Following the launch proceedings on
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html (Live NASA TV)
and on
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27385.0 (Live thread with updates, including images)
and of course chomping peanuts furiously...
Any fellow UMSF'ers out there, and where are you at?
- Go MSL!
Go MSL - I should coco! Things are looking good for launch; currently at T-4 minutes and holding.
I'm at home in north Wales. Blowing a gale outside. Starting to get rather excited about it all - after months (years) of budget trouble and uncertainty, there was a time when I reckoned it would never get off the ground.
On the live feed, the NLM just wished Curiosity Godspeed.
I'm in San Diego watching on USTREAM:
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
Fingers crossed! All GO!
My link to NASA Spaceflight forum is about thirty seconds in front of my NASA TV feed - it's a very odd experience watching people post about things that appear not to have happened yet...
90 seconds to go!
GO GO!
MECO! Centaur looks good!
Booster sep, fairing sep all accomplished - that's looking as smooth as ice so far.
Nice shots of payload fairing separation and staging !
(Edited to add; look how slowly I type and post from prior post, LOL)
So far, so good...
That unexpected data loss moment gave me a nasty turn for a few moments there...
Very happy to hear everything's back to normal. Go Curiosity!
Hmm. Still getting data losses - 'though when we do get some data back, all levels are as expected'.
These continuing intermittent data drop outs are getting a bit worrisome (or is it just me?) Anyone know if this telemetry's being transmitted from the actual cruise stage, or from the still-attached Centaur?
According to the commentary all looks well. We will soon get data via a South African ground station instead of the satellite relay, so I guess that will be better.
I plan to post the first 26 minutes of the mission on youtube, it should be uploaded in HD by tomorrow.
Great clean launch so far, woohoo!!!! - This is wonderful. Now crossing fingers for trans-Mars injection.
Not sure, but let's remember that the comm chain has many links (TDRS, ground stations, commercial satcom links, landlines, etc.) and there are many variables, chief among them geometry. There's no reason to assume that this indicates a problem with MSL or the booster.
The data quality has just been described as 'marginal', but it seems that every time they do get figures, the figures look OK. Around five minutes to MECO.
Don't recall ever seeing payload fairing sep from the ground before - pretty cool!
Thanks folks, pardon my nerves
*Gorgeous* on-board video now via Diego Garcia approaching cruise stage separation...
Cool view of the spacecraft.
Live video of separation - how sweet is that????
Just beautiful! Thanks to everyone's hard work that made this possible... GO CURIOSITY!
Beautiful!
Spacecraft separation went well!!! WOOHOO!
Amazing view of the Centaur stage and rotation thrusters reflecting in the pristine solar panel of the cruise stage. Sep nominal, all went well and lots of clapping in the control room.
- Now for a quiet, eventless cruise until EDL and more peanuts!
Beautiful video during separation. I think crescent Earth was visible as a reflection on the cruise stage solar panel cells around spin-up time.
Have a safe trip home little robot !
Congratulations to all the teams involved!
So... are we there yet?
...a sweet launch.
FYI all, http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7138&hl= for MSL cruise. This thread will be closing in the near future.
Beautiful indeed!
Safe cruise Curiosity....
To cap this thread: a link to the thread at NASASpaceflight which gives a blow by blow account of the launch:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27385.0
- 22+ pages...
Wow! Was it really one year ago!
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-368#1
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/20121126-curiosity-one-year-ago.html
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