I haven't said much about the space program this week because frankly every time I think about it I start to cry. I've been saving up for the actual launch when there's just no help for it. My Twitter feed is keeping me fully informed about what's going on at Kennedy Space Center this morning. About 5 am I got a text message from my friend with a NASA badge saying he was standing outside the launch control center, ready to see what there was to see. I set Spaceflight Now's feed to text notification in case something happened while I was asleep. About 6:30 the messages started coming in so fast there was nothing to do but get up and turn on the live webcast. The talk about the future and past of the space program is really bringing me down, though, so I might just turn it off and follow the actual launch prep on Twitter only. They're aiming to launch at 10:26 am CST for us Texas people, or 11:26 local launch time in the Eastern time zone. The weather is not good and they probably won't go.
Spaceflight Now has the best status updates and Livestream video.
There's also
Ustream of NASA TV if the other doesn't work.
Here are my favorites to follow in order of good information:
@SpaceflightNow
@STS_135
@NASA
@TreyRatcliff (taking photos at NASA Tweetup)
@Cmdr_Hadfield (Putting up frequent photos)
@SethGreen (mostly retweeting today)
@NeilTyson (In a foul mood today. Just called weather predictors ignorant.)
@Astroengine
And a photo retrospective of the shuttle program from
The Atlantic. I didn't get past the photo of the Star Trek guys. As much as I wanted to just laugh at Scottie's shirt it was really a cry.
I watched the first orbiter launch (Columbia) with wide-eyed wonder as a much younger man. This morning, 30 years later, I watched with tears in my eyes as this particular era of exploration ended. I'm as sad now as I was when Apollo ended.
ReplyDeleteI hope we have something to look forward to that can fill us with the same enthusiasm, curiosity, and sense of accomplishment that those other programs did.