How to Follow the Shuttle Launch on the Internet

11 May 2009

The Atlantis Space Shuttle will launch into space Monday at 2:01 Eastern time from Cape Canaveral, Florida headed for the Hubble Space Telescope.

One of the last Shuttle flights NASA will attempt, the mission will service and repair the world’s most famous orbiting eye, so that it can continue taking beautiful pictures of the universe for at least a few more years, or at least until Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is hanging in the firmament, sometime during 2013.

While Shuttle launches are well covered by the well heeled media organizations, there’s always been a dedicated group of amateurs who want to be as close as possible whenever man makes for the stars.

Now, through social media sites, we can ferret out their efforts — and keep a direct line open to NASA. Below, we’ve posted photos and videos uploaded to Twitter, flickr, Qik, and YouTube of the launch, along with commentary from those who sat in the shadow of the manmade giant. Here’s a quick guide to who’s feeding the Internet with live information about the launch.

NASA. The standard way to actually watch the launch is through NASA TV, but the agency’s outreach plan is much broader than that. NASA is liveblogging and Twittering, @NASA. Mike Massimino, an astronaut on board the Shuttle is also Tweeting at @astro_mike and he’s promised to send some messages from orbit.
Ustream. If you like Twitter/TV mashups, you might want to try the Spacevidcast video feed with Tweets baked in. (The feed is embedded above.)
Various Twitterers. There’s an armada of camera carrying space lovers down at Cape Canaveral. You can watch the whole thing unfold at Tweetgrid, complete with pictures. The problem is that there is a lot of noise, so, if you want less mess, just follow:
@absolutspacegirl because she’s a rocket scientist at Johnson Space Center.
@kabong, @mattsimantov, @bluewatermed and @jbb because they are snapping and posting pictures that make you feel like you’re there.
@sbovio because she’s providing great color commentary.
Pro Media. Florida Today always does a bang up job on Shuttle launches and you can follow them on Twitter, too, @spaceteam. And who could forget @milesobrien and his new venture, @spaceflightnow, which is broadcasting live from the Cape.