Space Shuttle Atlantis Launches On Final Flight

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 8, 2011 @03:29AM from the beginning-of-the-end dept.

Space Shuttle Atlantis has just launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. STS-135 marks the final flight for the shuttle program, 30 years after Columbia touched the sky during STS-1. The mission summary (PDF) outlines STS-135's crew and event timeline. NASA's launch blog has been following the countdown all morning, and our own CmdrTaco has been tweeting live from on-site. NASA TV is also being streamed live. Meteorological reports for the launch looked doubtful at first, but a gap in the bad weather at just the right time allowed everything to proceed as planned. Atlantis successfully reached its preliminary orbit in what a NASA official called a "flawless" launch.

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Re:What happened at T-0:31? by kalpol · 2011-07-08 03:49 · Score: 3, Informative

Noticed there was a long delay, but I have no speakers at work, so couldn't hear an explanation.
TIA.
Sounded like they said the sensor noting retraction of the cone dome thing wasn't working so they had to verify visually (that was the camera 62 shot).

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12:50 - press return.