LATE BREAKING UPDATE: Please ignore this post entirely. Unfortunately, NASA just announced that the launch has been pushed to at least Wednesday. Due to work and other constraints, I am not going to be able to make it after all. Needless to say I’m utterly bummed. Feel free to use the comments thread to send sympathy and virtual hugs :(
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The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to take off on Tuesday for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. This is the penultimate launch of NASA’s shuttle program, which is a shame, but it allows me to use the word ‘penultimate’ in a post, which is pretty awesome.
Anyway, Discovery is going to deliver spare parts and components, as well as a humanoid robot that will become a permanent resident of the station and almost certainly won’t go rogue and kill everyone on the station…
But I digress…
My point is that I will be at the launch this weekend. I was lucky enough to get into the NASA Tweetup! So I’ll be live-tweeting and will try to post regularly as well! Follow me on Twitter and watch the fun! Also, make sure you are following NASA, the NASA Astronauts and NASATweetup for the latest!
You and one of my oldest friends, who will probably out-blog you.
Not talking trash – I don’t think there’s a social media technology he hasn’t embraced fully. Since he won his slot, I’ve heard about it at least 3x daily ;)
I’m not sure how he manages to stay employed, stay married and raise his kids, but he does…
Have fun! Kennedy is so incredibly cool.
Actually, if Congress funds STS-135 next June (it’s been authorized but not appropriated yet), it will be the antepenultimate launch, which is an even cooler word. Hope you get a good view!
Also hope you voted absentee, or early, or before you leave Tuesday AM. I get to vote against a chiropractor for Congress. Yippee!
Sigh. As I said in my update, I am not going to be able to go after all. :(
@Buzz Parsec: I hope everyone has voted too. I am not actually a citizen so me voting probably isn’t wise :)
@Masala Skeptic: Bummer. Well, you’ve got one or two more chances, or maybe the weather will turn bad and they’ll postpone it again to a day when you can make it. Are you still eligible for the tweetup?
@Buzz Parsec: Unfortunately, I have family commitments next weekend so even if it did get further delayed, I don’t think I could make it.
Oh that sucks. I’m so sorry.
Maria, that sucks! I’m really sorry you’ll miss the launch.
Also, my co-worker is part of the tweet-up and I think it would be really funny if you said hi to him from me. I’m not sure how much longer you’re staying, but if you meet Danny Sussman from Minnesota, tell him Jessica from work says hi! It will totally freak him out.
I had the same thing happen many years ago. I was an astronomy graduate student, and a bunch of us drove many many hours to watch the Hubble launch. Alas, a few minutes short of launch an APU failed to start up, the launch was scrubbed and delayed a week. We couldn’t afford to stay around that long, so we ended up seeing it on TV.