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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White Room by Moby+Cock · 2011-07-08 03:55 · Score: 0, Troll

It irked me immensely that the white room crew held up a 'God Bless America' sign. Is there not corner of civilization where we can escape the idiotic God-bothering horseshit of "mainstream America".
Seriously -- its a space craft! And as Gagarin said "I don't see any God up here."* Can we please just give that sentimental nonsense a miss and focus on the science and engineering?
*Yeah, I know, he never said it, but it fits well.