The current CapComm, Chris Ferguson, is a friend of mine. Way to go, Chris!

The daily CapComm, Shane Kimbrough, is also a friend. "CapComm" means Communications Captain. That's the guy that is in contact with the astronauts aboard the orbiter.

You can see either of these guys on TV for the next several weeks. Chris has flown the shuttle. Shane is scheduled to go back to the moon.

Astronauts are so freaking cool.

Cool

I just watched it go off

RodeoSchro said:

Were the boosters the only thing lit??

lazycrockett said:

YES!

So far, no evidence of drunk astronauts: NASA
By Michael Christie
Wed Aug 8, 9:56 PM ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA has reviewed 10 years of space flights and found no evidence to back up allegations that astronauts boarded a space shuttle and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft drunk, the U.S. space agency's boss said on Wednesday.

The agency was investigating every flight involving shuttles, the Soyuz and the T-38 trainer jets flown by astronauts, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told reporters.

"Right now, we've gone back 10 years and we can't even find where it would be a possibility there was crew under the influence on either a Soyuz or a shuttle," he said.

I was watching it over the internet at work, and they resumed the countdown from 9:00 right before I had to leave and catch my bus.