I was watching NASA TV when the Shuttle performed its Terminal Initiation burn took place. They had been showing images of the Shuttle and the Moon taken from an external camera on the ISS. The Shuttle just looked like a pulsing light and there wasn't much detail in the Moon. They said they were about 20 seconds from the burn so I started a countdown and right on schedule there was a flash of light from the Shuttle. It didn't last lone and I don't know if I saw the whole burn or if the auto exposure on the camera stopped the lens down so I didn't see the whole burn. It was still mildly interesting to have seen it in real time.
There have been some problems with the Shuttle that NASA is watching. There was a piece of heat shield blanket that was lost. It was 4" wide by 1-1.5' long. NASA says it came from an area of the shuttle that is "not of great concern" [emphasis mine]. They have had blanket problems before and gone outside to remove a piece of protruding blanket and I think filled in a gap left by missing blanket on another occasion. I haven't seen anything saying if they are considering a repair this time around. They are also having trouble with the KU band microwave antenna. That antenna is used to send TV back to earth and also as a radar antenna for rendezvous and docking. The antenna was successfully used rot rendezvous but they are still experiencing problems using it for TV. Other than that the mission is going perfectly.
