STS-130 Ascent Video Highlights

That was very enjoyable nice job. To bad NASA can't make everything as exciting like for instance the narcoleptic NASA TV.

Damn The Gravity!

Since JSC probably didn't steal that music from the latest Michael Bay movie I'm guessing someone at JSC knows a composer!

Well,,,an excellent video...maybe if NASAs PAO office had presented this kind of picture,,we wouldnt be inthe shape we are now!!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing animal that Shuttle is.... A beast!
And I am going to really miss her.

I hope the Merchant 7 get as much video coverage on ascent as we do now.....

....and with music!

it is kinda cool.

I happen to like this one much better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPhUr-T6UM
M.A.R.S. pump up the volume.

It did much better with the people. Maybe someone will remix the STS130 vid.

As the years pass following Shuttle retirement, the Shuttle as a vehicle and as a program will look even larger with the passage of time. Our grandchildren, who in another Space Age to come, forced to develop an entirely new Shuttle-like system (for the same reason their grandfathers did-space leadership)will ask of us why we abandoned this immense capability and failed to follow it with a similar system. The age of the Space Shuttle will, IMHO, come to dwarf the achievements of Apollo by the sheer audacity of the program. From a spacecraft that was a 10-foot cone to a huge ship the size of a commercial jet, the Shuttle was a bold, risk taking symbol of another age of space-which will come some day to be regarded as the true American "golden age" of spaceflight. These days, when I tell audiences of youngsters there was a time when the Shuttle flew to space, had crews strap on rocket backpacks, and rescue stranded satellites, and haul them back to Earth for repair, they look at me with mouths agape as if to say "Gosh, we once did that"? The tales of the long forgotten Shuttle missions, 1981-1986, will form the stories we will tell our kids-and each other-as the years pass.
We shall not see their likes again in our lifetime. So remember them well, my friends.

Great video. The one they did for STS-129 was even better...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewLLBalvehg

Frank, you are spot on. Here's the text of a letter that I sent to AW&ST in 2004 (which they published). It was in response to other letters bashing the Shuttle...

"I hesitate to respond to another letter, but after reading Rick Schreiner's letter and others like it, I am sufficiently motivated to act. Contrary to Mr. Schreiner's and others assertions, the Space Shuttle fleet is neither obsolete nor unsafe. The Space Shuttle is the most technologically advanced reusable orbital spacecraft in the world. As a matter of fact, it's the only one. It has proven itself to be a reliable, rugged and versatile vehicle which provides capabilities unmatched by any past, current, or proposed systems. The flaws in the Space Shuttle program lie with NASA management. Both Shuttle accidents have been the result of flight safety issues which should have been addressed but were not. The failure to positively pursue safety and flight anomaly resolutions without regard to launch schedules and pressures have been the root causes in both loses. This is not a failure of the vehicle. The Space Shuttle has given America tremendous capability in low Earth orbit for both crew and cargo. The Space Shuttle took us from the compact car (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo) to a full size pickup truck. I believe that most Space Shuttle detractors (including those within the administration and NASA) do not appreciate what we will lose when we go back to that compact car configuration. It will be a rude awakening, and once the Shuttle is grounded, not an easy mistake to rectify."

It's been six years since I wrote that and nothing has changed.

Agree Frank
better days ahead!
Ultraljud - Better Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmDHHhsFtho
I was in Titusville for STS-1 flew my C182 into the activity, text to the IBM folks for the party!

Well said, my friends (great letter, Mike!). And to think next year it will have been 30 years since STS-1! Were we ever that young-or innocent?