Shuttle Discovery Lands Safely 668
Tuxedo Jack writes "CNN and NASA report that the space shuttle Discovery has landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Concerns for its safe return were raised when spacewalks were necessary to repair the vehicle when external components were damaged; however, the shuttle landed safely with Commander Eileen Collins at the control yoke."
Welcome home (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Welcome home (Score:5, Interesting)
Slashdot interview! (No, I'm serious. Good publicity for them among people who want to see the space program continue.)
Re:Welcome home (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Waste (Score:3, Insightful)
Scrap the shuttle. Move the money to private industry (ala Burt Ruttan, Scaled Composites, etc.)
Who do you think builds the shuttle and stack components? Hint: It's not NASA; it's Rockwell, Morton Thiokol, Pratt & Whitney, etc. NASA puts out an RFP for a project, selects one of the resulting designs and pays the private contractor(s) to build it. If you just dump the money on private industry, all you'll get is rich CEOs partying in the Bahamas.
In 5 years, we'll all be in space just like the a
woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:4, Funny)
Land the shuttle yourself (Score:3, Interesting)
I love this page, and it seems to be an opportune moment.
Land the shuttle yourself [x-plane.com] you macho.
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:2)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:2, Informative)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:2)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:5, Interesting)
Collins gave the reporter a half-condesending look and said "There is no significance".
Finally, we have reached a point where no one gives a shit about equality of the sexes questions. I think we can say the women's rights movement has culturally ingrained itself into American Culture, because no one really gives a shit about it anymore.
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Insightful)
While it's wonderful (and well past due) that the professionals in the space program don't care about the gender of their colleagues, women still suffer plenty of discrimination in the workplace, are underpaid relative to men doing the same job with the same experience, and are still threatened with religious wackos cutting off access to healthcare services. Women are still underrepresented in the top levels
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you point me to a study that comes to this conclusion that accounts for continuity of employment? I suspect that factor accounts for the delta, but I'm completely open to persuasion to the contrary.
What a strange thing to say. Is there some movement afoot to prevent women from getti
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:4, Informative)
I've read that in studies that factor in senority and working hours, that the difference disappears.
The idea is that women tend to work fewer hours/take longer leaves than men, and this leads to the difference.
Heck my mother(an accountant) says the exact same thing. And she's the highest paid worker in the office.
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no significance, she flew the disco because she could.
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:4, Funny)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:2, Informative)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Funny)
Re:UPDATE: Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:4, Funny)
I bet you're hell to live with, haven't you got some pants to wash or shirts to iron?
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Informative)
Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey, for 49, she's not that bad.
What was that? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just curious...
Re:What was that? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What was that? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What was that? (Score:5, Funny)
Then guest commentator James Dobson from Focus on the Family said "No! It's the holy spirit guiding them home, you liberal commie!" at which point Bill O'Reilly bust in and said "Shut up, shut UP! cut his mike".
Re:What was that? (Score:3, Funny)
I see skies of black
Black rocks tooooo
Tons of moon dust
and I see youuuuuuu
And I think to myself
What a wonderful weld...
Re:What was that? (Score:3, Funny)
Psshh. Everyone knows that Lance Armstrong was the first man on the moon. DUH!
Re:What was that? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What was that? (Score:3, Informative)
When I first saw it in infrared it reminded me a lot of the space shuttle Columbia coming back on a flight where one of the APU's caught fire and
Re:What was that? (Score:5, Informative)
It was one of the Auxilliary Power Units (APUs) that power Discovery's systems during re-entry and landing. These generators are powered by rocket fuel, so what you saw (and I saw as well) was the steady pulsing of exhaust from one of the APUs. They power things like the ailerons, rudder, and other vital systems for the orbiter.
Re:What was that? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What was that? (Score:2)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
Re:What was that? (Score:2)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
Good to hear they are safe (Score:2, Insightful)
Good. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Good. (Score:5, Funny)
Tiles... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the damaged areas they noticed in orbit, are worse after re-entry...
Cheers,
Richard
Re:Tiles... (Score:5, Insightful)
This new data will prove invaluable not only for the remaining shuttle flights, but also for the replacement vehicle.
Future missions... (Score:2, Insightful)
anyone else woken up by the sonic booms? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:anyone else woken up by the sonic booms? (Score:3, Interesting)
Excellent work (Score:5, Insightful)
Though it would be wonderful to have the space program re-examined and reformulated with realistic goals, unencumbered designs, and brave (not foolhardy) leadership, I doubt that we'll get anything more than another round of shuttle flights until the next one breaks up. Then we can expect more hand wringing, indecisiveness, and basically a whole lot more of nothing.
Space is the biggest challenge Mankind will ever embark upon. It's sad to see that almost 45 years has passed and we're still crossing our fingers hoping that things go okay.
Re:Excellent work (Score:2)
We're still new here (Score:5, Insightful)
While I agree with the rest of your comment, it's worth pointing out that 45 years is a drastically short period of time in human history. How long did we sail the seas before trans-oceanic travel stopped being experimental and perilous? We're so used to the incredibly fast pace of recent technological advancement that we forget that not everything comes quick. Expecting spaceflight to have become mundane in so short a time may not be reasonable.
Re:Excellent work (Score:2)
Re:Excellent work (Score:2)
What are you, Vulcan??
Well done! (Score:2)
One word sums it up: YeeHaw!!!
Almost Home (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Almost Home (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Almost Home (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Almost Home (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously, they use the 747 like nearly everyone else has said. They've been doing it since the days of the Enterprise (the first shuttle, which was never certified for flight because of the destructive vibration tests it went through).
Chip H.
Re:Almost Home (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Almost Home (Score:5, Informative)
Atop [spacepix.net] a [nasa.gov] 747 [theaviationzone.com].
Re:Almost Home (Score:2)
Re:Almost Home (Score:2)
That was due to the weather conditions in Florida.
Re:Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
They weren't just trying to fix ONE problem for two years. Seriously.
Can't you just put aside your cynical nature for ten freakin minutes and actually be excited about the fact that humans were just in space for two weeks in a vehicle we built? Come on!
What's WRONG with people these days?
Re:Why bother? (Score:3, Interesting)
Good to know. (Score:3, Funny)
It's important that we have female shuttle pilots.
I mean, what if the core of the earth suddenly stopped spinning, and we needed to send a team down to jump start the core? If the core did that they could probably make a movie about the core doing that...
They could call it "The middle of the planet"... or something.
Cost of landing at Edwards.. (Score:2)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
Re:Cost of landing at Edwards.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cost of landing at Edwards.. (Score:2)
uh... Houston doesnt factor in (Score:2)
The other cost associated with Edwards is the sand - the runways are sand runways, they have to clean out the shuttle with a fine toothed comb. The original mission profile was to launch in Florida, land at Edwards, to keep everyone happy, but after STS1 they said screw that, this damn sand is too much trouble... now Edwards is just a contingency.
-everphilski-
Re:Cost of landing at Edwards.. (Score:2)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
No cost (Score:2, Funny)
They will need to work around the blackout dates however.
According to the BBC, about $1m... (Score:2, Informative)
IM transcript (Score:5, Funny)
-Mark
Re: (Score:2)
HTH (Score:4, Informative)
What an ordeal (Score:2)
"This just in: Shuttle still in space. NASA still monitoring."
"The inner airlock hatch will be shut now. Then, later, the outer hatch will open."
"The shuttle just vented 11 mL of waste gas into space."
"Commander Eileen just burped."
Sheeesh.
(Note well: I'm not slamming NASA, the space program, or our astronauts. (Not in this comment, anyway.) I'm slamming our culture o
Re:What an ordeal (Score:3, Funny)
Um, didn't you get the sequence of events reversed?
Media frenzy (Score:2, Insightful)
Heard the sonic boom... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Heard the sonic boom... (Score:3, Interesting)
Saw the plasma trail... (Score:5, Interesting)
We went in to watch the landing, and the plasma trail was still boiling away overhead (faintly) when it touched down at the Cape just NINE MINUTES LATER.
Then we realized just how blazing fast this thing drops in for a "landing", since it traveled 1000 miles in under 10 minutes, and made a perfect landing. Rocket scientists deserve their title.
It Took Them Less Time to De-orbit Than The Drive (Score:2, Interesting)
. . . to Edwards' South, West, or North [google.com] gates will take
Never gets old (Score:5, Interesting)
I was tuned into NASA to when Columbia launched and heard mission control talking about the foam impact on the lead wing. That whole mission I kept shaking my head at follow up reports that the damage was inconsequential. I got up just in time to watch Columbia break up that morning. It was a heart-rending thing to see happen live.
This morning was fascinating. NASA coverage on the web just absolutely rocks. Even with the visual on the shuttle the whole way down, I still have a hard time conceptualizing that nature of that descent, from 17K mph 220 miles altitude to wheels stopped on the ground in a hour.
Incredible. Flawless. Heroic.
Great work NASA, JPL, Discovery crew! Welcome home. I hope you fly again, soon.
-rcmiv
No big surprise (Score:3, Informative)
Nerd nitpick: it's a stick, not a yoke (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe a pilot can explain it better than I can, but the difference is somewhat like this: a yoke has two different types of motion: you can rotate it like a steering wheel, and you can push/pull it. A stick is like the video game joysticks we all know and love. The shuttle is flown with the latter when under human control (although it's still connected via a digital fly-by-wire system).
If you look at pictures of the shuttle cockpit, you can clearly see a stick there. I suggest comparing the cockpit interiors of Boeing and Airbus (except the A300) commercial jets on airliners.net for an illustration of the differences.
JRS technical info about the mission (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html [planet4589.org]
Shuttle and Station
-------------------
The Shuttle has completed its return-to-flight mission, but continuing problems with debris marred the otherwise successful flight.
Discovery was launched at 1439:00 UTC on Jul 26, reaching a 54 x 229 km orbit at 1447 UTC. The OMS-2 burn at 1517 UTC raised the perigee out of
the atmosphere, with a 155 x 230 km orbit. NC-1 and NC-2 burns resulted in 226 x 285 km and 270 x 287 km orbits, as the Shuttle slowly matched
altitude and speed with the Station in a 350 x 356 km x 51.6 deg orbit. Meanwhile, external tank ET-121 fell back into the Pacific with reentry
at around 1550 UTC.
Spectacular camera views from the External Tank showed minor tile damage during ascent, and the loss of a half-meter piece of foam from the ET at
the time of SRB separation. Although the foam did not hit Discovery, the failure to stop large foam loss (a 15-cm piece was also lost from near
the bipod ramp) will have to be investigated and fixed before Atlantis can fly the next mission.
On Jul 19 the Station crew flew Soyuz TMA-6 from the Pirs docking port, undocking at 1038 UTC, and redocked with the Zarya docking port at 1108 UTC.
On Jul 28 at 1118 UTC Discovery docked at the Space Station. Hatch opening was at 1250 UTC. The first spacewalk was carried out on Jul 30
and saw tile repair tests in the payload bay, and installation of a mounting bracket for the ESP-2 stores platform on the Station's Quest module.
The second spacewalk on Aug 1 saw replacement of the Station's CMG-1 gyro. The third spacewalk on Aug 3 saw installation of the ESP-2 platform,
and the removal of two protruding pieces of tile gap-filler material from the Shuttle's heat shield.
Discovery undocked from Station at 0724 UTC on Aug 6 and landed safely on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base at 1211 UTC on Aug 9.
Re:"Pilot" (Score:3, Informative)
8:07 a.m. - Discovery's wings leveling as it approaches the landing site. Now that the orbiter has gone subsonic, Commander Eileen Collins has assumed control. She'll fly Discovery on a 194-degree right overhead turn to align with runway 22.
Sure sounds like she's landing it to me.
Re:"Pilot" (Score:4, Informative)
OK, let's look at the facts, which you clearly didn't do, or did you just forget to put your references in? This is from the landing 101 page at NASA's web site. [nasa.gov]
Which facts were you referring to?
The fact is, shuttle pilots train for years and do hundreds of landing approach practice runs, and it's pretty sad when slashdotters, who have no idea and who think that cynicism is the same thing as sophistication, post bullshit like you just did.
Perhaps it makes you feel better to imagine that, but for a random twist of fate, it could have been you pressing that landing gear button. Well, it wasn't and you couldn't. Accept it, and move on.
Re:"Pilot" (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/launch/landing
Re:"Pilot" (Score:2)
Do some research, and get yourself a clue.
Re:"Pilot" (Score:3, Informative)
The Shuttle is only computer controlled through the supersonic portion of flight, at around ~50,000 feet the controls are given to the Copilot for a relatively quick period. Following that, the pilot at around 30,000 feet assumes control, and guides the shuttle in while maintaining a trajectory within the glide slope.
Before posting mis-information like you've done today, check your facts first.
Groan... (Score:5, Informative)
1. pushes the button for which base to land at
2. lowers the landing gear
and they only do number 2 because they don't like to feel completely like passengers.
Neither point is accurate and somewhat condescending. Rather than going by somebody who claims to be an expert on everything, why don't you look at the source?
Start with NASA MISSION EVENTS SUMMARY [nasa.gov] and scroll down to "Deorbit" and "Entry" to see what the shuttle astronauts really do when the shuttle leaves orbit (a lot more than just press a button).
As to the landing gear control, this is a safety of flight issue and is discussed in SHUTTLE AVIONICS Design Constraints and Considerations [nasa.gov] in the "GNC" section. The decision to make the gear down command a manual operation has nothing to do with making the astronauts not "feel completely like passengers".
myke
Re:"Pilot" (Score:3, Informative)
This is manually controlled because once the landing gear is lowered, it cannot be retracted while in flight.
If there was some fault in the computer system that prematurely lowered the landing gear, during liftoff or while in orbit, the shuttle would be unable to re-enter the atmosphere.
Re:Trying to stay ontopic (Score:2)
Re:Trying to stay ontopic (Score:2, Informative)
I loved the coverage and always looked forward to more shuttle articles.
Your numbers are low! (Score:2)
Re:Waste (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Waste (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say that the space program is much less of a "waste" of money than the things on which the general public spends its money on its own.
Re:Waste (Score:3, Insightful)
Or is there going to be a better solution for increasing the planet's finite resources that I just don't see?
Sadly, there will always be starving people. My very loose 'proof' of that is the fact that we can, right now, solve pretty much all hunger and most disease problems around the planet, but we don't. The way already exists, if we have the will to travel along it.
The fact that we prefer instead to start or fight wars, to spend vast sums o
Re:Women Space Pilot (Score:4, Funny)
You didn't really say that, did you? Really?
*Staggers off in shock*
Re:Bogus physics on CNN ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm surprised they used "subsonic" in a sentence.
DT
Re:Bogus physics on CNN ... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:'Return to Flight' mission... (Score:3, Informative)
The foam panels on Columbia took out critical tiles on the leading edge of the wing. Previous shuttle tile damage had been limited to less critical sections.
The Columbia disaster is a classic example of what happens when external events and political pressures interfere with the engineering proce
Columbia was destroyed by freon based foam (Score:3, Informative)
On tanks constructed after ET-93, NASA replaced BX-250 with BX-265, which used HCFC 141b as a blowing agent. BX-265 is not without its problems, however, and NASA is working on replacement formulae.
Re:Editorial question (Score:5, Insightful)
There's your added value.
Justin