space shuttle

[Ecalap Latsyrc]

is about to take off for first time in 2 and a half years. within 3 mins. live on bbc news

[palace_crystal]

whoopy money well spent whilst millions die.

[JohnA]

I thought the comments about "the space shuttle going up today" on the radio this morning were rather crass.

[gadford4th]

Originally posted by palace_crystal
whoopy money well spent whilst millions die.

too true, i can never see the justification for this.

[stevek]

The first Space Shuttle crash was on my 16th birthday.

[palace_crystal]

Originally posted by gadford4th
too true, i can never see the justification for this.

Makes me laugh that we can put a man on the moon, (allegedly) but can't feed our own kind? Wonder how much money has been spent on 'space travel'??

[Ecalap Latsyrc]

If anyone missed it, here's a link for the launch. Regardless of politics it's a fascinating spectacle. To view the link you have to Register or Login

Where do you draw the line when it comes to wasting money? We (actually the yanks) may spend a fortune on space missions but there's probably far more wasteful projects being as heavily funded. Personally I like the different generations of commitment that have been shown, it's rare these days for projects which have mainly long term benefits to get any backing.

[heinz 57]

Who says we can't feed our own kind? we're perfectly capable of doing so, we just can't be bothered.

[heinz 57]

also, space shuttles are cool

[Ecalap Latsyrc]

Originally posted by heinz 57
also, space shuttles are cool

Quite. Though the problem with space shuttles is that they were cooler 25 years ago.

[JohnA]

Originally posted by stevek
The first Space Shuttle crash was on my 16th birthday.

Blimey I was at work on that day remember it well, I was told by a Kiwi colleague what the story was. No internet in those days.

[stevek]

Originally posted by JohnA
Blimey I was at work on that day remember it well, I was told by a Kiwi colleague what the story was. No internet in those days.

28 January 1986.

[BaldEagle96]

They made a comment on the news I heard on the radio that no-one was commenting on two large pieces of debris that fell away from the shuttle on take off???

[Gosling]

I watched the launch. Seemed to go fine to me.

[Hedgehog]

OK, I guess I have to give my 2 cents worth here…..

I am fortunate enough to actually work on the Space Shuttle program. My department, of which I am the Assembly and Test Lab Manager, built and now overhaul and maintain hydraulic actuators that go onto the Space Shuttle Orbiter Main Engines. Every Shuttle flight carries 15 of our actuators that are critical to a successful launch.

Two weeks ago I was fortunate to be at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to give a presentation on our Actuators to Rocketdyne (The Engine Builders). Part of the trip was to coincide with the proposed original launch date of July 13th. Unfortunately as we know, this never happened, and so I missed my first ever “live” launch. BUT we were given incredible unprecedented access to every nook and cranny of KSC. We got to go into the Engine Room, the Vertical Assembly Building (where the Orbiter is married up with the Fuel Tanks. We climbed all over the Orbiter Atlantis being readied for the next launch, and the greatest thing was to go out to the Launch Pad and stand right under the Discovery literally less than 24 hours from it’s original launch date and to see the astronauts up there visiting their families one last time before what was to be the launch. All this with open access to take pictures of which I took a bunch!

Although disappointed at not seeing a launch (I hear the noise, the heat and the ground shaking even from 4 miles away cannot be described), I have a new found appreciation and enthusiasm for the Shuttle Program, and will now defend its existence to the hilt. Not only is the engineering mind blowing, but the organizational skills are totally incomprehensible. I likened it to a million-piece gig saw that has to have every piece in place for a successful flight. What is amazing to me is that a lot of this goes back to the Apollo/Saturn days, an era before Computer Aided Design (CAD) and computers, as we know them today.

And to those who say it is a waste of money… I somewhat agree, but NASA’s budget is less than 5% of the US defense budget (I believe around $15 billion). Also having been to The Cape and seen how the entire area (known as The Space Cape) relies on the Space Program from hotels to restaurants to tourism to housing/shops/Auto etc etc. It literally employs albeit indirectly hundreds of thousands of people (including me, some 3000 miles away). The day of the original launch plan there were an estimated 800,000 people lining the roads in and around KSC hoping to see the launch. When we left that day the roads were complete gridlock everywhere.

So watching the launch today had very special meaning to me. Sad I was not there, but very proud, and to be honest VERY butt tweaking! Initial signs are everything went well and to plan. Now for a safe return in 12 days time.

Re: objects falling off at launch... NASA are now talking about them, and they now have so many camera looking at this thing (the place was just littered with them), I'm sure they will soon figure out what it was. Initial reports are protective paper coming off.

[Hedgehog]

Oh poop! Just heard some bad news (for me anyway).

Evidently all Shuttle launches have been cancelled for the foreseeable future!

It appears they are too concerned about debris that still came off the main fuel tank during this last launch. So far it would appear that no critical damage has been done to Discovery up there now, but they are unwilling at this time to take the chance again until this has been resolved.

Wonder how the guys up there right now are feeling about their re-entry????

[Dallas Eagles]

Been watching a bit of the coverage - cool to see them filming the shuttle doing a fly by of the space station so they could check the undercarriage for damage.

Stood outside my house in tampa - too much haze at 10am in the morning so could not see it shot up into the sky. So had to go back in a watch on tv. Fuel tank camera was a great shot.

[Hedgehog]

Originally posted by Dallas Eagles
Been watching a bit of the coverage - cool to see them filming the shuttle doing a fly by of the space station so they could check the undercarriage for damage.

Stood outside my house in tampa - too much haze at 10am in the morning so could not see it shot up into the sky. So had to go back in a watch on tv. Fuel tank camera was a great shot.

Hi Paul... Long time no hear or see on here.

We went over to Clearwater a couple of weeks back. I thought about you, but we were only there for one night and I was with 4 other guys.

We ate at PJ's.... ever heard of it or been there?

[Dallas Eagles]

Recommend Frenchy or Palm Pallion when in Clearwater - right on the beach and great views... wink... no really!

Actually got back from LA - client now live - now happy bunny - 20 month projects can be a killer.

now back online for the warm up for palace new successful season.
Just need to work out how to get the games on tv now not in ••••••ship.
Paul

[Hedgehog]

Originally posted by Ecalap Latsyrc
If anyone missed it, here's a link for the launch. Regardless of politics it's a fascinating spectacle. To view the link you have to Register or Login

Where do you draw the line when it comes to wasting money? We (actually the yanks) may spend a fortune on space missions but there's probably far more wasteful projects being as heavily funded. Personally I like the different generations of commitment that have been shown, it's rare these days for projects which have mainly long term benefits to get any backing.

I thought I would pass this on:

August 3, 2005
From Giant Leaps to Baby Steps
By EUGENE F. KRANZ
Houston
To read and listen to the coverage about the space shuttle, you would think NASA's mission team has taken careless risks with the lives of the seven astronauts who went into space on the Discovery last Tuesday. During the launching, foam fell off the external tank. For the risk-averse, the only acceptable thing to do now is retire the shuttle program immediately and wait for the divine arrival of the next generation of spacecraft. I am disgusted at the lack of courage and common sense this attitude shows.

All progress involves risk. Risk is essential to fuel the economic engine of our nation. And risk is essential to renew American's fundamental spirit of discovery so we remain competitive with the rest of the world.
My take on the current mission is very straightforward. The shuttle is in orbit. To a great extent mission managers have given the spacecraft a clean bill of health. Let us remember that this is a test flight. I consider it a remarkably successful test so far.

The technical response to the Columbia accident led to a significant reduction in the amount of debris striking this shuttle during launching. Mission managers have said that the external tank shed 80 percent less foam this time than on previous launchings. Only in the news media, apparently, is an 80 percent improvement considered a failure. Rather than quit, we must now try to reduce even more the amount of foam that comes off the tank.

The instruments and video equipment developed to assess the launching and monitor debris falling from the tank worked superbly. For the first time, the mission team knows what is happening, when it is happening and the flight conditions under which it occurred. This was a major mission objective, and it is an impressive achievement.

Having spent more than three decades working in the space program, I know that all of the flights of the early days involved some levels of risk. Some of those risks, in hindsight, seem incomprehensible by today's timid standards. If we had quit when we had our first difficulties in Project Mercury, we would have never put John Glenn on the Atlas rocket Friendship 7 in 1961. Two of the previous five Atlas rockets test-fired before Friendship 7 had exploded on liftoff.

On Gemini 9, 10 and 11, all in 1966, we had complications with planned spacewalks that placed the astronauts at risk. Rather than cancel the walks, we faced the risks and solved the problems. These set the stage for Gemini 12 later that year, during which Buzz Aldrin spent more than five hours outside the capsule and confirmed to NASA that spacewalks could be considered an operational capability.

Eventually, this ability enabled astronauts to retrieve satellites and repair and maintain the Hubble space telescope; and during the current mission, spacewalks were used to repair a gyroscope on the International Space Station and will allow the crew to fix some of the damage that occurred during the launching. These are the rewards for the risks we took on those early Gemini flights.

I understand the tragedy inherent in risk-taking; I witnessed the fire aboard Apollo 1 in 1967 that killed three crewmembers. It filled us with anger at ourselves and with the resolve to make it right. After the fire we didn't quit; we redesigned the Apollo command module. During the Apollo missions that followed, we were never perfect. But we were determined and competent and that made these missions successful.

I see the same combination of anger, resolve and determination in the space shuttle program today. These people are professionals who understand risk, how to reduce it and how to make that which remains acceptable. Most important, the current mission has demonstrated the maturity of the shuttle team that endured the Columbia disaster and had the guts to persevere. This is the most important aspect of the recovery from the Columbia accident, and is a credit to the great team NASA now has in place, headed by its administrator, Michael Griffin.

There are many nations that wish to surpass us in space. Does the "quit now" crowd really believe that abandoning the shuttle and International Space Station is the way to keep America the pre-eminent space-faring nation? Do they really believe that a new spacecraft will come without an engineering challenge or a human toll? The path the naysayers suggest is so out of touch with the American character of perseverance, hard work and discovery that they don't even realize the danger in which they are putting future astronauts - not to mention our nation.

Eugene F. Kranz, author of "Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond," is a former Apollo flight director.