Video: Shuttle Launch Triple Play As Endeavour Makes Final Flight
Monday, May 16, 2011 at 12:14PM The bittersweet days of the Space Shuttle program resurfaced in a big way this morning as Endeavour lifted off on her final mission. For mission details, check out the NASA STS-134 overview page, and you might also like this NASA Endeavour tribute image gallery. Today's launch leaves just one more to go: STS-135 with Shuttle Atlantis.
I've also included two other launch videos from the past that are well worth seeing. The first one below is from April 12 1981 - the very first Shuttle launch ever with the orbiter Columbia. It's interesting to me how similar this first launch and the one this morning are. In the broadest sense, it appears little has changed in the launch process.
STS-1 is also interesting to me in that it carried only 2 crew members: John Young as commander and Robert Crippen as pilot. John Young has always been special to me - when I was 11 years old, I watched the Apollo 16 launch on April 16, 1972 with my dad from as close as we could get to the launch pad. I'll never forget the names of the 3-man crew... Young, Mattingly and Duke. John Young was the commander of Apollo 16 and the 9th man to walk on the moon. I also just located the 8mm movie my dad shot that day. If it turns out to have anything interesting on it, I'll post it to youtube.
STS-1 launch on April 12, 1981 with Columbia
And the last video below is from December 9, 2006 as Discovery launched at night. It's in HD, and while you don't see as much in a night launch, the view of the rocket on top of the massive fireball as it approaches and then passes thru the cloud layer is truly spectacular.
STS-116 night launch on December 9, 2006 with Discovery
For the mission currently underway, I say Godspeed to Endeavour and crew... as we also begin to look toward the final Shuttle mission ever, STS-135 scheduled for July 2011.
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Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for posting that so quick. Hadn't gotten a chance to see the video yet. It was amazing seeing it in person though! Too bad the clouds were so low.
John- I'm really glad you got to see it for real!
I was able to see it from the NASA Causeway, and although the low ceiling made it a short show (you can see in the video how the shuttle entered the clouds just 30 seconds after launch) they gave us an incredible sound experience. The sound bounced off the cloud layer on top, and that eco made an awesome show by itself, even if we didn't get a chance to see the shuttle for a long time.
I am trying to find Commander Kelly's "thank you" speech when they were given the Go for Launch at T minus 9. It really gave me the chills. It was a great speech and unfortunately, the launch blog only published the last sentence "We want to thank all the tens of tousands of employees who have put their hands on this incredible ship".
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/launch_blog.html
Great post again Matt.
Victor.
I meant T-9 "minutes" lol :-)
Regards,
Victor.
Oh, if you find that I would to get a hold of it too. Those last 9 minutes were pretty emotional.