rjnoe@riccb.UUCP (Roger J. Noe) (08/28/85)
> At 0658 EDT today, Discovery punched its way through a hole in > the cloud cover over KSC and roared into orbit. That was one of the most spectacular launches I've ever seen. Blackness all around, yet not completely enveloping like the night Apollo launch or STS-8 two years ago. It's like the hole in the clouds was created just for the shuttle to go through. Absolutely amazing. They've successfully deployed two of their three communications satellites with the third planned to go Thursday, I think. That leaves Friday for maneuvering toward the dead Syncom and the rendezvous and repair over the weekend. I hope this time they'll put some of this on TV (apart from 20 seconds on the news). Upcoming launches: 10/01/85 mission 51-J Defense Department mission, first launch of Atlantis. 10/30/85 mission 61-A Spacelab D-1, Materials Processing. Challenger. Eight - countem - eight crew members on this one. 11/21/85 mission 51-H Earth Observation Mission 1, second Atlantis mission. 12/20/85 mission 61-C The return of Columbia! It's been undergoing quite a bit of refurbishment and upgrading since December 1983. It returns to deploy some satellites. And then 1986 is going to be a banner year for the shuttle. Spacelab 4, the TELESCOPE, a polar orbit launch from Vandenberg AFB, Ulysses (International Solar Polar Mission), and Galileo (Jupiter orbiter/probe) and that's just what's scheduled through May! And they wanted to delete net.columbia? -- Roger Noe ihnp4!ihopa!riccb!rjnoe Rockwell International
thoth@tellab3.UUCP (Marcus Hall) (08/29/85)
With all the re-scheduling, I flubbed the time zone change and started recording at 6:45 CDT and thus totally missed the launch. Later that morning I didn't see it replayed on the news, so I completely missed it. Unfortunately, I was also trying to record it for a friend who keeps tapes of all the shuttle flights and is vacationing in Australia. Does anyone out there have a tape of the launch? If so, would it be possible for me to borrow it? Beta or VHS is fine (even U-matic). Alternately, does anyone have any suggestions on where such a tape could be found? Our cable system gets the NASA video feed, do they run mission highlights on that anytime? Thanks, marcus hall !ihnp4!tellab1!tellab2!thoth <Note: tellab2, not tellab3 where this article came from