Atlantis crew receives wake-up call

Atlantis crew receives wake-up call, scheduled to touch down at 5:56 am ET. Watch final space shuttle mission here: http://bit.ly/mTH1SQ

I never saw a shuttle launch, but was delighted to see the Shuttle land here in Tulsa on the back of a 747 when the program first started.
It flew right over my head a couple of hundred feet up with the small chaser jets right beside it.
Tulsa Rockwell built the huge cargo bay doors.
They parked it near the street so that you could drive by and see it up close (behind a fence of course).

Edited by Rogerdodger, 20 July 2011 - 11:55 PM.

The Tulsa Air and Space Museum (TASM) has been awarded a space shuttle bay door strong back for permanent display. The strong backs were built for NASA by Rockwell in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are designed to open and close the bays doors and keep them rigid while the space shuttles are on the ground. They have been in service at the Kennedy Space Center for 30 years and will retire with the space shuttle program.
The museum is waiting to hear from NASA about a date to pick up the strong back. It is likely to be sometime after the last shuttle flight in 2011. In the mean time, the Tulsa Air and Space Museum is continuing to request shuttle artifacts from NASA as they become available.

http://www.ktul.com/...ttype=printable

I saw some of their new things flying today, weird propulsion and motion. There's your 14T

I moved to Florida in Nov 09, and tried to catch the last night launch in Feb 10. It was like a 4:43am launch, it was cold cold cold that night...there were people from all over the country there. They cancelled the launch at 4:35am (or thereabouts) due to low cloud cover. It was an absolute zoo trying to get out of that area. Took me 2 1/2hrs to finally get to the main hi-way to start heading back home. I tried another launch earlier this year. All reports were it was a go. I hop on the bike, make the trek over to a different viewing spot...there's not a soul around and I think cool. Will be a breeze to get out of here this time. An hour later I find out that that launch had been cancelled due to a leaky hydraulic valve. I tried...Mama knows I tried LOL. I was waffling on this last launch but visions of my first attempt and the zoo of a parking lot, kept me home. As soon as I saw that beast lift-off for this last trip, I was saying to myself...you big dummy! Ya shoulda gone. If you ever get a chance, there is a PBS special that runs that talks about this shuttle program. Great viewing.

I have lived in Floriday since 1982 in the Tampa Bay area, Seminole, Treasure Island, Bradenton and now Sarasota. Saw many a liftoff of the shuttles. Even Challenger when it exploded I was driving east in Seminole that day and saw it happen. I was invited once by a friend. His daughter was dating a a young guy working for NASA and we got inside the restricted areas where most can't go. That flight was cancelled and I never got to see one go un in person close. Saw many from the Bay Area. The night ones are spectacular, even from across the coast. Another thing I did was visit the Space Center on Merritt Island. That was great too, and we got the tour of the Assembly Building. MAMMOTH! I highly reccomend visiting the complex. Very interesting!

[img]http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Z0n8TF3PJaGC0l3ZTfKUfQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNDE7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-07-21T185747Z_01_WAS451_RTRIDSP_3_SPACE-SHUTTLE.jpg[/img]

This unprecedented view of the space shuttle Atlantis, appearing like a bean sprout against clouds and city lights shows the shuttle on its way home as photographed by the Expedition 28 crew of the International Space Station through a window of the station in this July 21, 2011 NASA handout photo. Airglow over Earth can be seen in the background. The Atlantis and its four-member crew returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday after a mission to resupply the International Space Station, ending a 12-year program to build and service the orbital research outpost.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 21 July 2011 - 10:52 PM.