STS-135 The Final Shuttle Flight

[juneau]

Any fans of the Shuttle won't want to miss this.

Friday 8 July at 11:26 EDT (16:26 BST).

Space shuttle Atlantis' 12-day mission to the International Space Station will deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module filled with supplies and spare parts to sustain station operations once the shuttles are retired. The mission also will fly the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), an experiment designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies and techniques needed to robotically refuel satellites in space, even satellites not designed to be serviced. The crew also will return an ammonia pump that recently failed on the station. Engineers want to understand why the pump failed and improve designs for future spacecraft.

Streams:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
Spaceflight Now - live streaming video powered by Livestream
Spacevidcast, Ustream.TV: This is the High Definitional Spacevidcast channel. We bring you live coverage of shuttle and rocket launches not just in HD but ...

[juneau]

T-9:00!

[juneau]

Coming up on 60 seconds. Click a link now if you wanna watch.

[juneau]

On hold at 31 seconds for a system retraction failure.

edit: Countdown restarted!

10seconds!

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

Sad, so sad. I really feel sick to my stomach know this is the last.

I grabbed this screenshot.

[juneau]

Great screengrab Obi.

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

Thanks for posting the links, juneau. The original live feed I was watching wasn't HD and was quite crappy.

[juneau]

Which one did you end up watching Obi? I was watching the Space Flight Now one. It was probably the best looking stream of a launch i've ever watched.

Pity it'll be the last.

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

The ustream one. It had a really nice picture.

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

...the original one was from my local TV station, WGHP.

[GeneralSnake]

I am lost. What is it the last of and why?

[juneau]

I am lost. What is it the last of and why?

It's the last launch of the Space Shuttle and the last manned space flight conducted by the US for... well who knows.

Reason? Government cutbacks and politicians that are more interested in spending billions on war than science.

[GeneralSnake]

It's the last launch of the Space Shuttle and the last manned space flight conducted by the US for... well who knows.

Reason? Government cutbacks and politicians that are more interested in spending billions on war than science.

Nice. Kinda figured the reason. What a terrifying place we live in.

[juneau]

Nice. Kinda figured the reason. What a terrifying place we live in.

Don't worry, the ESA, China, Russia, India and Japan are picking up the slack.

[JohnyRico]

This was the launch that my wife and I took vacation to see but the launch date got pushed out of our window.