Atlantis launched successfully, end of an era

[bt]

The very, very last NASA Shuttle launch was this morning.  With the de facto cancellation of the Constellation program it was quite possibly the last manned launch NASA will operate, ever.  Under the current U.S. National Space Policy, future NASA manned missions will be essentially chartered from the Russians for now, and private companies (SpaceX, Virgin Galactic) in the future.

There were some weather concerns, but in the end not enough to delay the launch.  Wish I could have been there to see it as there will never be another one to see, but I had to settle for watching it on NASA TV instead and planning a trip to go see one of the shuttles in it's "retirement home".

[Nerine]

we watched on CNN...glad that nothing stopped it from going!! important day in history

[rockgarden]

Nice that it got away without delays since so many previous flights have had to be delayed due to weather, technical glitches, etc.

[Jeff1192]

Pretty weird to think that it's the last one going up. I'm 38 so it seems like there have always been space shuttles going up. Hopefully it gets replaced with a new type of manned vessel.

Jeff

[elk]

The Canadian Broadcasting corp also known as CBC thought it was more important to broadcast the Calgary Stampede parade.

The americans actually cut into Drew Carey and the Price is right to show the launch.