last night launch of the shuttles

an era has ended. the last of the night launches occurred with the endeavour and its sts-130 mission. if congress approves the president’s proposed budget, manned space flight will pretty much be a done deal when the shuttles retire in may.

this launch was heavily attended as it is the final night launch. and the final shuttle launch in may will also likely have a record nunber of witnesses. (i can’t imagine the traffic for that crowd.) the astronaut hall of fame was filled up early on sunday morning only to have the launch scrubbed. they honored the tickets purchased for the next morning’s launch, but we got “upgraded” to watch the launch at kennedy space center (ksc). that’s a closer spot than the hall of fame!

i surmise many who attended last night wouldn’t make it the monday morning as many have work and school on monday. but being back at ksc was definitely exciting! i had considered visiting on monday before they rescheduled the launch. it was also rare to see ksc after dark. the mirror memorial was lit up like you can only see at night.  the whole complex was up and running as if it were a normal day.

about an hour before t-zero, i set up my tripod near the shuttle simulation building.  many had camped out spaces in that area already.  more probably would have if it weren’t so cold outside.  there were cautionary conditions again monday morning as we had on sunday morning, but things cleared up enough to move things ahead.

nothing beats the spectacular scene of a night launch! it was definitely worth the trip!  i captured the launch on video however i must state that this presentation pales in comparison to seeing the sky as bright as day when it took off.  it was like daylight, like watching the sun rise very quickly.  truly amazing!

sts-130

just a few more shuttle missions this year, and the fleet will be retired from use.  sts-130 is the 130th shuttle mission and the 32nd mission to the international space station.  they will be delivering the tranquility node, a seven windowed module which will serve as the control room for the station’s robotic arm. target launch date is currently set in the early morning of february 7, 2010.  endeavour is the shuttle of choice.

my mom has a cousin whose daughter, jill, is the engineering branch chief in the aircraft operations division at johnson space center.  in 1994, she was considered as an astronaut candidate.  but her work with the t-38s is more notable.  she helped upgrade the avionics to these aircrafts in the early 1990s.  you can read more about this and the t-38s in the june 2008 edition of the johnson space center newsletter, “roundup” [pdf].  (the pdf is a better format for reading.)  nasa tv has a clip (on youtube) of the dress rehearsal of the astronauts for sts-130.  the jets in the beginning of this video are t-38s.

with someone from nasa twittering about the shuttle launches and everyone else in the virtual world responding and posting tweets of their own, you can follow an interesting stream of chatter about the sts-130 launch at twitter’s search page.

you can watch a time lapse account of the shuttle endeavour being rolled out from the vab to the pad.  four hours shortened to to less than three minutes.

hubble on the imax

i was sitting through the previews of avatar and caught the 3-D clip of an upcoming presentation of the shuttle launch serving hubble for the final time in may of 2009. nasa shot the presentation using imax 3-D cameras. this will debut spring 2010. (http://imax.com/hubble/)

this happens to be the shuttle mission which i got to witness the launch in person. not only did i get to see the launch with my own eyeballs but with this presentation i get to see the up close and 3-D personal of the entire mission on the really big screen. awesome!

christmas avatar

christmas 2009 seemed shorter and less like christmas this year than in the past.  maybe it was because i felt like i was doing so much as soon as thanksgiving ended until christmas or maybe it was that i didn’t start my traditional christmas music until after our christmas musical, but it was different than past years.  we’ll see how christmas goes next year.



i am planning on seeing avatar tomorrow with some pals.  i caught this clip on the fox movie channel about the making of the movie.  it is actually ironic, i think, that the plot of the movie involves an avatar and the making of the characters as avatars was very similar to the same approach.  watch the video below to see how the cg animation is a direct modeling of the actors’ actual acting.

android

on november 1, i rushed over to the sprint store to upgrade my phone from an lg rumor to a samsung moment.  i have been very pleased with this phone and with android.  my phone is only on android 1.5 (2.0 is the current version of the software with 2.1 coming soon).  when i get to upgrade this to the most recent, i look forward to some nice features.

pros:  the screen is very nice.  there are a bunch of apps that have been already built for android.  plus i can get an sdk to build app myself.  i like having a better browser to hit the net compared to a stripped down version on my rumor.  google maps plus the device’s gps is a great combo.  i found a nice secure shell (ssh) app which drops me right onto any unix/linux box for which i have credentials.  integrating my google calendar with my device’s calendar is a huge time saver.

cons:  the camera is a little delayed to taking pics, as i have read–still adjusting to that.  i have to get used to plugging in my phone to keep it active in the twenty-four.  i am still learning to be more careful with it since the screen is very important.

i am also hopeful that the change in plan to accommodate the new phone will resolve the billing issues i had with sprint last time i made adjustments.  at this point, i’m good with things.  all is finally good.  this makes me happy with sprint again.

some of the other things i find gloat worthy:  i had cut/copy & paste from day one.  i can run multiple apps at once…from day one.  have better coverage than, say, at&t from day one.

i’m happy with this purchase.

prime time colors

this weekend was the prime time for the trees turning their colors.  in an effort to get some photos of the trees in full turn before storms came and stripped them of their colors, i headed immediately out after work to shoot the scene before the saturday weather.

i had noticed highland memorial cemetery had some full, colorful trees while driving down sutherland one afternoon.  last year’s jackpot of vibrant trees had been in a cemetery off western avenue.  and like last year, i was not disappointed when i started driving the graveyard.  i found plenty of oranges, yellows, reds, and all the colors in between a combination of any two of those choices.  i took as many as i could before the sun set.

if i had taken the time, i could have set up my tripod and tried my hand at some hdr pictures.  i might make the attempt before it’s too late.  i love fall in this area.  there is no place better!

shorter and darker

couldn’t decide what i was going to dress up as for halloween this year.  a couple of thoughts pass through my mind.  i decided to give the military/swat theme a go since i had the clothes.

my sis is in school learning to cut and style hair.  naturally, i asked her to shorten it up and give it some black.  she did a good job.  here’s a before and after shot of her work: