The Final Space Shuttle Launch: Atlantis STS-135 (liveblog + webcast)

Watch live streaming video from spaceflightnow at livestream.com

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Greetings from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. I'm here with thousands of other space devotees and media folk for the 135th and final launch of the Space Shuttle. If weather and technology permit, we will see Atlantis and her four-person crew lift off at 11:26am ET, headed on a mission to bring supplies to the International Space Station. I'm here at the press mound with space reporter Miles O'Brien and the SpaceFlightNow crew, who will be hosting a live webcast, rain or shine, scrub or launch, starting at 630am ET. I'll post updates in this post as events progress, and you may also want to follow on Twitter: @xenijardin for my fast personal observations, and @SpaceFlightNow for short news updates.

Current chatter from those in the know: 30% odds for launch, but all of the experienced shuttle reporters and astronauts around our camp are cautiously optimistic. If today is a scrub, Saturday's weather looks better than Sunday's. The two most likely points at which we'd hear "no go": just before the crew get on board, or then, of course, just at the final countdown. Here's Bill Harwood's take.

[photo below: SpaceFlightNow producer Kate Tobin surveys the many live HD feeds that will comprise today's webcast.]

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