So it's come to this..the day of the final shuttle launch ever

Can you see the forest thru the trees?

Like a butterfly shuttle ready to spread its wings for the final time.

Following what may have been Atlantis’ last – and rather eventful – final full day at Launch Pad 39A, Mission Management Team (MMT) managers are set to meet to discuss whether or not to proceed with Tanking. With the weather showing no signs of improvement in the forecasts for T-0, even a GO decision holds a large potential to result in a scrub later in the countdown. This happens around 1:30 am Eastern, if they scrub early you get a 24 hour recycle and they will try for Saturday.
STS-135 Latest:
As has been the trend for most of the week, the main concern for launch are showers and thunderstorms within 20 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), flight through precipitation, and cumulus clouds. As such, there is only a 30 percent chance of favorable weather by the time Atlantis is due to launch, with the window opening at 1121 EDT.
S0007 (Launch Countdown) tasks have proceeded without any major issues, with the PRSD (Power Reactant Storage and Distributation) cryo load, LO2 and LH2 Preps for ET load, and ET feedline inspection and Borescope inspection of SRB crossovers all completed.
The FRCS (Forward Reaction Control System) Tyvek covers were installed. However, due to a failed pull test some of the covers were reinstalled. COM activation was completed on Thursday morning, leading up to the next milestone, which was the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure (RSS).
This operation was moved around on the timeline due to storm weather in the region, which produced a very strong 70,000 amps lightning strike – one of two observed by the array of monitoring equipment – inside the Pad 39A complex.
“Data review showed the two strikes occurred at 12:31 p.m. and 12:40 p.m. EDT,” noted NASA. “The first struck the water tower 515 feet (157 meters) from the pad and the second struck the beach area northeast of the pad.”
Thankfully, an Engineering Review Board (ERB) meeting later in the day cleared the stack from any ill effects from the event.
Four new Interim Problem Reports (IPRs) were listed by the NASA Test Director (NTD), the latest of which on Thursday – IPR-59 – has since been resolved.

“IPR 0059: The IPR was taken to document the loss of all three facility chillers at Pad A. Initially Chiller #2 dropped offline and subsequently Chillers #1 and #3 failed to startup properly. No cooling violations were violated on GSE (Ground Support Equipment) or Flight hardware,” noted the NTD report (L2).
“Chiller #2 and #3 were able to be restored to service but the root cause of the three failures is unknown. The team will continue to troubleshoot the issue (since cleared from being a constraint in the pad flow).”
The Tanking/Weather Brief MMT meeting will take place at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), with a GO/NO GO decision expected between 1:30 and 1:45 am local time.

Won't see signs like this on SR 3 anytime soon..

Plenty of things going on with the Space Tweeps, including today's star not the two flown astronauts but Elmo holding center stage. 

NASA Space Tweeps at the final RSS rollback that you will ever see

 Nasa did hold a pre launch briefing on where we go next in space but very little was paid to the subject of manned space flight, the russians this, the russians that we gave commercial company's  money but no body has launched any test flights manned or unmanned.  Wait til the fall of the presidential election then we're going to hear about the jobs that KSC will get..Not until.  Yes it's politics as usual.

Great photo by Apacheman who's about to join the rest of the unemployed space workforce.

I have friends everywhere watching this launch, one of them is a transplanted New Zealander and she assembled this package today
If you have audioboo look for the work of Space Kate, you will learn some things you didn't know.

Buran only flew once, it was unmanned but get ready for this:

But according to cosmonaut (and ISS alum) Oleg Kotov, the craft had some serious potential—outclassing its American rival at both saving lives and destroying them.
Kotov talked to New Scientist, explaining that the Buran's design superiority lay in safety:

It would have allowed all of a crew to escape at any stage of the flight; even on the launch pad there was an escape pod. The NASA shuttle crew does not have this opportunity. Buran had ejector seats for all crew members. And that includes those sitting in the mid-deck, who had seats that ejected sideways.

The Buran could have also avoided the Columbia's  horrible fate by avoiding the need for (failure-prone) foam:

We had no external tank: the Buran orbiter was attached to an Energia rocket, not a tank. And that rocket needed no foam on its surface.

But what about this nuke launching business? That's not exactly a NASA mainstay!

It was originally designed as a military system for weapon delivery, maybe even nuclear weapons...A shuttle is particularly useful for this because it can change its orbit and trajectory—so an attack from it is almost impossible to protect against.

Buran was sold to the Politburo and Gorbachev as an anti star wars program. The Russians truly feared that Shuttle would kill their satellites and be used as a first strike weapon. (ah the cold war)

My partner in crime at KSC  Biff Burns used to phone Paul Harvey with bumper-stickers  he would have enjoyed this one.

This is all that is left of the Ares I Pad LCC 39 B where Challenger was launched  {photo by CatherineQ}

Press site for Apollo, ASTP, and Space Shuttle  before the press corps showed up.

Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfled who will command an ISS Expedition later this year.  The last time you will see this sight at night...in your lifetime.

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