Posted for your enjoyment: Just hours before the scheduled launch of the STS-128 mission, NASA TV played a message from comedian Stephen Colbert, namesake of the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT). The treadmill is on board space shuttle Discovery, which will launch at 5:36 GMT (1:36 EDT) Tuesday morning, heading to the International Space Station for a 16 day mission. As of this writing, Discovery’s external tank has been loaded with about 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in preparation for the launch. This will be Discovery’s 37th mission to space and the 30th mission of a space shuttle dedicated to the assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station.
UPDATE: The launch was scrubbed because of stormy weather. NASA will try again at 5:10 GMT (1:10 a.m. EDT) Wednesday. The most recent forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions at that time.
The launch will be shown live on NASA TV. Here’s where to watch it one the web.
Spaceflightnow.com will also be hosting a live webcast with Miles O’Brien, David Waters and former astronaut Leroy Chiao starting at 9 p.m. EDT Monday evening.
I know next to nothing about Colbert.
Looking forward to a good show, even though I’m based in Tampa, FL. Past night launches have looked like distant Roman candles, especially after the SRBs separate. Hope the weather between the Cape and Tampa will not be a problem. Just hope it gets off on time later this morning.
And it got delayed again, until tomorrow AM (it was a faulty valve this time).
Lordy. If we’re still having problems like this after so many years of service, I’m actually looking forward to retiring the thing.