Endeavour Launch

T-Minus 3 hours and counting and the crew is traveling out to the pad. The Commander Scott Kelly's twin brother is also a Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly. He was taking pictures of the crew during suit up. CNN has an article about the drinking of astronauts before flight here. Commander Scott Kelly was not happy with the rumors of drinking before flight. I think the crazy astronaut love triangle hyped up the press that any tarnishing of the Right Stuff they make a big deal out of it.

"To imply that my crew or I would ever consider launching on our mission in anything but the best possible condition is utterly ridiculous," Kelly penned in the letter. "It is beyond my comprehension that anyone in the astronaut office would consider doing what is suggested in this report."

1:15 PM PDT Crew has egresses in the shuttle and now on to com checks.

From Flame Trench an article at Florida Today on Barbara Morgan here:

This time, however, the teacher is a full-fledged astronaut who will spend most of her time driving a robot arm, moving supplies and doing other astronaut work critical to Endeavour's two-week mission to continue construction of the International Space Station.

The 55-year-old rookie is Barbara Morgan, who was the backup to Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died along with six astronaut crewmates in the 1986 Challenger explosion. Her dream of flying in space is coming true after spending another 12 years teaching school in Idaho before being selected into the astronauts corps.

From CNN "Teachers IN Space: This is our Flight!"

2:15 PM PDT Looks like hatch closing problem is a glitch. Also, cracks in foam on the external tank look ok to go for launch . More at the launch blog here.

2:26 PDT Hatch problem has been solved, the pressure is ok in the cabin.

2:35 PDT Weather is good to go, no showers at all! Hot and Humid.

3:07 PDT All White room crew are vacated and now set to launch.

3:26 PDT T-9 and counting. All systems are go and launch director gives the ok.

3:30 PDT T-6 and counting and the arm just pulled away from the shuttle.

3:33 PDT T-3 and counting and the engines have been gimbled. The vent arm is retracting.

3:35 T 1:30 and counting
3:36 PDT 5-4-3-2-1 Blast off!