Space: Shuttle Endeavour Launch

Ever since I saw the Challenger blow up on take off way back in 1986, I've tried to make it a point to watch every shuttle launch closely, just in case it happens again. With the exception of the Apollo 1 fire in 1967 which killed it's three crewmen, and the Shuttle Columbia disintegrating on re-entry in 2003, things have been fairly smooth for NASA's space shuttle program.

But this is not about those tragic losses, but instead a wondrous look at today's launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's final launch today at 8:56am, EST. After this mission, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will be decommissioned, ending it's 19-year run in active service. Mission STS-134 was initially slated for a September 16, 2010, launch, but was postponed because it's payload, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the ELC-3 to the International Space Station would not be ready in time to meet the launch date. With the Discovery launch moving to November, Endeavour mission "cannot fly as planned, so the next available launch window is in February 2011," NASA said, adding that the launch dates are subject to change.

An amazing shot of Endeavour taken from
flight by passenger Stephanie Gordon.

The launch was once again postponed until April 29, 2011, in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with a Russian supply vehicle heading for the International Space Station. Since April 29, there have been a few false-starts in readying the shuttle for launch, and other delays, including the suicide of  United Space Alliance engineer James Vanover on 14 March 2011, jumping from the launch pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center.

The launch was witnessed by a crowd of about  500,000 spectators, which included Commander Mark E. Kelly's wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Giffords has been recovering in Houston after being shot in January during a community outreach event outside a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store.

Endeavour's main payload is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion particle detector that will search for cosmic rays that might help unravel some of our most perplexing cosmic mysteries, such as what makes up the invisible dark matter thought to pervade the universe.

If you’d like to see NASA’s video of the final launch of Endeavour, that has been made available as well. NASA’s two-and-a-half minute clip shows the shuttle leaving the ground and then going through the lower parts of the Earth’s atmosphere. Today’s launch, the start of mission STS-134, went smoothly, and all of us down here wish them a safe voyage.