Space Shuttle about to go up!!!

[MYX]

Watch it here. Hopefully they will put it on TV.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[MYX]

Sorry, I'm a nerd. 

[gamecreature]

Finally, something new to watch on that Nasa channel that I get on Dish.

Launch is expected to be at 2:37 Eastern.

[missioncontrol]

cool thanks for the reminder... all all systems go as of right now?

[gamecreature]

So far so good -

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

[missioncontrol]

So far so good -

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

thanks gamecreature, couldn't turn up the tv volume because daughter is still practicing piano...


FYI for those of you with Direct TV channel 376 is the NASA channel and it's showing the launch pad...


just got a call from my grandma while typing this (she lives outside of Cocoa, FL) she says there is some thunder in the distance....

[arcadegamenut]

cool thanks for the reminder... all all systems go as of right now?

I just hear they're gonna hold at 31 seconds if the liquid hyrdogen temps are warmer then what they want.

Also, they're getting some wind gusts. If it's greater then 17 knots, they'll cancel the launch.

Still, they're saying as of right now, it's looking good.

[gamecreature]

Just saw the launch, it was picture perfect. Way cool!

[hutch1980]

A successful launch 

[MYX]

ghaw, I love when you can see all the plasma swirling around the shuttle. That camera looking at the shuttle from the booster is the best.

Tried to watch it on regular tv. Friggin announcers wouldn't shut up. I wanted to hear the NASA guys talking. I watched the web version more.

[missioncontrol]

Tried to watch it on regular tv. Friggin announcers wouldn't shut up. I wanted to hear the NASA guys talking. I watched the web version more.

that's why I watched it on NASA TV. Even though they explain a little, it's not as annoying as the asshat news anchors....

whew it was a nice launch...

I allways get a bad feeling in my stomach when they anounce the words "go with throttle up" since that was the last words heard from the Challenger....

[USSEnterprise]

I really do think they should give up on the shuttles at this point. They are obsolete. After 30 years, time for an upgrade

[gamecreature]

I really do think they should give up on the shuttles at this point. They are obsolete. After 30 years, time for an upgrade

Yeah, but the magic pixies that will fly us into space for free are all out on strike.

[missioncontrol]

I really do think they should give up on the shuttles at this point. They are obsolete. After 30 years, time for an upgrade

I think you have just stated the silliest thing that you've ever stated..... 


guess you will be giving up all gas powered vehicles and waiting for your hover-mobile that turns itself into a briefcase....

[USSEnterprise]

why? The space shuttle is an obsolete piece of equipment. The computers onboard are the equivalent of Apple IIs. Its time they were replaced

[MYX]

About 10 years ago I was doing sound for a big NASA shindig in Santa Clara Ca. They were showing off all sorts of new shuttle designs. They were talking about the plusses and minuses of each one and how they were better than the one that was currently being used. At that time they were talking about it taking nearly 10 years to get it into production. Sux that it all got thrown off track.

[missioncontrol]

I've been to the Kennedy Space Center many times and each time I go I'm in awe of what I see....

The shuttle is a great design... it's designed to get a crew and a payload into space....

[missioncontrol]

FYI...

NASA channel reporting small peices of foam fell off during lift off.... they are still reviewing all the footage taken.....

[97thruhiker]

Watched it go up from my house today.  Even at 200 plus miles away its pretty cool to see.

[USSEnterprise]

The shuttle is a great design

No its not. The Challenger and Columbia show that

[TOK]

I agree that the shuttles have stagnated the manned space program. We were on the moon 38 years ago, and have done nothing close to that with the shuttle.  The repair of satellites and the Hubble telescope was cool I guess, but how many times can you take frogs and teachers into orbit to see how they handle weightlessness? Its a waste of money.

We're learning all the cool stuff from Hubble and the unmanned probes. I say curtail the Shuttle flights and put all the funding into the unmanned program until a manned mission to Mars is viable.

[missioncontrol]

The shuttle is a great design

No its not. The Challenger and Columbia show that

The Challenger's disaster was during it's 25th mission... I'm not sure how many missions the Columbia had before it's disaster... there are also 3 other shuttles which have had many successfull missions.... Space travel is a Dangerous occupation, there are bound to be mishaps.... considering the many trips to space we have seen, there have been very few disasters... 2 shuttles and the Apollo disaster.

the shuttles were not designed to land on planets but merely a vehicle to transport payloads such as Satellites into orbit and deliver a crew to fix these objects we placed in the atmosphere along with maintaining the Hubble and the space station so that we can better learn about things in space....

[saint]

The shuttles use 8086 chips, so technically they are the equivalent of IBM PC-XT technology. Considering we put man on the moon using slide-rules, that's not that bad.

Scrapping the space shuttle before it's replacement is ready would be silly. That would be the death knell of the space station. We have to get man off this planet on a regular basis. If you don't think so, just look at the stupid antics of the North Koreans right now.

--- saint

why? The space shuttle is an obsolete piece of equipment. The computers onboard are the equivalent of Apple IIs. Its time they were replaced

[ahofle]

I agree that the shuttles have stagnated the manned space program. We were on the moon 38 years ago, and have done nothing close to that with the shuttle. 

I would blame that on NASA's ever shrinking budget, not the space shuttle. 

[boykster]

I agree that the shuttles have stagnated the manned space program. We were on the moon 38 years ago, and have done nothing close to that with the shuttle. 

I would blame that on NASA's ever shrinking budget, not the space shuttle. 

This treads lightly on politics, but I agree with you here......

[USSEnterprise]

The shuttle is a great design

No its not. The Challenger and Columbia show that

 2 shuttles and the Appolo disaster.

IIRC, there were two fuckups involving the Apollo Missions: Apollo 1 and 13

[missioncontrol]

in Apollo 13 they lived........

[MYX]

Plus in the case of the Challenger incident, the problem was pride, not design. They had no business sending up the shuttle when it was that cold. They are all about specs. If an o-ring will not be reliable in freezing weather then don't say "it is my scientific opinion that we should launch".

MC, I am starting to think that stuff came off the shuttle and boosters all the time but they never had all the cameras to see it happening. But I did get worried because they did see a crack and some scientists got up and said it is my scientific opinion that we should launch. It was just a little eerie.

I was glad to see it go up without a hitch.

But I gotta hand it to NASA. The last launch went up and there was the whole deal with the tile insulation. We watched the proceedure at work on NASA TV. I was not around for the man landing on the moon, but I was holding my breath while the thing happened. Outerspace repairs...Friggin Buck Rogers man!!! Would be nice to know that they could patch a missing time if foam actually did hurt the shuttle.

[missioncontrol]

I'm agreeing with you MYX, I think there were bits of foam falling off previous to Columbia, just not enough to cause the explosion that Colubia faced....

I was in Florida when the Challenger exploded, it was an eerie day all around adn it was a very cold morning.... you could see the smoke in the sky for hours... We heard about it during lunch time.. If I remember correctly I was in music class when it was scheduled to go off..... We thought the other kids were joking at first until the principal came on the intercom system and told us what had happened... The smoke was in the sky after school and on up to the evening hours.... we all pretty much stayed glued to the TV the rest of the day watching it over and over again as they tried to make sense of what had just happened....

I remember a day or so latter they were urging us to go out to the beach and help recover bits and peices of debris that washed up.... It was mostly foam, We did find a peice of foam with what we thought was a small bone sliver that we turned in with the rest of our findings... we never got word on if it was or wasn't a bone......

I think they wanted to get that shuttle off so badly because the teacher was onboard and they were exploring the possibilities of non-Astronauts taking flights on the space shuttle hoping that commercial space travel would be the next step for the shuttles....