Atlantis Mission STS-135 - The Final Flight

                                      

The FINAL Flight of our Space Shuttle program will end when Shuttle Atlantis lifts off from launchpad 39A THIS MORNING at 11:26AM EDT. Along with this historic event, we will also witness space communications history, as CAPCOM will NEVER EVER utter the words "The shuttle has cleared the tower"  again. We will never again hear mission control guide the shuttle around nor will they ever perform their other shuttle duties again. 

George Diller was the distinctive voice behind the countdown and launch commentary at NASA. Quoting a "First Coast News" interview with Diller: ""My first launch commentary was for Atlantis, STS-27, my last, STS-135, is going to be Atlantis on Friday." "I fell in love with it.  It's nice not to have to work for a living," he joked.

"There's a little apprehension.  There's a lot of concentration. You don't have time to be nervous about it because you're so focused on the last 31 seconds. That's where rubber meets the road. You're either gonna launch or you're not." "Everyone wants to know what my lift-off line is," he said. "I've got part of it, not the end of it."

Image Credit: NASA and First Coast News. George Diller Stands By the NASA Countdown Clock

 

Farewell to our shuttle program, and to the astronauts who worked so hard to educate the world about the universe above us and around us. Let us all remember those astronauts who gave their lives in the pursuit of science, education, and understanding. Someone who knew the importance of the space shuttle program to our nation and the world at large has created a Facebook Page that has gone viral over the last day or two, called simply "STS-135 The Final Space Shuttle Flight". You can see the page publicly and join by clicking here.

The STS-135 Final Flight page is full of shuttle history, facts, final mission information updates, videos, photos, and files. Thanks, NASA, for all the years of memories created during the shuttle program!

As for shuttle frequencies for STS-135: 259.700 AM is the main frequency you want to concentrate on. Also try sweeping the HF frequencies from 10.000.00Khz up through the beginning of the ten meter band at 28.300.00Khz.  KU4AY has a huge Space Shuttle Frequency listing here

AMSAT has Amateur Radio shuttle re-broadcast audio freqs here (May be out of date??)

Space Shuttle HF through UHF and higher freq listing (KD4CGA)

Here is the link to George W. Fetter's space shuttle frequency listings.

No chatter has been happening at Space Coast Comms or other groups regarding this final shuttle mission. NASA states that manned spaceflight will indeed resume with a new space transport vehicle, but no date has been announced.