It's Launch Day!

November 16, 2009

Titusville, Florida

STS - 129 launch day

Florida is a bit more breezy this morning, and the cloud coverage is quite thick, though the local weather indicates that all of it will burn off before launch time. 

STS-129 is scheduled to shoot off at 2:23 EST today.  What's much more different with this launch than from the ARES IX launch is the window opportunity of launch for the shuttle.  The ARESIX rocket had a window of four hours because it wasn't going into space.  It was merely a test rocket.  The ARES flew up and fell right back down into the Atlantic – the shuttle is much more different.  

The window for the shuttle is only 10 minutes long.  It is this way because the shuttle has to be able to meet with the space station as it is orbiting the earth in the nearest possible location.  In order to do so NASA must perfectly sync the shuttle's launch with the location of the space station in orbit.  This window is very narrow, and if anything goes wrong or isn't a "go", the window is lost.  

In the case that this occurs the launch will be scrubbed for today ad picked back up tomorrow for a window time of twenty minutes later than today.  

The crew is hopeful and ready for the launch, and in fact at the press conference yesterday Kathy Winters the chief meteorologist for NASA stated that there's a 10% chance of the launch not flying today due to weather related issues.  In NASA terms, a 10% chance of a no-go is practically a guarantee.  Though, this morning with the strong breeze and grey clouds it's easy to be skeptical.  

As of right now the countdown clock is at the 3 hour hold mark.   Before the seconds start ticking down again we will be conducting three interviews with three astronauts!  We certainly have a busy schedule, and the crew is starting to feel the buzz at Kennedy Space Center that today is launch day.  This is happening nowhere else in the world today, and they're here to see it.  

I believe I speak for all of them when I say thank you MTSU for this opportunity. It's an experience like this that forms a professional.  Thank you for the mold.

Almost show time

Well here we are, blogging from inside of MTSU's on-site production media truck.  This thing is incredible.  In the far back we have "The Marcs", one being Marc Parrish a professor at MTSU and the other an associate of Marc's, they are cueing past interviews of the students that went to the ARES IX launch a couple of weeks ago. These past interviews will be taped live to the show's footage that will be captured 50 feet or so from the truck.  They are also designing graphics and a bottom thirds for the show, and that's only the back of the truck.

Moving forward in the truck, and to the left is what Adam Ellis, a graduate audio student, dubs "Audio World".  Inside there's a full mixing board, a 48 multi-track recorder, and everything else necessary to capture, format, and edit all audio for the live-to-tape show.

A few more feet past audio world is the control room.  Here adorned on the far wall are two huge flat screen TVs that display all feeds from all cameras out on the field.  Also available in this room is the communication devices.  Mike Hildebrandt, the director of the shoot, has been telling all of the camera men out in the field to zoom in, move closer, or get out of the shot.  Sure enough as he talks the display feeds on the large Sony flat screen TVs move in, zoom out, and students are being pulled away from the frame.  This is truly a professional production crew.

Our purpose for this 30 minute segment is to have a small package that we will be able to distribute to various media outlets within the area to heighten awareness of not only this class and what we are involving ourselves with, but also for future generations so that they can see the amazing opportunites that they can potentially have if they choose MTSU as their upper-education institution.  

Florida is nothing short of beautiful, the skies are blue and the breeze is refreshing.  We're just about ready to shoot, so this is it for now.  Keep checking back as the day continues! 

The MTSU camera crew is back at Kennedy Space Center!

They arrived at the press accreditation center right before 8 in the morning to receive their badges.  From there, there were a few security clearances that they still had to make it through, but now they're on-site at the media center at KSC!  

The main difference between this trip to KSC as opposed to the last one is that they have MTSU's production truck. 

With it the crew plans to tape a live-to-tape thirty minute show to send out to various media outlets in hopes for more coverage on their endeavors.  That taping will take place sometime today and it will highlight all of the students who are involved in this project and are here on the second trip to NASA.  The taping will focus primarily on their experiences at NASA and their feelings on the tremendous opportunity that MTSU has provided them to be here.

Besides that though, the launch tomorrow is one of the last 7 shuttle launches.  After the shuttle is retired the Constellation program will take it's place and feature rockets such as the ARES IX and ARES IV.  The crew was fortunate enough to see the first test launch of the ARES IX on the last trip.

The shuttle launch tomorrow is scheduled to shoot off around 2:33 in the afternoon.  This particular mission will include three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the station's truss, or backbone.  Also on this launch, they will be bringing back home a crew member that has been aboard the orbiting laboratory for the past two months.  This crew rotation at the space station will be the last one.

To say the least the crew has a lot in store for them this time around at Kennedy Space Center, and as one of the professors of the class Dan Pfeifer says, "We're gonna fly tomorrow!"