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Houston...er, I Mean, Cape Canaveral, We Have Liftoff watch!

youtube.com — Space shuttle Discovery blasted off its seaside launch pad on Saturday. YouTube's got enough fan-based footage to choke a video horse. Here's some of the official NASA feed...they capture the fire much better.

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  • SubWolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+44Beautiful every time.
    • JerodSlay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11So awesome. The space program rocks my socks off.
    • CanceledCzech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Especially when you're listening to Mozart while watching this.
    • TheKidd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I lived 45 minutes West of the Kennedy Space Center and saw a night launch, it still lit up the sky like burning magnesium. It will never get old man.
    • spankaccount, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1God bless America and the international community behind this wonderful endeavor.
  • avihappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29Hope they come back safe.
  • xVern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40We need to go into space more, simply so i can before i die.
    • Pilot85, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Your best bet would be commercial space ventures (think x prize, etc.) But even that is a darn long way off.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6well, if you're rich enough... maybe you can hitch a ride on Virgin Galactic.
  • chulium, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22God be with them.
    • mastercheif, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24Science be with them.
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@mastercheif

      How's this for you:

      God Speed to Discover!!!!!

      My the angels cradle them in their wings their entire flight!
    • marnaq, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5WTF has God to do with this?
  • Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Happy to see we finally have our first Swede up there.

    I wish a safe journey to them, and hope the major electrical rewiring of the ISS that will be done will end up well. I liked how they transmitted Blur's "Song 2" earlier today too, made for some laughs down at Earth. :-) The Discovery crew then commented, "I hope you get the picture anyway", hehe.
    • msprout, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Wow. Am I the only one that gets chills when I realize that we can now ACTUALLY say, "down here on Earth"?
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Nope, I get the same feeling. I always say a prayer for the Astronauts(whatever their nationality).

      It's the same feeling I got walking through the assembly floor at KSFC, seeing the command center and looking out at both shuttle launch pads, picking up a rock on the crawler-way at the last gate, and seeing the bunkers where the keep the high explosives that are sent on EVERY space mission....
    • idonthack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"they transmitted Blur's "Song 2" earlier today"

      Woo hoo
    • posure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Attention universe! Be sure to tune in next week for another exciting episode of...Earth! The Asians are really steamed at the Russians. The zebras try to get along with the buffalo. And Americans and Iraqis have an all-out brawl. It's outrageous fun and it's all new! Earth! On Fognl.
  • tst1dotcom, on 10/12/2007, -46/+0view the video of the takeoff at http://www.searchjerk.com
  • gurra, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Way to go Christer Fuglesang. The whole Scandinavia is following your every move right now. God be with you, and all of the crew on STS-116
    • thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Glad we could give him a lift. He does Scandinavia proud.
  • zaxis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The External Tank (ET) provides approximately 535,000 gallons (2.025 million liters) of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant to the SSMEs. It is discarded 8.5 minutes after launch at an altitude of 60 nautical miles (111 km), which then burns up on re-entry.
    - Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_shuttle
  • djjuice, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2and its great to see the first Alaska in space, not only as an astronaut, but as the pilot!
    too bad all the extra cameras NASA installed are a bit useless on a night flight. I can only pray nothing bad happened.
  • Hazardc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Am i the only person that thinks the space program is the most important thing we have, and cant fathom why people think we should scrap it with the reasoning "it's a huge waste of money and manpower"

    it's hard for me not to get political and use the "and xxxx war isn't more of a waste of life and money??" in most of the arguments.. but really it's just the fact that space/the unknown interests me so much that i cant handle the fact that we are all probably going to die with just knowing very few of the possibilities of what might be out there, and not knowing of what really IS out there

    Granted, our space program may not be totally going in the right direciton, but they can only do so much with what we choose to give them.
    • Osiriscky3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's not just space. This has to do with aviation also
      If douche bag politicians would look beyond their own political and financial gains and look at the longterm then they would see NASA is our only future that's worth living.
    • Hazardc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4my thoughts exactly

      i've become pretty set on becoming a pilot in the past year, even though my first flight was 2 years ago... ive flown so much since then and go up with my friends who are earning their ratings all the time. it's too bad it took me into my almost-mid-twenties and years of schooling for other stuff to finally find something that i can do and am passionate about.

      just wish i had a chance someday to do some real exploring. we are so stagnant.
    • psygnisfive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree that the space program is the most important pure science endeaver we have right now, or atleast one among many immensely important ones, but I don't agree with how we're going about it. The shuttle is a huge waste of money. It costs half a billion dollars to put these guys into space, when instead the Russians can do the same job for a tenth of that. The initial intention of the shuttle, thanks to the airforce, was to be able to retrieve damaged satellites and allow repairs to be done here on earth instea of in space, but noone has ever used the shuttle for that. Instead we use it to ferry people and satellites around together, as if that's necessary. Get rid of the shuttle and replace it with smaller rockets. Buy some from ArianeSpace if necessary, just stop it with the shuttle already.
    • mastercheif, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well, NASA seems to agree with you too. Since the ISS was designed for the Space Shuttle, they have to keep the shuttle program alive much longer than they wanted to. Once the ISS is complete, they are going to kill the Shuttle like Steve Irwin in a tank full of stingrays.

      Sorry for the Steve joke, its totaly unorginal and uncalled for.
  • jwoodsutk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1A UT alumnus in action...makes us proud. Go Vols!
  • Joga5000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I live on the other side of Florida, in Tampa, and I was still able to clearly see the shuttle's flame in the night sky for several minutes - it was a site to behold.
    • Raichu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yeah it was my first launch i've ever seen just recently moved to orlando area, seen it so clear and was just amazing.
  • Shroomie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'm in Daytona and it was beautiful going up.

    The drunks next door were clapping and screaming before it even went up. I guess they saw a plane or something.
    • Osiriscky3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Same here I went to and watched it from the Port Orange Bridge, and almost ran over a fat lady...
  • kill4killin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Found this video on youtube, personally I think it is better than the one of this topic.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=aVaYMXOVwzg
  • kill4killin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Found this video on youtube, personally I think it is better than the one of this topic. Amazing video non-the-less
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=aVaYMXOVwzg
  • wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Is it just me, or do the rest of you annoyed at the way that you don't hear the air-ground transmissions anymore, just the ultra annoying NASA spokeshole? I don't want to hear "And Discovery is on her way to continue building the International Space Station". I want to hear "SRB ignition....liftoff....main engine output nominal....commencing roll program..." good stuff like that.
  • toeivy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I was there! My cousin, Sunita Williams, is Mission Specialist 5, and will be staying on the ISS for six months. We were directly across the water from the pad, just to the right of the countdown clock. Great video.

    The video doesn't even begin to show it, though. You need the big picture. It literally looked like daylight. Plus, when you see it live, you don't get the rumbling for the first few seconds, since you're at least three miles away. It's so cool to watch the shockwave coming across the water at you and then feel the bleachers shake. If you have a chance, go, before the shuttle program is discontinued in 2010. You can buy tickets for seating about five miles away from the launch site without being related to an astronaut.
  • dubled, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'll probably get dugg down but I think it is a waste of money. Put all that cash into something useful for the American people. I would think differently had we not already been to the moon, but enough already with it.
    • whiskeysquared, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dubled, I won't digg you down for having your own opinion I mean it's a portion of your money paying for it. But I'm curious as to why you think exploring space is a waste of time. The moon was just one step. Who knows what further exploration will provide. Granted I think we're limiting ourselves from advancing more in our space program and I think NASA makes a lot of bad decisions, but there's always a way to reform a program. I think it would be sad as a society to limit ourselves to Earth. There's so much advancement as a civilization if we explore space. You're not curious?

      We have a ton of problems here on Earth, sure, and at first glance the money used for the space program would technically fill gaps. But, realistically, that money would fall right into the irresponsible management all of our other programs fall into. So it wouldn't help anyway. What really needs to happen is a reformation of how monies are used for social programs and services. Our budget is out of control, but the space program shouldn't be scrapped for it.
    • karch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2NASA's budget: $16.8 billion/$2.8 trillion = 0.6% of the federal budget.
      vs Defense spending: $466 billion/$2.8 trillion.
  • avianna, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1makes me all teary eyed every time I see a sucessfull launch :-)
  • JanusAmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I saw this from my house. It was like a comet, only going up instead of down. Beautiful.
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