Let’s try again. As far as I know, the Orion launch—a precursor to more expeditions to Mars—is on, and the launch is in about 19 minutes: at 7:05 EST. WATCH IT!
All is well with 15 minutes to go.
The NASA livestream can be seen on their site (and it works for me); click on screenshot below to get there:
To get to the live BBC stream, which is better (especially when enlarged), click on the screenshot below:
The BBC also has a nice site detailing the launch and flight, which will last only a bit more than four hours (it’s a tryout). Here’s one figure:
Did the NASA feed go down for every1 else with about 10 seconds to go? Had a tv back up thankfully..
Yes! It did for me. I missed the ignition and lift-off sadly, after sitting there in excited expectation for 30 minutes.
Live feed went to audio only for me.
I watched it through the BBC link with no problems.
The stream cut out at T-5 seconds for me, and it took a few seconds to switch to Ustream so I missed it live….a little mad right now.
A wonderful example of what technology and science can do.
I sat in the UK and watched the internet stream live from a rocket launch! Just incredible.
The view as its plume shadowed on the clouds and went through Mach 1 was so beautiful and for me touched with awe at the technical achievements I was being privileged to view.
Go science for the win!
Watch it? Frankly I find government manned BEO crafts boring as opposed to commercial cargo & crew, since ISS is the current laboratory. It will be 4-5 years before the first manned mission, which will do token science on the lunar backside I guess, and at likely 11 years before it does some valuable science & exploration. [ http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/11/sls-manifest-europa-mars-sample-return-missions/ ] You could as well ask Commercial Crew to develop a cis-lunar craft to service the lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit that is planned as a waypoint for the Orion/Mars transfer vehicle staging and is the target for the current version of Orion. [ http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2014/20141119-how-nasa-plans-mars.html ] CC could get there faster than that!
Now SLS, oversized behemoth as it is (the 50 mt LEO launchers are with current technology the best ROI according to the Augustine report), is exciting to me. While the unnecessarily expensive launcher will deduct money from planetary science it will also speed the few US planetary missions left. The above mentioned Europa Clipper mission that would delay manned missions to keep within budget could reach Europa in 2024 instead of 2032. That would be a launch I wouldn’t want to miss! [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper ]