Launch Time

CNN's current cover story (10 am pst July 26, 2005) is the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.

By now videos of shuttle launches are sort of ho hum. I remember as kid being herded into the gym at school to watch the shuttle launch and landing. It has become so routine (Mom used to say, "Did you clean your room? Brush your teeth? Watch the shuttle launch?") that the only thing to remind us of the spacecraft is something like its disintegration over Texas two years ago.

Well, for no apparent reason, I watched the launch online and noticed something different. Nasa now has something like over 120 cameras trained on the shuttle (some literally attached to the rocket boosters) to watch for any leaks, cracks, missing ceramic tiles, explosions, stowaways, whatever.

If you happen to get the NASA channel then I am sure they had even more spectacular coverage.

Update: NASA's launch video on their website is the same as CNN's. But you can view the NASA channel with live feed of astronauts doing exciting things like brushing their teeth here