krpalmer: (Default)
krpalmer ([personal profile] krpalmer) wrote2008-11-14 08:15 pm
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Night Launch again

I watched the live online feed of the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, lucky enough that it didn't happen while I was at work. That did put the liftoff at night, but that was interesting in its own way; I got a sense of how quickly the solid rocket boosters gutter out to glowing coals after they stage away, and then a long tracking shot of a lone point of light in the night sky before things shifted to the external tank camera and some strange, almost auroral light effects.

It's been a good number of months since the last mission, which launched just before the Phoenix probe landed on Mars. This one just followed Phoenix being swallowed by Martian winter, although I suppose the last flight to the space telescope was postponed because of a malfunction with the telescope itself. Now for the addition of crew support equipment to the space station and work on one of the solar panel wings, which sounds challenging.