Well, it seems I only end up blogging on here about shuttle launches, so I'll post one about day's launch. I actually have two videos of it, one by myself, and one by my cousin (one fuzzy, but zoomed in real good, and one clear that also has sound). I don't however feel like uploading them, as that takes too long, but, I will post 1 single picture.

Thats what I call good zoom on my camera when you can actually see the external tanks.

This is a video I took of the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on Friday night. I was standing directly across the Indian River, along US-1 in Titusville, watching the launch from only 12.02 miles from launch pad 39A. If you aren't familiar with shuttle launches, this is basically the closest you can get without paying like $40 per person to watch from NASA grounds (which is only like 1-2 miles closer to the pad than where I was from anyway).

It was a perfect launch, clear skies, good weather, and it went up on its first try (no scrubbing the launch this time). This was the third to last launch of Atlantis, as it will be scrapped for parts the end of next year. The remaining two shuttles (Discovery and Endeavor) will continue to be used until the end of 2010, when the shuttle program will be retired. There are still like at least 15 flights still needed to complete the ISS (plus 2 possible contingency flights), with also 1 final mission to go to Hubble.

Then its time for the Constellation Program. Think back to the Apollo program, but new names for everything. The rockets will be more advanced (Ares I and the Ares V) than the Saturn V. The Ares I will be the rocket to launch people into space, with the Orion Capsule on top (aka the CEV), while the Ares V will be the massive heavy lift cargo rocket. Basically, the design takes elements from both the Apollo program and the Shuttle program, and combines them. For example, the Ares I will use a modified J2 engine from the Apollo Program (now called the J2-X to make it seem new).

They recently did some testing of the engine for the Ares I, and it worked to expectations. The first test flight of the rocket is scheduled for 2009, with people going up definitely by 2011-2013. The Ares V is still years after that, as they cant' start working on that until the shuttle is completely done, when they can transfer that funding to the new program. Since these are capsule based, they can't do all the stuff that the shuttle could, but would be able to dock with the ISS if needed (though, we are already giving $500 million to subcontract independent corporations to build their own vehicles to go there, and always have the Russians). Eventually, we will be able to use these to go back to the moon or even to Mars, but these endeavors would require a launch of both the Ares I and Ares V within a few days, have then rendezvous in space, and then head out.

I could go on much further, but if you want to discuss this more, just send me a message, or reply to this post. The Constellation program will be much different, and there is a good chance that I will be in some way working on it, but the next 2 years will be very crucial to the future of NASA.



P.S. I have no clue who those people are (they were just in front of me), the actual view I had was much better than the video leads you to believe, the video has no sound, and space is cool!

Last night was the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. This is a video that I took from my house in Orlando, Florida, which is about 50 miles from the launch site at NASA. I actually went to NASA to watch the launch on Thursday (about 11 miles from the pad), but it was scrubbed at the last minute due to low clouds that would block the ground cameras from monitoring the launch. Yesterday, the launch only had a 20-30% chance, so I didn't head out over there, but I still had a good view from my house. The actual view was better than what the video shows, but it still picked it up well. It takes about 20 seconds into the video to see much happening.