Twilight Launch

[krpalmer]

Although it was delayed several times for a variety of reasons, I was able to watch the launch of space shuttle Discovery through the official streaming video just a few minutes ago. It was just twilight in Florida, but the sky seemed to get darker once the engines started. (For some odd reason, it was also encouraging that the announcer seemed to get more excited for the final seconds of the countdown.) I did find myself thinking during the six minutes of powered flight after the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned that there's not as much evidence of what's actually going on from the video feed from the fuel tank, but it was interesting to see sunset being left further behind in the distance.

This latest mission is one that I've been awaiting for a while: with the final set of solar panels to be attached, the space station will be evened out again and will look pretty much the way it's been "supposed to" when complete for a good long time. Now, of course, for the rest of the mission and the actual attaching...