At the Gateway to Space

Last Friday I participated in a 'systems hardware walkdown' to view the flight hardware for the upcoming STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. While there, I also got to take some interesting pictures of the KSC/Cape Canaveral facilities and Cocoa Beach.


Shuttle Atlantis on Pad 39A awaiting launch to the Hubble Space Telescope. The top of the Shuttle's orange External Tank is visible while the rest of the vehicle is obscured by the pad's Rotating Service Structure.



Atlas V Launch Complex 41 on the left, Falcon 9 Launch Complex 40 on the right. The sets of four spindly towers at each launch site serve to protect the rockets and launch facilities from lightning strikes.



The view from in front of my room at the Holiday Inn, Cocoa Beach.

The launch to Hubble is currently scheduled for October 10. Meanwhile, our friends and colleagues at Johnson Space Center remain in our thoughts and prayers as they deal with recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.