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October 6, 2002
CAPE CANAVERAL -- In a dramatic first for human space flight, a camera will beam down live video as shuttle Atlantis soars into orbit this week.
The shuttlecam view will start with the launch pad, then the launch site and then Cape Canaveral and the Eastern Seaboard as Atlantis climbs higher.
Two minutes into the flight, viewers should see the booster rockets peeling away. Six minutes later, Atlantis will separate from its fuel tank, with the grand curvature of Earth below.
Show time is Monday afternoon, after nearly seven weeks of delay. The ride to orbit will be televised live by NASA and available on its Internet site, www.nasa.gov.
Atlantis was supposed to lift off in August, but was grounded with the rest of the shuttle fleet by cracked fuel lines. Then last week, Hurricane Lili forced a five-day postponement because of the threat to Mission Control in Houston.
The shuttlecam, mounted near the top of Atlantis' 154-foot external fuel tank, will be activated 15 minutes before liftoff. A timer will turn it off 15 minutes after liftoff to prevent radio interference in the countries below, said Mike Butler, an engineer with NASA's external tank project.
NASA came up with the idea in 1999 after watching the spectacular video from similar cameras launched on unmanned rockets over the previous two years.
"There was a pretty positive public reaction," said Phil Engelauf, lead flight director for Atlantis' space station construction mission, "just sort of the gee-whiz value of the photography."