ISS07 Blogs

Awesome!

The final launch of space shuttle Discovery was absolutely awesome this afternoon! Dr. Tom and I were lucky enough to view the launch with the family members of the crew and everyone was extremely happy. I won't post photos here because I know that NASA's photos will be incredible, and I encourage all of you to look at them on the NASA website.

The crew of STS-133 was strapped into their seats about 3:00 p.m. and we were able to watch that from a television screen in the viewing area. We listened as crew members completed their sound checks with NASA, and were then greeted by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who welcomed us and thanked us for supporting the crew.

At the 9 minute hold there was concern that the launch might have to be scrubbed due to a faulty range computer. One of the duties of this computer is to monitor the shuttle on it's journey, and it is not safe to launch without the support of those computers. NASA administrators decided to restart the time clock and hope that the computer problem could be fixed before the 5 minute hold. Luckily for everyone that problem was fixed and once the countdown clock began at the 5 minute mark, there was no going back...it was all go for Discovery!

It is difficult to describe the sights, sounds, and feelings associated with viewing a launch from only 3 miles away. It is incredibly bright, extremely loud, and powerfully moving as it makes it way off the pad. Although you can see immediately as it begins to lift off, it does take a few seconds for the sound to reach across the river, and another few seconds before the shockwave hits your chest. It is also a very emotional moment for many, especially those mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses and children of crew members. Alvin's girlfriend Patricia was very emotional, and she was so proud of everything Alvin has done in order to prepare for this mission.

Dr. Tom and I know how lucky we are to have been invited to share this event with crew family and friends, and it is an experience that we will be talking about for a long time.

Susan

YIC Admin

It FINALLY looks like "Go For Launch"

Hi everyone,

I know we've officially closed the Work in Space project, but I will be providing a couple of final reports, now that it looks like Discovery will launch tomorrow (February 24) at 4:50 p.m.

I recceived a final email from Alvin this morning, letting me know that the crew is relaxed and ready to go. He told me that he hopes you all can watch the launch on television. Dr. Tom and I picked up our new invitation packages from Kennedy Space Center yesterday, and were pleased to learn that Alvin has included us as part of his "family", so we were able to participate in a family briefing this morning at Kennedy, followed by a special family tour of the Space Center. We have been on tours of the facility before, but today's tour was very special. We were able to drive directly to Launch Pad A, where the shuttle is currently sitting and ready to go! Our vehicle circled the launch pad so that we could see the orbiter from all sides. We also got to see the huge liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel tanks at the base of the platform. They are empty at the moment, as all of the fuel is inside the tanks strapped to the orbiter!

We were also driven to Launch Pad B, which is now being dismantled due to the discontinued shuttle program. Our guide, a retired NASA employee that has been with the space program since the 1960's, told us that it is very sad to see that Pad being taken apart. It was the pad that was used to launch the Apollo series rockets, and was also used for some shuttle launches as well.

As we drove by the VAB - you may recall from earlier blog posts that VAB stands for Vehicle Assembly Building - we were able to see inside the building. Workers are beginning to stack the components for the next shuttle mission, and we saw the huge rocket engines for space shuttle Endeavour.

Our guide then took us to the landing runway, which is huge...one of the longest and widest runways in the world. Very impressive!

In addition to the buildings and technology that we saw today, we were also treated to some spectacular wildlife views. The Kennedy Space Center is located within the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, and there are hundreds of species of birds and wildlife living there. We saw several alligators, some very large box turtles, and numerous bald eagles sitting in their huge nests. One of the nests has been in the same tree for more than 40 years, and is estimated to weigh more than 800 pounds!

Everyone is very excited about tomorrow's launch. It is scheduled for 4:50 p.m., and I will submit a blog when we return from the event. At present NASA has given the launch an 80% chance of "go", so please keep your fingers crossed for a perfect and safe launch tomorrow.

Susan

YIC Admin

Work in Space Project Comes to an End

Hi everyone,

On behalf of the YES I Can! Science team, I would like to thank you all for joining us for the past 4 months as we've learned what it is really like to live and work in space. We had some excellent blog posts and questions from all of you, and I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did. If you weren't able to participate in our webcasts, I hope you take some time to review the archived events. So much information was relayed through these webcasts, and our guests truly went above and beyond.

A very special thanks to Dr. Bob Thirsk for his incredibly informative final webcast last week. If you haven't already done so, take a moment to view the photos that Dr. Thirsk sent along from his ISS mission last year. Thanks also to Taryn Tomlinson of the Canadian Space Agency for her insightful discussion of robotics and Canada's role in the space program, and to NASA astronaut Clay Anderson for his entertaining take on long duration space missions. Thanks too to Dr. Tom for answering many of our day to day questions, and for accompanying Diane and I on several of our classroom visits.

We had hoped that the end of this project would coincide with the launch of STS-133, however that launch has been postponed again, this time until the end of February. Dr. Tom and I will be watching the launch live from Cape Canaveral, as guests of our friend and crew member Alvin Drew. I will post any additional photos and updates on this site once Discovery is launched into orbit.

It's always a pleasure for us to be able to provide opportunities for teachers and students to participate in our online collaborative projects. The YES I Can! Work in Space project was presented through the generous sponsorship of Cenovus Corporation. Thanks again to the Cenovus Community Investment folks. we look forward to working with you again.

Thanks to all of you for joining us on this adventure, and we hope to see everyone back again next time.

Until then,

Susan

All Good Things Must Come to An End

YES I Can - Work in Space Project Completed

Neither Susan nor I can believe that it's been four months since we welcomed all of you to the YES I Can - Work in Space Project!

Our participants have come from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatechewan, Ontario, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Australia and Ireland. We've been honoured to meet many experts through our webcasts - robotics engineer, Taryn Tomlinson; astrophysicist, Dr. Tom Stiff; and astronauts Alvin Drew, Clay Anderson and Bob Thirsk. We've been busy these past months, both online and in our classrooms - meeting, researching, experimenting, sharing, asking, blogging, exploring, watching, listening, webcasting, wondering...

Susan and I both encourage you to keep wondering, working hard, and exploring the possibilities!

We extend our thanks to all of the special guests who so generously shared their time and expertise with us, to the teachers who bravely tried new technologies, and to the students who handled themselves very professionally. We'll be in touch to let you know about future projects. You can also check the YES I Can! Science home page or follow yesican on twitter.