Shuttle Atlantis blasts off

I can't believe there hasn't been a thread on this. Eight fucking pages on Paris Hilton, and no one can be bothered with a shuttle launch?

It's out of the atmosphere and heading for the ISS.

 

Unless Paris is aboard, I don't think people care.

Free Atlantis!

 

Shuttle takeoffs and landings make me so nervous. Glad this looks like a clean blastoff so far.

 

So far so good. Watching on CNN just drove me nuts, because they just WOULD NOT SHUT UP. (Plus the absoutely idiotic 4-way split screen, which ensures, even on a big-screen TV, you can't see ANY of the pictures).

Much better on C-SPAN, where they basically just used the raw video feed with a minimum of extraneous jabber. At this point, I think you can assume that a pretty large part of the audience watching shuttle launches basically knows what's going on.

 

I suppose it was the inane stylings of CNN space "expert" Miles O'Brien you are objecting to?

 

Mainly. I'm sitting here gritting my teeth -- not only won't he STFU, about 1/3 of his stuff is either mildly inaccurate or complete bullshit. You'd think CNN would get somebody who really knows about the space program to be the commentator on shuttle launches??

 

He drives me nuts. I was so glad when he got dropped from their morning show. Supposedly, he was supposed to go up on the Shuttle after the Columbia - the first journalist in space - but it got canceled after the accident. Jones might know more about whether it's true.

 

He was on the list to be considered, no one was ever named to go.

 

Way dowwwwwnnnnn, below the ocean...

Plus, the Futurama parody:

 

Nothing beats watching it live from the Podunk Press parking lot.

 

What's the mission of this one? Anything cool?

 

Working on solar arrays.