STS-130 Shuttle Mission to the International Space Station Launches Sunday 09:39 GMT

Berserker said:
Just heard that STS-131 launch is likely to be delayed into April. Gutted doesn't even come close to summing things up. The problem - the snow that affected Washington DC. There's no snow in Florida - it's just too cold. Don't want another Challenger though so I understand. :(

Holiday is paid for and non-cancellable obviously. I left it as late as I could so there's nothing I can do. I don't think I can afford another trip to Florida before September, so I'm done. :(

PS - on the bright side, I will of course still enjoy the holiday - and still go to Kennedy. Likely to be my last trip to Florida so I'll certainly make the most of it - shuttle or not. :)
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I feel your pain :(

On my first live launch, I timed the holiday so the shuttle would lift off on my first week there, but various delays meant that it took off the day after I arrived back in the UK. :(

But I have been lucky enough to see three live launches since, including one night one which was spectacular!

I hope to get back to Florida for Atlantis's final launch to say goodbye to my favourite orbiter. :)
 
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Flight Day 13:

• Endeavour undocking from ISS and flyaround

• Final separation from the ISS

• OBSS late inspection of Endeavour’s thermal heat shield

• OBSS berth


The crew of Endeavour were woken at 20:15 GMT to the song “In Wonder” by Newsboys.

Preparations are underway for undocking at 00:54 GMT.
 
simulatorman said:
The slide is correct, it shows the current and pending elements of the ISS as of that date. If you had looked carefully you would have seen that these are “Elements pending US Shuttle launch”. :p:)
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I'm colour blind, so don't sue me. :p

And if I understood a recent briefing correctly it's still wrong :p. I believe STS-133 will be leaving their MPLM behind for some long-term extra storage space. I did wonder if NASA would do that as there's docking ports going spare and no other long-term use for the three existing MPLMs.
 
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Sounds like KSC weather is still shot to hell. They'll be lucky to get Endeavour down there, let alone get Discovery over to the VAB for the next one. California is looking none too friendly either, though better than KSC.
 
Berserker said:
Sounds like KSC weather is still shot to hell. They'll be lucky to get Endeavour down there, let alone get Discovery over to the VAB for the next one. California is looking none too friendly either, though better than KSC.
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Let’s hope it doesn’t go on for days.

On the 22nd the first landing attempt(s) will be:

Orbit – Location – Time (GMT)

217 ---- KSC ---- 03:16
218 ---- KSC ---- 04:51
219 ---- EDW ---- 06:20
220 ---- EDW ---- 07:55

The next opportunity will be on orbit 233.
 
A last look at Tranquility and the cupola:


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Flight Day 14:

• Cabin stowage

• Flight Control System checkout

• Reaction Control System hot-fire test

• Deorbit Preparation Briefing

• Ku-band antenna stowage


The crew of Endeavour were woken at 20:15 GMT to the song “The Distance” by Cake.
 
On the way home:

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Weather continues to be problematic for the landing. The landing times have been slightly adjusted so on the 22nd the first landing attempt(s) will now be:

Orbit – Location – Time (GMT)

217 ---- KSC ---- 03:20
218 ---- KSC ---- 04:55
219 ---- EDW ---- 06:25
220 ---- EDW ---- 08:00

The next opportunity will be on orbit 233.

Something a little different, Endeavour’s Landing Ground Tracks
 
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Flight Day 15:

• Deorbit preparations

• Payload Bay Door closing

• Deorbit burn

• KSC Landing


The crew of Endeavour were woken at 19:14 GMT to “The Marines' Hymn".

The weather forecast for the Kennedy Space Centre and Edwards Air Force Base continues to be bad and both landing sites will most probably be “no-go" for landing unless there is a dramatic change in the weather.
?
 
Usually scheduled landing day + two additional days (three with careful power management). KSC is the primary landing site, followed by Edwards AFB and White Sands. They've never had to go beyond those three, but there are plenty of other places a shuttle could land if they needed to.
 
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Are the trans atlantic abort sites suitable for re-entry landings? I imagine they must be? If the weather looks like it is bad for a long time would they consider landing them at moron (< edit) or zaragosa etc.?
 
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