For those of you interested in Space Launches an excellent source is spaceflightnow.com. They have a Mission Status Center (MSC) where they follow the launch countdown for Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg and Sea Launch launches at a minimum. They also follow some of the Kourou and joint venture sites in Russia. The material they have access to is remarkable as sometimes I use them to find out what?s going on during a launch I am on console for. Spaceflight has already established the MSC for the Shuttle Launch. For ELV/EELV (Expendable Launch Vehicle/Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) launches the MSC is generally established about 12 hours before a scheduled launch. You can also find good source of launch schedules there.

Spaceflight reporters generally are given access by what to me is a customer. That is the launch vendor, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA, etc. I work the Air Force Eastern Range side of things, which has most (not all in the case of Shuttle) of the Range Safety tracking resources. These include radars, telemetry and optics, plus the command destruct systems to terminate flight, if necessary. If one was to look at some defining territorial feature dividing NASA and the Air Force functions it would be the Banana River that divides Cape Canaveral into Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) to the East and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to the west of the river.

I participated in the Air Force Launch Readiness Review (LRR) which is an input to the NASA referred to in the 2132 GMT (5:32 p.m. EDT) discussion on Spaceflight. We are ready!!

Shuttle schedules here: http://sspweb.jsc.nasa.gov/ntdata/ssp/webd...me/sspindex.htm

Military here but usually not up to date: http://www.sworld.com.au/steven/space/usmil-man.txt

Here is a link to the local paper that closely follows all space activity:
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...category=news02

If any of this breeds any additional interest or questions ask away. If I can?t answer (don?t know or can?t say ? uno - must shoot you, etc) I?ll at least try to get u a source that might help.

Enjoy to show

Here is a typical NASA Shuttle bulletin

07.11.05

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

Bruce Buckingham
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 321/867-2468)

MEDIA ADVISORY: M05-115

NASA POSTS SPACE SHUTTLE FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW CHARTS ONLINE

The briefing charts from the Space Shuttle Return to Flight mission
(STS-114) Flight Readiness Review (FRR) meeting are available on the
NASA Web site. There is a pre-launch news conference today, live on
NASA TV, no earlier than 4:30 p.m. EDT. The charts are linked from
the Return to Flight Web site:

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight

Following the FRR at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on June 29 and 30,
senior NASA managers scheduled the Shuttle Discovery launch for July
13. Traditionally the FRR is the meeting that sets launch dates and
assesses the Shuttle's fitness to fly.

NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite
AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz,
vertical polarization. It's available in Alaska and Hawaii on AMC-7,
at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz,
horizontal polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast compliant
Integrated Receiver Decoder is required for reception. NASA TV is
also available on the Internet at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv


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Good stuff -- thanks Dave!

 

Thanks Dave!

I will be leaving here within the next hour .. gotta drive to Merrit Island tonight, pick up my camera (20D) ... then drive back to orlando to the hotel ... then in the morning drive from the hotel (Omni Resort Orlando @ Championsgate) - to KSC ... that'll be an EEEEAARRRRRRLLLLYYY morning. urg.

 

I got a question, why is NASA-TV so bad.. I mean I would imagine that NASA has plenty of information to provide to people via their dedicated channel, but instead they offer and show some of the most insane programming. For example, hours and hours of a camera staring at the shuttle just sitting there. They could be showing some of their programs they've created while they have a PIP (picture in picture) of the shuttle if necessary.

/rant

 

I do not look at it much, so I cannot comment on it's general content. However, right now NASA and to them, much of the world, is intent on the Shuttle RTF. You cannot imagine how many more pieces of optics have been added to this RTF launch. So at least for this flight and its duration of approximately 12 days you will see a lot of just Shuttle/ISS. I used NASA TV for Deep Impact in realtime along with the JPL site and it was perfect for that. The rest of the time I just do not look at it so as I said I just do not know what they have for content. Other than MO or suppositions I cannot speak to NASA intentions for their TV channel

 

Glad to see today's little window cover incident didn't delay the launch...

 

Yea, u work your butt off getting all the things on your list done and something like this happens. Fortunately it did not hurt. God I want this to work well. I know the NASA folks can use a boost to their morale. They are already perking up over the past week when Mr. Griffin gave the thumbs up for launch after the FRR last week.

 

Oh well, here's to a getting things fixed up and re-scheduled soon -- Better safe than sorry!!

 

well ... i'm back. at least i got to go to the concert i had tickets too .. and tomorrow i will pickup my new car.

Better Safe than sorry - I was at KSC during the announcement of the scrub .... While it was a BIG disappointment for everybody involved - very much including the tourists & spectators - i did NOT hear a single person badmouth at all, or bitch awefully much about the inconvenience ... which was very surprizing to me.

This just shows how much people care, and understand ... better safe than sorry in this case.


and yes ... it was HOT yesterday! & while we (4 people) carried 4 "umbrella style" lawn chairs, my rather large tripod, and my huge camera bag with 2 cameras & 4 lenses ... SHIT!

if the launch is announced to be sunday, as now early speculations are ... i will be back!

 

Here we go again - Tuesday July, 26 ... who's going.

I know I am ... and actually will have to this weekend already to get my tickets reprinted ... i guess we managed to leave them at the hotel along with the parking pass. :-(

--marco