STS-125 Launch Day

I am glued to NASA Television this morning, and all seven astronauts have been "loaded" into Space Shuttle Atlantis. Truly exciting! I always love watching the preparations for a trip into space. Weather is clear in Florida, and it looks like they will take off as planned around 2:00pm Eastern time.

Click for NASA-TV Web Feed

This mission was scrubbed last year, rescheduled a few times, but it's finally go for launch! I'm also watching the web live-feed at the NASA-TV page, which anyone could sneak-peek, even if you're at work :)

Or if you have more time and bandwidth on hand, an even better spot is the Kennedy Space Center Feeds page. The 15 different channels show crew prep, different angles of the launch complex, and also a weather feed. Web and regular television switch back and forth between many of these, but if you go directly to this page, you can control which one to watch during the live commentating.

Click for KSC Web Feeds

The crew of STS-125 will be replacing and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope's many gyroscopes, computer components, and scientific instruments.

This final servicing mission should allow the telescope to operate as an "enhanced" astronomical viewer for many more years. Pretty incredible that this amazing orbiting observatory that's been scanning the universe for almost two decades!