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CmdrTaco at Kennedy Space Center
Matthew Travis from the
Ares Institute Inc helped me get a press pass for the STS-135 Launch. so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for no scrub. I'm tweeting as @cmdrtaco from the launch if you are into that sort of thing. I'll have more later, but for now you'll have to make do with a photo I took, as well as a brief video clip I took of Atlantis on the pad at night.
It's betting scrubbed.
Only a 30% chance of acceptable launch weather tomorrow.
I envy you, I've unfortunately never been within 1,000 miles of the cape for a launch. This Christmas break there's a chance I'll be in Florida for a planned Delta I V Heavy launch, if so I'll definitely be taking the family.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
July 2031 - CmdrTaco visits a sweat lodge in Idaho, drinks some mysterious peyote-based beverage, strips down to his undies, climbs a tree and proceeds to live-tweet his 23-hour psychedelic trip.
At least he provided a picture this time.
But your Twitter picture is pretty awful. Unless you're going for the 50-years-old-and-not-well-kept look.
Hell that picture looks almost as bad as the code that is running this joint now.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I was there, for the STS-132 Tweetup, and it is absolutely incredible.
Nearly 2700 press were badged for this launch; the record was 2707 for STS-1, and they might find they've beaten it when all is said and done.
Shame the press paid no attention to the 100 or so in the middle; perhaps the public would have raised more fuss with its legislators about NASA's miserable budget.
Since when is Slashdot "Press" ?
Looking forward to live twitpics Cmdr! :) Saw third to last launch in person, it was spectacular. Wish I could make this last one. Fingers crossed for no scrub!
o_O
This put a smile on my face... I wanted to go but never got the time + money to do it. CmdrTaco being there and posting updates about it will have to do. Now, we all have a pair of eyes on the ground, our Nerd in Cape Canaveral.
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
Launch is being scrubbed Malda, hope you enjoy tweeting about the weather for the next few days.
Also, you might want to take a picture from say, 20 years ago and replace it with that ugly bastard of a face you're showing on twitter these days. You look like a school janitor that's been forced into "retirement" after banging one too many kids in the boiler room.
Just for you, Lt. Burrito:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyfLER3Z0-Q
(mod me down if you must. that's funny.)
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Come on, even I have more followers than him!
Congrats, dude. My best friend was at the launch last year. I hear it's damn cool.
First no Concorde, now no Shuttle. Can't help but feel civilisation is slipping a little.
Jeremy Lee | Orinoco
That's like saying no offense, but you're ugly and I can smell you from here.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I may have seen you. We're here as well. We were in a 3-bus procession... as we passed another bus parked in the "observation grass" (among the mosquitos)... saw a younger dude in a suit snappin photos and about 10 others.
This is my third attempt to see one take off. If it scrubs tomorrow, it'll likely be Sunday before the next attempt.
DO listen to Rush's Signals the hour before the launch.
DON'T run up and down the causeway yelling "LITE 'ER UP!"
Where does this "cmdrtaco" guy get off posting this type of story? You'd think this site was his personal blog or something.
If you possibly can, GO. I saw one launch - STS-133. I got the VIP site, but even if you watch it from Titusville it's nothing you'll ever forget.
And to those of you at the Cape: good luck.
A fucktard who doesn't whisper a word unless it's about some comic book shit or some CGI film gets a press pass to a launch? What is this? A fucking joke is what it is.
Real science and technology is dead on Slashdot and CmdrDildo is part of the reason why.
Cmdrtaco. A prime example of irrelevance.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Lost in Space: Doctor Zachary Smith, an agent for an enemy government, is sent to sabotage the mission. He is successful in reprogramming the ship's robot, but in the process becomes trapped on the ship, and because of his excess weight, the ship and all on board become hopelessly lost and it now becomes a fight for survival as the crew tries to find their way back home.
Hey, there will be plenty of pictures from other folk during the launch. Let them take the picture during the launch. I wish I were there. I would stand there and take it all in.
Why is there a stream of water on the right side tank in the video?
That is a great picture. How about adding a link to the original image?
C'mon, make more of them.
If you're going to be in the press observation bunker bring a coat. Before the launch they chill that room to something like 55F. Almost immediately after launch the temp jumps into the 90's from the energy released by the rocket.
What kind of wacky adventure will CmdrTaco have next? Tune in next week to find out!
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
users of NetBSD schemes. Frankly impaired its are inherently as Little overhead it will be 4mong GAY NIGGERS from propaganda and world's Gay Nigger unpleasant
I worked on the shuttle program at JSC for 7 years and visited KSC last month after a cruise vacation. Unfortunately, I've never seen a launch live and never will.
I left JSC in the mid-90s, but tried to keep my excitement for the space program. I vividly recall getting up to watch the landing of Columbia live. See, I wrote some flight software code that makes the landings much smoother and deals with the nosewheel steering, along with lots of code that we never saw executed during any mission (thankfully!). 2 and 3 engine out stuff. Later, I worked writing software used in all the mission control centers around the world, but mainly at JSC. That job made me feel connected to the crews in a way that developing software in a building across the street from JSC never did. Working "on-site" daily, walking into Building-30 and 30S, was exciting. Running into John Young, Mike Coates or other famous people was an almost daily occurrence. Actually, Mike was my boss for a few years (3 levels above) and heard a few of us arguing about which cycle some bit needed to be flipped to "meet requirements" one day. Doing it right was more costly ... I had to change 3 more "modules" to flip that single bit on the "first pass of OPS2" and any software change was expensive. Think "multi-threaded" programs, but in real-time software. Whether that bit was flipped then or half a second later after the computers were non-responsive for 45 seconds when going into On-Orbit OPS seriously did not matter. Still, the requirements won over being efficient (where it didn't matter at all) - I think this was 1 issue with the entire shuttle program. Changes were pretty costly.
Anyway, the morning that Columbia broke up in 2003, was very traumatic for me. I'd sat in the FCR and worked with the flight controllers years ago and was disconnected by 4 states and 3 private sector jobs. Those first 10 minutes when the shuttle didn't show up on TV after re-entry and there simply wasn't any data ... well, I knew it had broken up and everyone on-board was dead. The first indication of issues were temperatures in the landing gear - I'd written code around the landing gear sensors. There were probably 1,000s of people who did something related to the landing gear.
Anyway, last month as I stood on KSC doing a normal tour that anyone can, I took photos of Atlantis on the pad and saw much of the tourist parts with some family before they had to head off to the airport for flights to different parts of the country. I stayed another 4 hours at the visitor center alone and did everything I could there. I was a little disappointed that it was sorta like a theme park now, it had lost the grimy NASA feeling that I recall walking around behind the scenes at JSC in the different laboratories. Engineers don't usually spend much time on aesthetics. Knowing the shuttle program was ending AND didn't have a follow on project saddened me almost as much as when my father died. As I drove off Merritt Island into the sunset, I actually cried, just a little.
The manned space flight program elevates all humans, just a little. You don't get that from robots. Sure, it costs lots of money, but not nearly as much as not doing it does. The engineer in me says robotics is much cheaper for space exploration. The human in me says without men/women involved, it is just a cartoon, not real.
Mankind **needs** a manned space flight program. I'd hope the USA did it, but other countries have the smarts to accomplish it too. They also have a different culture of risk and a willingness to fail in order to succeed that is lacking in the USA today.
Goodbye shuttle program. I'll be watching Atlantis closely, until she is safely stopped at the end of the runway for the last time.
I'm just leaving myself to head out to Titusville for the launch. Looking forward to capturing as many pics and videos as I can of the events. Got my handy talky all charged to listen to the rebroadcast on 2 meter.
How do we know you are really there? With tech you could easily fake pictures. They could be from anyone.
Soooo... Take a pic of you standing in front of the countdown clock with today's newspaper.
Just Joking. Have fun CmdrTaco. I'm rather jealous of you, especially as it is the last one.
I only got close to flying down there once with a friend. But I'm glad it didn't work out, because it was a cold January day and we lost 7 people that day.
That's how you do it.
People want to believe KSC is on Cape Canaveral...don't believe 'em. Take SR3 North and you'll run right to the 39A & B.
Grew up on Merritt Island...everyone was involved in KSC in some way. Went to Merritt Island High, eventually worked at KSC for a while (left in '97').
I'm flying into Orlando tonight....so if it's not scrubbed, I won't see this launch. This program shutdown is going to hit MI hard. It'll come back, just like it did after Apollo ended...but things are going to get tight over there for a while.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - the space shuttle transportation system was found dead in its Florida home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss it - even if you didn't enjoy its work, there's no denying its contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Condolences to all you Americans who voted for Obama. And now the Space Program is dead - gone to fund the homeless in Chicago and other Obama voting areas. And now it is $65 million a pop to hitch a ride with the Ruskies.
Comrades, I can say on behalf of me and my friends we are glad we are not American as the US spirals out of economic control. Elections have consequences. Na Zdorovie. We are thinking of popping over to US and buying some houses for our holidays.