16 Nov Good Morning Houston, "We're having a baby, seriously! Shuttle Atlantis launches without a hitch. Simply AWESOME!
Cape Canaveral – Good Morning Houston, we’re having a baby, seriously! Many men speak urban legends of how they missed, or almost missed their baby’s birth. Astronaut Randy Bresnik and his wife, Rebecca, expect the birth of their daughter, while Randy is in orbit around the Earth!
Randy and the crew will also miss Thanksgiving at home, but Randy has the best excuse as the Space Shuttle Atlantis, aka, STS-129, launched this afternoon, in a spectacular, breath-taking, and near perfect launch from Launch Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral. WTN was on the scene reporting, tweeting and photographing this launch. (See Twitter handle: wtnmike)
Photo by Mike Klein, WTN News
Here is how the spectacular countdown unfolded between the NASA Launch Director , Commentator and the Astronauts that will have you on the edge of your seat.
“George Diller/STS-129 Launch Commentator: T-10… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… zero… and liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis, on a mission to build, re-supply and to do research on the International Space Station.
Rob Navias/Ascent Commentator: Houston now controlling. Atlantis begins its penultimate journey to shore up the International Space Station. Atlantis now in the proper alignment for its 8 1/2-minute ride to orbit. Four-and-a-half million pounds of hardware and humans taking aim on the international outpost. Thirty seconds into the flight. Atlantis almost 2 miles in altitude, almost 6 miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center, already traveling 500 miles an hour. The three liquid fuel main engines now throttling back to 72 percent of rated performance, going into the bucket, reducing the stress on the shuttle as it breaks through the sound barrier. Fifty-five seconds into the flight, all systems operating normally. Nine-hundred miles an hour, the speed of Atlantis right now, 6 miles in altitude, 9 miles downrange.
Chris Ferguson/CAPCOM: Atlantis, go at throttle up.
Photo by Mike Klein, WTN News
Charlie Hobaugh/STS-129 Commander: Copy. Go at throttle up.
Rob Navias/Ascent Commentator: The throttle-up call acknowledged by Commander Charlie Hobaugh, joined on the flight deck by Pilot Butch Wilmore, Flight Engineer Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Seated down on the middeck are Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher, kicking off their workweek with a Monday commute to orbit. One minute, 30 seconds into the flight, Atlantis 13 miles in altitude, 15 miles downrange, traveling almost 2,000 miles an hour. Three good auxiliary power units, three good fuel cells, three good main engines. One minute, 50 seconds into the flight, 10 seconds away from solid rocket booster separation. Booster officer confirms staging, a good solid rocket booster separation. Guidance now converging, Atlantis steering into the center lane of highway 129, en route to the International Space Station.
Rob Navias/Ascent Commentator: Houston now controlling. Atlantis begins its penultimate journey to shore up the International Space Station. Atlantis now in the proper alignment for its 8 1/2-minute ride to orbit. Four-and-a-half million pounds of hardware and humans taking aim on the international outpost. Thirty seconds into the flight. Atlantis almost 2 miles in altitude, almost 6 miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center, already traveling 500 miles an hour. The three liquid fuel main engines now throttling back to 72 percent of rated performance, going into the bucket, reducing the stress on the shuttle as it breaks through the sound barrier. Fifty-five seconds into the flight, all systems operating normally. Nine-hundred miles an hour, the speed of Atlantis right now, 6 miles in altitude, 9 miles downrange.”
Photo by Mike Klein, WTN News
Chris Ferguson/CAPCOM: Atlantis, go at throttle up.
Charlie Hobaugh/STS-129 Commander: Copy. Go at throttle up.
Rob Navias/Ascent Commentator: The throttle-up call acknowledged by Commander Charlie Hobaugh, joined on the flight deck by Pilot Butch Wilmore, Flight Engineer Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Seated down on the middeck are Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher, kicking off their workweek with a Monday commute to orbit. One minute, 30 seconds into the flight, Atlantis 13 miles in altitude, 15 miles downrange, traveling almost 2,000 miles an hour. Three good auxiliary power units, three good fuel cells, three good main engines. One minute, 50 seconds into the flight, 10 seconds away from solid rocket booster separation. Booster officer confirms staging, a good solid rocket booster separation. Guidance now converging, Atlantis steering into the center lane of highway 129, en route to the International Space Station.
Photo by Mike Klein,WTN News
“What a great way to start this mission,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations. “I can’t say enough about the teams that got this vehicle ready to fly.”
Gerstenmaier congratulated the teams and the work they accomplished preparing the payload and vehicle for this complex and ambitious mission. “We still have a tough mission in front of us … but it (the shuttle) looked really, really good,” Gerstenmaier continued.
Mike Moses, mission management team chairman, remarked that the launch ended up being picture-perfect after a low-layer of clouds settled over the center for the first few hours of the countdown. “As a management team we had no issues of any note to talk about,” Moses said. “It (the countdown) was nice and quiet and smooth.”
“We had a great countdown today,” said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. He said Atlantis broke the record for the lowest problems reported, previously held by space shuttle Discovery. “It’s due to the team and the hardware processing. They just did a great job.”
The record will probably never be broken again in the history of the Space Shuttle Program, so congratulations to them,” Leinbach continued.
Leinbach also honored the midbody team with an award for the processing of Atlantis’ payload bay, which included the turnaround “down-processing” after the return of Atlantis from the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. He said they did an outstanding job and they deserved their award today.