Space Shuttle Discovery Launch on her Final Mission

Yesterday the space shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Centre carrying a crew of 6 on her final mission after 27 years of service. Her last mission is to bring more equipment to the International Space Station, and is scheduled to last 11 days.

Discovery is the oldest serving orbiter and has made history more than once. She launched the Hubble space telescope, and was chosen for the Return to Flight missions after the losses of both the Challenger and the Columbia.

If you're bored, you can watch:
- booster separation at around 4 minutes
- unidentified debris at 5:46
- the shuttle's heads-up roll with loads of shadows at 7:55
- main engine cut-off at 10:28
- external tank separation and Discovery sailing away into space at 10:40

Watch in amazing HD!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dowTyr5wcOI


Incidentally, this is the third-last ever space shuttle mission. Next up is the final flight of Endeavour around late April this year.

When you think of it 27 years is some amount of service for such a complex piece of kit.

Remember reading in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff about one of the first Mercury astronauts saying that during launch they were sitting on top of a machine with a billion moving parts, each one made by the LOWEST BIDDER!!