ydoaPs Posted July 26, 2005 Author Posted July 26, 2005 it has separated from the external fuel tank and there seems to be no problems at this point.
Pangloss Posted July 26, 2005 Posted July 26, 2005 Mark Cuban's HDNet covered the launch live in HDTV. Too cool. If you get HDNet, they'll be showing a 30-minute recap tonight at 8pm Eastern.
ydoaPs Posted July 26, 2005 Author Posted July 26, 2005 i thought it would take longer than it did. it only took like 3 minutes for them to get into orbit from launch.
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted July 26, 2005 Posted July 26, 2005 More like eight. I have a book about space shuttles.
ydoaPs Posted July 26, 2005 Author Posted July 26, 2005 well it seemed like 3 minutes. it was like BAM and then it separated from the external tank and such.
Pangloss Posted July 27, 2005 Posted July 27, 2005 I think that's about right. That's early, though -- a long way from being in orbit.
silentsailor Posted July 27, 2005 Posted July 27, 2005 Oh, that was fun. The eight-year-old in me still wants to be an astronaut. (If this thing is torn apart during reentry NASA is screwed.)
Deified Posted July 27, 2005 Posted July 27, 2005 Any word on what the debris that flew off the shuttle at launch was?
JPQuiceno Posted July 27, 2005 Posted July 27, 2005 Man I swear I was sweating during the launch. Whew, thank the ALL MIGHTY FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER that nothing happned to the astronauts.
silentsailor Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 Debris: two-foot long chunk of foam insulation, basically the same thing that happened to Columbia except this time it didn't hit the orbiter. And now the shuttle fleet is grounded. And this sucks :\
Pangloss Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 Atlantis was grounded today over that debris, which by the way has been falling off shuttles since 1981. The newspeak coming from NASA bureaucrats today suggests to me that there will never be another shuttle launch. You've seen the last one. They were looking for an excuse to end the program before this launch and the only thing that kept it going was the Space Station. Now they have an excuse to axe both programs. I'll be *floored* if they ever launch again.
Ophiolite Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 The shuttle is an engineering abortion (google horse committee "designed by" camel then raise to the power of forty two). The ISS is a white elephant that should never have been started and will never be completed. The future is in space. America has turned her back on the future.
Anjruu Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 No, the shuttle fleet is grounded, but now we need the next "thing." The Saturn 5's were grounded after the Apollo, or shortly thereafter, and the shuttle was developed. We need to scrap the shuttle entirely and work on a cheaper way to get into space. There was a design awhile back that was launched off a 747, but NASA scraped it, I forget why. And about this whole, turning our back on the future thing, what about Deep Impact, the wildly successful mars rovers, Huygens and Cassini, and all the other probes? Just cause they're not manned doesn't mean they're useless...
SorceressPol Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 Debris: two-foot long chunk of foam insulation, basically the same thing that happened to Columbia except this time it didn't hit the orbiter. And now the shuttle fleet is grounded. And this sucks :\ Man I thought I was seeing things. I saw something come off, but it happened so quickly I thought it must have just been my eyesight.
Douglas Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 . The newspeak coming from NASA bureaucrats today suggests to me that there will never be another shuttle launch. . The Hubble needs some work on the gyro's (or something) in '07 or '08 max. Even if ISS *is* a white elephant, I believe they'll continue to support it. After the insulation hit the Columbia, the "disaster" team requested complete photo imaging of the Columbia, the bureaucrats denied the request, we all know what happened to Columbia.....I suspect the B'crats are in code red for maximum ass cover.....then again, maybe the shuttle and the boosters are pieces of shit, and should be scrapped.
Ophiolite Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 And about this whole, turning our back on the future thing, what about Deep Impact, the wildly successful mars rovers, Huygens and Cassini, and all the other probes? Just cause they're not manned doesn't mean they're useless...Hugely valuable as science projects. Immensely impressive, well planned, properly managed, brilliantly executed. But man belongs in space, and nancying around in Earth orbit, barely out of the atmosphere does not cut it.
flyboy Posted July 28, 2005 Posted July 28, 2005 o well NASA had its major budget problems and still does, and frankly im happy to see them grounded. i just came back from Oshkosh and saw Burt Rutans White Knight and Spaceship 1. Scaled Composite and Virgin Galactic will be the new NASA of the future Burt Rutans spaceship one is a much better concept to get to space than the shuttle it took NASA what a few hundred men to get to the edge of space? scaled composites put spaceship one into the edge of space with only 20 guys.....theyve got bigger plans for the future and while i was at Oshkosh with my dad we saw a guy that walked up to rutan and wrote him a $200,000 check for a tour to space NASA may never put another man into space agian
Deified Posted July 29, 2005 Posted July 29, 2005 I agree. The future of man in space is firmly in the hands of the commercial sector now. Maybe we will even got some scientists out there too. Anyone know if there are zoning laws on the moon?
Aardvark Posted July 29, 2005 Posted July 29, 2005 Hugely valuable as science projects. Immensely impressive, well planned, properly managed, brilliantly executed. But man belongs in space, and nancying around in Earth orbit, barely out of the atmosphere does not cut it. That is very true. There should not be a choice between unmanned and manned space exploration. If the human race is to have a future it needs to go into space. Spending uncountable amounts of money trying to cosset a rickety shuttle that is elderly and obsolete is not the way to do it. New means of travelling in space need to be devised that can do more than just get into orbit, fingers crossed, if everything goes ok. Reliable, reuseable craft which can travel beyond this planets gravity are the next step but it looks like it might not be NASA which is going to be taking it. It would be an irony, if after all this work and expense the USA were to cede its position in space and be overtaken by innovative private companies not operating under the dead hand of federal control and political and porkbarrelling constraints.
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