jamescanvin can go back to bed for a bit then....

Good view on NASA TV now of the wind in the palm trees. The vapour from the cryogenic boiloff is being blown a long way from the rocket too.

Get them fingers crossed lads (and lasses)! Here we go!

1824 GMT (1:24 p.m. EST)

A new flight profile based on the upper level winds needs to be performed for the delayed launch time. Ground winds are still a concern, and the first stage liquid oxygen fill and drain valve problem has not been put to rest yet.

I'm just waiting for the words SCRUB ! to appear

Any news on that wind?

Wind has dropped a bit.

Engineering Poll and Advisory Poll complete and all GO

Still concern about the surface and upper level winds.

Weather baloon information is due in a few minutes.

Fill/Drain valve issue has been sorted

Nick

New T0 = 19:10 GMT

Pushed out to 19:10 Z, 14:10 EST.

The Pluto URL http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php is now very busy and it does not let me to get in and watch the NASA TV. May anyone let me know what is the alternative URL TV source.

Rodolfo

T0 at 19:10

Time to put the kettle on.

Or go grab a soda!

The suspense is killing me! Who needs Hollywood!

Nick

Wind is dropping

Click to view attachment

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/

Rodolfo,

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Does anybody know of the great features shown at NASA TV about preparing the launch vehicle are available online ?
They should make a DVD out of this, the Atlas V is a real beauty

I feel a little guilty, what with all of you trying to keep a streaming video connection going so you can see blurry images of the rocket.

My cable system got its act together a couple of months ago, and we once again have a very nice, clean NASA-TV signal. And I have a DVR, so I'm recording the launch (though I've got a good hour of the thing just sitting on the pad at this point... ...)

-the other Doug

Great boys,

Now I am able to see thru the NASA TV at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/.

Now I see NH spewing white smog on the middle height of rocket. Is that the water vapor?

Rodolfo

Yeah, the connection seems to have "cleared up" a bit now. Knock on wood...

While waiting, I checked the Front Page and see that 83 folks are online now. BTW, what's the record?

Spaceflightnow.com
1852 GMT (1:52 p.m. EST)
A Lockheed Martin spokesman says the upper level wind issue is actually at an altitude of 800 feet. Attempts to develop a flight profile to withstand the current wind conditions failed the past two tries, he said.

More and more it looks like it will not fly anywhere today... ...hope I'm wrong...

Well, Attempts to develop a new flight profile to withstand the current wind conditions failed but they await new meteo data hoping the winds dropped...
Launch window open untill 03:23

That sounds like its going to be a scrub for today, with bad wx tomorrow too

Damn! 19:30 GMT new T0...

Delayed to 19:30 GMT.

T0 now at 19:30 Z, 14:30 EST.

May I recommend the XviD codec then, if you plan on posting the video? If you like, e-mail me and I can send you a nice tutorial on getting good results with Virtualdub.

NEW LAUNCH TIME. Liftoff has been pushed back to 2:30 p.m. EST.

In the afternoon, around Florida usually have lots of winds and I am afraid that its wind strength will last until late afternoon. When I was a university student, I have salied around Key Biscayne, Miami and I know that zone has good afternoon winds.

Hope that the sky becomes a good gentlemen for a while to let the NH to streak to Pluto.

Rodolfo

Personally, I'd go with the H.264 codec, IMHO it outclasses both XviD and DivX codecs. There's a free implementation available called x264 for AVI and as I understand, newer versions of QuickTime already support H.264.

Unfortunately, the DVR isn't connectable to my computer, and I have no stand-alone DVD recorder, so I have no way to port it to the PC for uploading...

-the other Doug

Does anybody know if there's an onboard camera simular to the ones used on Delta launch vehicle showing the ride up into space with a good vantage point to see the solids drop away ?

Did anybody catch what that anomalous-sounding announcement just was?

Yes, there are 3 rocket cameras, two on 1st stage (one downward, one upward), one on 2nd stage (upward).

No, there are no outside cameras on Atlas5.

Antigua tracking station offline due to a transmitter, but should be back up on time

It feels like a scrub day. But you never know.

Are you sure? I read there are 3 cameras.

x264 looks like it's still in its infancy. I just figured XviD because it's more widespead and mature.

Edit: I just encoded a video with x264 and Virtualdub. Output in WMP is grey and garbled.

Where did you get that information?

Launch is No-Go with current upper winds

We have 20minutes for the wind to die down

Intellicast Winds is not _the_ authoritative source, but it does not look favorable.

--Bill

I don't remember very clearly, maybe from a PDF at pluto.jhuapl.edu.

arghhhhh the tension lol

I have it in my hand and there is no mention of any cameras there...
Does anybody knows for sure?

I don't see any mention of NH on the company website for Rocketcam, who have put cameras on Atlas V in the past, and will later this year.

Rocketcam launch schedule

New profile sucessfully calculated and loaded into the IMU

Looks OK

AFAIK, there are no cameras mounted on the rocket, Alan Stern mentioned regretting about it. They needed every kilogram of payload available to the spacecraft itself...

The tension in this room is palpable, gentlemen...

-the other Doug

[HOLD IT!] - need to use the bathroom

Go quickly, count resumes in five minutes (if it resumes at all)...

-the other Doug