A great, successful launch of STS-117. Awesome. I'm glad.
The first Shuttle launch of 2007. Mission STS-117, on board Atlantis, is the 21st Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station… this one is taking 7 astronauts to the station.
It has been a long time since the 1st mission related to the space station… I was working on the Shuttle program during the first rendezvous mission with MIR (1995, STS-63), in preparation to STS-71, the first docking mission with the station. Today, 12 years later, we are not done yet.
See the STS-117 Mission Overview.
Godspeed to the crew…
And while I write this, one of my coolest experiences ever come to mind — because I worked on the onboard software (the Flight Computer OS or FCOS), I had access or visibility to certain things and people, and the time I got the chance to (quietly) sit down on the back seat during one of the STS-71 crew training launch exercises inside the actual Space Shuttle flight simulator – I mean, we are talking about the closest experience to the real thing, just second to the real launch itself — 3 intense hours sitting with the astronauts while they trained — this is vertical cockpit position, countdown sequence, the engine sounds and cockpit vibration, the motion simulation, SRB separation, looking “out the cockpit windows” as the sky transitioned from blue into the blackness of “space”, and the successful and sometimes not successful, glad it was a simulation, orbital insertions, and watching the astronauts react to the events and failures as they happened (were introduced)…
For those interested in the space program, preparation and hiring for the next phase of the U.S. space program, the return to the Moon, is happening as we speak… It is very tempting…
ceo