Miles from Earth: Shuttle Like a Football

Nice football analogy. Go Atlantis!

Will cnn.com be broadcasting the launch live? Starting at what time? Thank you.

Miles:
Please have this shuttle delayed until Mon., Feb. 11th, so we can be present at the launch.
Ron & Joy Kellen
Yorkton, Saskatchewan
Canada

I'm always impressed with the launch. How much does the ground shake at lift off and what speed is at lift off. I've heard it's as fast as a bullet out of a rifle barrel.

Very interested in your reply.

I'm watching the velocity. what is 2500 + equal to?

im watching it live on cnn.com

Miles,

I hope NASA finally lets you make your trip, you certainly deserve it! I'd like to join you.

Jeremy

Sorry about the joke but, you do realize that the Transporter Chief from Star Trek: The Next Generation was named Miles O'Brien. I just find that ironic.

I've been to one shuttle launch at the cape myself (I think it was Discovery), and seen several nighttime launches since my family lives in Florida.

Despite what people say that the shuttle is an antiquated and unnecessary waste of our tax dollars, I am always in awe of the launches/landings and the majesty a shuttle in orbit commands.

Boy I will miss these flights when they retire.

Regarding the post about missing the flights when they retire,

When they do retire, if all goes well, the new vehicle will return us to the moon and then on to Mars. The shuttles are fascinating, butto be actually exploring themoon, Mars and beyond...it is worth the loss of the shuttle.

Yes..the Shuttle launch Is impressive but............I witnessed an Apollo launch in 1970 on a Saturn 5...Believe me a Saturn 5 launch puts the Shuttle to shame.I was 3.5 miles away at the VIP site and the thunderous vibrations of the Saturn almost knocked me over !!..That my friend,is a launch!!!! The new Ares 5 cargo vehicle will be as impressive..We'll just have to wait.......................

It is not the ISS itself that is overhead, but the orbital plane of the ISS. The location of the ISS around the earth is irrelevant. Think of the Earth as a ball rotating with a ring around it. The ring is fixed in space; twice each day, about 12 hours apart, Florida passes under the ring. IT is during these two times that they could launch to the station. However, the shuttle cannot launch on either of those two times, but rather only once per day; one is the ascending node and one is the descending node, and the shuttle can only head northeast from KSC and not southeast due to land overflight issues.

During launch yesterday for STS-122, the ISS itself was off the west coast of Australia at the time.

We get beautiful video from space, but the audio is really bad. I'd think that, technically, it should be easier to send audio than video.

Why is the audio so bad?