STS-134 Shuttle Mission to the International Space Station Launches Monday 16th @ 13:56 BST

Cosimo · 2 Jun 2011 at 14:01

Domo said:
Anyone else notice the APU vents on either side of the tail fin venting hydrazine (so I've been informed!).
Can be seen in one of Simulatorman's infrared pics.

You couldn't help but notice it as Endeavour stood on the runwasy. The noise and flame, just like a dragon breathing flames.

For those who missed the mission, make a cuppa and watch this:

Cosimo · 2 Jun 2011 at 14:48

Combat squirrel said:
Still no word on the pics of Endeavour + ISS ? They have had the memory cards for ages now, get on with it!! lol

They have gone very quiet. Now where are those deleted images.

Cosimo · 7 Jun 2011 at 20:07

Combat squirrel said:
I think somethings gone wrong with the pics, they should not be taking this long

The first images have been released, these are edited versions:

This image of the International Space Station and the docked Space Shuttle Endeavour, flying at an altitude of approximately 220 miles, was taken by Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on May 23, 2011 (USA time). It is the first-ever image of a space shuttle docked to the International Space Station. Onboard the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev; Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut; and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Coleman and Nespoli were both flight engineers. The three landed in Kazakhstan later that day, completing 159 days in space.

Cosimo · 7 Jun 2011 at 20:10

The rest are here.

Cosimo · 7 Jun 2011 at 20:21

Two more videos.

Imaging experts funded by the Space Shuttle Program and located at NASA's Ames Research Center prepared this video by merging nearly 20,000 photographs taken by a set of six cameras capturing 250 images per second at the STS-134 launch on May 16, 2011. From seven seconds before takeoff to six seconds after, the cameras took simultaneous images at six different exposure settings. The images were processed and combined in this video to balance the brightness of the rocket engine output with the regular daylight levels at which the orbiter can be seen. The processing software digitally removes pure black or pure white pixels from one image and replaces them with the most detailed pixel option from the five other images. This technique can help visualize debris falling during a launch or support research involving intense light sources like rocket engines, plasma experiments and hypersonic vehicle engines.

This is a side-by-side comparison video showing a one-camera view of the launch (left) with the six-camera composited view (right).

The six camera view:

Cosimo · 7 Jun 2011 at 23:17

Combat squirrel said:
Finally !! Awesome shots as expected

Another batch has been published and we still don't have the video. This one is a real cracker (edited):

Cosimo · 8 Jun 2011 at 17:35

A 70MB zip file of the all the images can be download from here.

Cosimo · 8 Jun 2011 at 22:45

And now we also have the video: