[Chaos-l] STS-131 launch

[Terry Crook]

Very nice pix, Tony. Thx much!

Taurus Terry in Chapel Hill
35° 55' 47"N, 79° 01' 00"W

Tony Rice wrote:
> Launch was spectacular this morning.  Really turns night into day.
> Liftoff was at 6:21 am about an hour before sunrise so the horizon was
> just starting to show some glints of light, just enough to give the
> exhaust plume some definition in the morning sky.   We watched from
> the Astronaut Hall of Fame.  Tickets were $11 a head, not bad since it
> included parking and access to the Hall of Fame exhibits for hours
> before the launch and tough 12 miles away, the pad is visible and
> really lights on launch. Some photos:
> http://rtphokie.smugmug.com/Travel/STS-131 .  The colors the contrails
> left by the shuttle took on as the sun rose were a beautiful surprise.
>  I was also surprised that the sound is exactly like it is on TV.  I'd
> always assume the rumbling quality was due to microphones not being
> able to accurately reproduce the sound due to all that acoustic
> pressure, but it's very accurate.  TV cant do the sound and sight
> justice though.,
>
> My son's favorite souvenir was a STS-131 mission T-Shirt he's itching
> to wear to school when he tracks back in.  My favorite souvenier was
> the STS-131 launch viewing $3 certificate I bought from a couple
> Ruritans who'd setup a table outside a T Shirt shop just off NASA
> property.  Excellent fundraiser guys and though zero authenticity to
> it, it's an attractive certiticate that we'll put up in my son's room
> now that we've finally seen a launch after sitting through each of
> STS-127's nearly record setting scrubs last summer.  Weather wise
> Florida is a horrible place to launch rockets from but we had perfect
> weather this morning.
>
> Some tidbits on 131 from CollectSpace.com
>
>     * The solid rocket boosters launching Discovery have been
> assembled from segments flown on 60 prior space shuttle missions. The
> oldest? STS-1. Most recent? STS-120.
>     * STS-131 is the 33rd shuttle mission to the International Space
> Station and the 38th flight for orbiter Discovery.
>     * As currently manifested, STS-131 is the last shuttle mission to
> launch with a full crew compliment of seven astronauts.
>     * STS-131 is the last of the shuttle crews to include astronauts
> making their first spaceflight. James Dutton, Dorothy (Dottie)
> Metcalf-Lindenburger and Naoko Yamazaki will bring the total number of
> people who have launched on the space shuttle to 350 (this one
> saddened me a bit)
>     * Once aboard the International Space Station, STS-131's crew,
> together with the six Expedition 23 crew members, will tie the record
> for the most people on one spacecraft: 13.
>     * STS-131's Naoko Yamazaki will be the last of Japan's astronauts
> to fly on the space shuttle. She, and fellow Japan Aerospace
> Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the space
> station, will set a record for the most Japanese astronauts in space
> at one time: two.
>     * STS-131 mission specialists Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy (Dottie)
> Metcalf-Lindenburger and Naoko Yamazaki will tie the record for the
> most women aboard a space shuttle mission: three. Together with Tracy
> Caldwell Dyson aboard the space station, they will set a record for
> the most women in space at one time: four.
>     * This is Discovery's penultimate flight. The orbiter, designated
> OV-103, is scheduled to fly just one more mission, STS-133 in
> September 2010.
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