Shuttle Discovery Lifts Off 445
An anonymous reader writes "CNN is reporting that the Space Shuttle Discovery has lifted off, marking the United States' returned to manned space flight for the first time since the Columbia disaster in February 2003"
BBC article (Score:3, Informative)
Kudos to all the Nasa engineers!
Re:MSNBC Commentator is a jackass (Score:5, Informative)
Watching the shuttle seperate from the fuel tank was amazing, and you could tell he was just as excited about the new video feed from NASA as I, or any self respecting nerd, was.
Mission Status Center link (Score:5, Informative)
Darned Dallas newspaper printed the 10:39 time as though it were local, so I missed it. The Mission Status Center is the next best thing. Interesting tidbit: "Mission specialist No. 3 Andy Thomas
Relating Links (Score:4, Informative)
Miles O'Brien's Launch Blog [cnn.com]
Shuttle Details [nasa.gov]
Return to Flight [nasa.gov]
Re:MSNBC Commentator is a jackass (Score:5, Informative)
I gotta say that it was the best coverage of a launch I have ever seen, even better than NASA TV's coverage!
Re:MSNBC Commentator is a jackass (Score:5, Informative)
God Speed (Score:4, Informative)
Good luck and come back safe.
Re:fun with conspiracy theories. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Camera Views (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, the liquid fuel tank camera view was incredible. I hope that I can find the clip of the shuttle executing its roll with earth in the background.
Jumping in with both feet (Score:3, Informative)
From the Mission Briefing [nasa.gov]
As much as I wish they were putting money into something other than the ISS, it's fantastic to see that the shuttle is fully operational again.Big Chunk Of Something fell off (Score:5, Informative)
1512 GMT (11:12 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 33 minutes. A few seconds after solid rocket booster separation, a large chunk of something broke free from the external fuel tank. The onboard video camera mounted on the tank showed the object flying away from the vehicle without striking Discovery.
Almost... (Score:3, Informative)
-everphilski-
Soichi Noguchi & the Japanese Shuttle to the M (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps, Tokyo should consider using Japan's arsensal high-performance computers [slashdot.org] to advance the state of the art in fighter aircraft and space vehicles. Designing these devices requires intensive numerical simulations which are ideally suited to such high-performance computers, which have been relegated to more mundane tasks like terrestrial simulations (e.g. weather simulation). Building the precursor to a starship seems to be a tad more interesting than terrestrial simulations.
Flight hiatus (Score:4, Informative)
or if that money would be better spent in not going to space for the next 5 to 10 years
That was the original rationale for the space shuttle program. There was a 7 year flight hiatus. What good did it do? We really need a more incremental program. This is something we should learn from the Russians. The new NASA administrator is behind the idea. I think you will see a new Crew Exploration Vehicle launched by a shuttle-derived booster, sooner rather than later.
Re:MSNBC Commentator is a jackass (Score:3, Informative)
Piece of debris of the external tank (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Almost... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MSNBC Commentator is a jackass (Score:5, Informative)
After draining the tank, NASA could not reproduce the failure. Wiring was tested/replaced/etc, no failures.
The decision was to test multiple times before the launch, including one last test at 9 minutes before. The only conditions that would allow launch to continue, the sensor works, or fails in the exact same mannor as before. Any other behavior patterns would have halted the launch. Had it failed the same way, the behavior would have been predictable, and the systems setup to ignore the faulty sensor and rely on three other duplicates.
debris? (Score:5, Informative)
- An image from the external tank video shows the chunk of debris breaking away from the tank just after the solid boosters separated.
See the image here [spaceflightnow.com]
Re:Camera Views (Score:4, Informative)
"When the External Tank is empty, it separates from the Orbiter, too. It breaks apart, and its pieces fall in the ocean."
URL: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/fea
Re:MSNBC Commentator is a jackass (Score:1, Informative)
"The sensor, one of four used to measure liquid hydrogen fuel levels inside the external tank, tracks propellant during launch to make sure Discovery's main engines shut down before the tank runs dry."
Doesn't really sound like it is "part of a valve". Rather, it seems to be part of the external tank's fuel control system (of which the valve is another part). Nice try though.
And I notice that you didn't say anything about your erroneous statement that the shuttle incident in 2003 was during launch. Or perhaps during that time you saw footage of the 1987 Challenger disaster and got confused?
Re:We need an HD "Earth Views" satellite in orbit (Score:4, Informative)
"Broadcasting beautiful views, 24 hours a day. You're tuned to the Scenery Channel."
- A window in the McFly's future HillDale residence, Back To The Future: Part II [imdb.com], 1989
Re:debris? (Score:3, Informative)
They have told the crew that there is no schedule change for the mission, and that they just wanted to inform the crew, there are no real problems detected as of now.
Note: The parent poster is an idiot (Score:1, Informative)