New Horizons on NASA TV

Is this live blogging? Not exactly, but it is pretty cool that I can put NASA TV in a Windows Media Player window, shrink it down to a little tool-bar mini-TV, and keep an eye on it while working (and um, blogging), waiting for Atlas Launch Control to resume the countdown from the T-4 minute hold to launch at 1:45 p.m. EST, about 6 minutes from now. Their only remaining concern is some wind gusts that may be a little outside their launch parameters. They have released some balloons and are waiting for updated winds aloft. The other stations are all reporting "go" for launch at the moment.

Update: OK, I posted and they immediately pushed it back to 2:10 pm to allow more time to evaluate the winds! The launch window today extends to 3:23 pm (I think that's what he just said), so I better get back to work and just wait for the launch! I'm sure there will be lots of blog and other web coverage of this mission to Pluto/Charon and the Kuiper Belt. I wrote about the mission (and simulating it in Orbiter) back on December 5.

Final update for today: Launch time was pushed to the end of the window (3:23 pm EST), started from the T-4 hold, and aborted at about T-2 minutes. Try again tomorrow.