STS-124 - Shuttle Discovery LAUNCHED

Posted by JohnP 06/01/2008 at 10:07

I had planned to watch this launch, but all the viewing Cape Canaveral tickets were sold out. After working as a contractor for 8 years in Houston – Shuttle On-board Flight Software and on Mission Control EDP software, I never got to watch a launch in Florida. I did watch a few from the JSC Mission Control Center and, early on, was forced to sit in the server data center next to the EDP project servers in case there was any problem that required physical correction. Not much fun since there was no headset link or TV or radio in the server rooms.

Anyways, the launch was on a Saturday after a holiday long weekend, so I didn’t want to brave the tourist and traffic to go.
Here’s the launch … youtube embedded video.

Enjoy.

Oh, and watch the landing – I re-wrote the nosewheel steering software and the aileron/elevon control software that makes all the landings since 1992 or so, perfect.

The Landing … on 6/14/2008. Notice how smooooooth it is. Thank you, thank you very much.