the clouds. The g-forces must be ridiculous on the crew. They'd need a can of air freshener handy if I was in the cockpit!

Pheeeeeeeeeeeew!

IRM

reply to post by InfaRedMan

The g-forces must be ridiculous on the crew....

Somewhere around 3, IIRC...but not until "Max Q".

Here, there are several internal cockpit views (I like some, better than others) ... this not from the latest, of course...a compilation from a while back (soundtrack not synced, it's generic):



("Max Q" is the point of highest dynamic pressure, in the atmosphere....after passing that point, is the "Throttle Up" maneuver....KSC relays "Go with throttle up" as you will hear....at appropriate time. Of course, the pilots know as well, they have all the same instrumentation to look at....).



And, for those interested in the boring technical details, and math (with a chart graph):

From Aerospace Web.org

Originally posted by InfaRedMan
Hey Mblah!

Great thread! You taught me much I didn't know about Endeavour. That footage you shot is brilliant. I can't believe how quickly the shuttle goes through the clouds. The g-forces must be ridiculous on the crew. They'd need a can of air freshener handy if I was in the cockpit!

Pheeeeeeeeeeeew!

IRM

LOL Thanks IRM

Yeah it moves really fast and it's funny because from my balcony it doesn't seem like it's going that fast lol

I would LOVE a ride in the shuttle, heck I'll settle for a nice fighter jet this one would be juuuust fine
F-35

Wow, the footage is amazing, seriously mind boggling stuff.
Thread of the day...nah, Thread of the week! well done.