Mission STS 109 dawn launch from Titusville, FL beach

Amateur footage just posted of the second last mission of Space Shuttle Columbia’s dawn launch

This footage was posted for the first time yesterday on LiveLeak and shows the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on March 1, 2002, 6:22 a.m. The video was taken on the beach at Titusville Florida.

Titusville is a small city on the inland water way and would be one of the closer spots to view, outside NASA’s perimeter. Cocoa Beach would be my first choice but Titusville does get a good view.

A city of 45,000, Titusville has a slightly lower income than average for a city its size and 46% higher crime rate than the average of US cities. When I visited there 10 years ago it seemed like a nice low cost town but looks can be deceiving.

Map of launch vacinity - Click for larger image

The official NASA video is obviously closer but the beach views are spectacular. People who have seen it express awe at the sight and sounds.

Columbia STS 109 was delayed until a weather window opened in March. The mission goals included maintenance of the Hubble telescope.

The 11-day mission rejuvenated the Hubble Space Telescope in a series of five spacewalks. After grasping the telescope and pulling it into the payload bay, the spacewalkers, assisted by Mission Specialist Nancy Jane Currie operating the shuttle’s robotic arm, installed new and improved equipment that gave the telescope more power, a new module to dispense the power, and a cameral able to see twice as much area, with more speed and clarity. They also installed an experimental cooling system in hope of restoring life to the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. Columbia performed perfectly.

The last mission of Columbia ended catastrophically when the Shuttle broke up at 12,500 miles an hour 207,000 feet above New Mexico. After a successful 15 day flight, protective heat tiles failed and heat buildup on the left wheel well spread quickly throughout the left wing. The resulting structural failure took about 6 minutes to engulf the wing and cause abnormal drag on the left side. NASA Control computers were monitoring the situation. It’s not clear if the crew knew their situation until the last minute. The Shuttle and the crew were lost.

Of your a space nut, NASA maintains a complete archive and allows downloading of videos, photographs and articles. It’s a great site to poke around and explore.

With story from LiveLeak and NASA