Feb. 8, 2010 - After a one day delay due to clouds, space shuttle Endeavour launched at 3:14 a.m. CST Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a new module and an attached cupola for the International Space Station that should increase human understanding of our home planet.
A week prior to the launch my 'geeks' were down there crawling all over that launch site!
This here is Dr. Cranky, Bob Bob, and Technopooh!!!
The goofy-looking balloon on the left is to scare away birds. Keeps the woodpeckers from pecking holes in the external tanks.
Reach out and touch a wingtip!
Spectacular Launch Begins a Complex Mission
After a one-day delay due to clouds, Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:13:21 AM MST
"What a beautiful launch we had this morning... the orbiter performed extremely well," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations, during the STS-130 postlaunch news conference. "This is a great start to a very complicated mission."
Jean-Jacques Dordain, European Space Agency director general, thanked NASA, the crew and the ground teams for "a very beautiful launch." Dordain said, "It was an important event. Even more important for us because the shuttle was full of European hardware."
Mike Moses, shuttle launch integration manager, said the count went unbelievably smooth. He commented how the weather constraints influenced the launch of space shuttle Endeavour and how happy he was that it all came together today. Docking is set for flight day three with three spacewalks planned to install the Tranquility node and then cupola permanently to the International Space Station. "This will be a good example of international partnerships and cooperation between the station crew and shuttle crew," said Moses.
"This was one of the smoothest countdowns ever," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "The team was very, very energized going into the count."
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