The shuttle made it, some really cool pictures from the camera on the external tank.

That was cool....Godspeed to the shuttle crew

Made it? Back?

Honestly, would you take off for space, if you were having trouble with your Djet leaning out?

Space Commander Dodd did.

Godspeed Discovery, I hope you find what you are lookin' for!



M

Went outside and saw it take off... nice to see us back in space again!



Qarl

Just watched the launch on HDNet, high-definition. They had some great camera locations set up.

QUOTE (Qarl @ Jul 26 2005, 06:59 AM)

Went outside and saw it take off... nice to see us back in space again! Qarl

Waht a cool thing to be able to do!

Those were some great views.
Been a space geek since I was a kid. Sent my clients over to the courthouse for 9:30 cases, told them to sit tight and I'd be over a few minutes late (launch was 9:36 local time).

I envy you Qarl. I would sure love to see a launch, even if it was from far away.

We watched it form here on the roof. Couldn't see much but the vapor trail. The sun was to too bright.

The night lift offs were really cool to see live but I don't think they're doing those anymore.

NASA Boss: "10,9,8,7,
Commander: "Hey, did ya get that fuel gage fixed?"
NASA Boss: "Don't worry. You got fuel, we checked it with a stick....6,5,4,3,2,1"
Commander: "OH SHITTTTTTT...."

Paul

The Shuttle is basically technology from the year my car was manufactured.. have you ever stood around in the dark, with the engine room open? Every occasionally, you see a lil spark here... or maybe there..

There are chances one takes in life, and some can be avoided. If I were the one calling the shots, we'd be watching reruns of shuttle liftoffs.

I don't know if it's vanity, or pressing schedules, but we are stupid, mostly.




M (honka! )

LOL...before my 914 space ship took off, i made sure to adjust the dwell and timing.

spacewalks for dwell and timing adjustments aren't that easy.

lean DJET means overheated intergalatic space jets

QUOTE (redshift @ Jul 26 2005, 09:35 AM)

The Shuttle is basically technology from the year my car was manufactured.. have you ever stood around in the dark, with the engine room open? Every occasionally, you see a lil spark here... or maybe there.. There are chances one takes in life, and some can be avoided. If I were the one calling the shots, we'd be watching reruns of shuttle liftoffs. I don't know if it's vanity, or pressing schedules, but we are stupid, mostly. M (honka! )

I believe most of the flight control systems have been upgraded at least once since the first shuttle. The avionics is much more advanced than what they had in the early 80s. A lot of the electronics cannot use the latest processors, RAM, etc. because it must be radiation hardened and have proven reliability. Just because it's older doesn't mean it's bad. As far as risk, there's always been risk when exploring. A lot of people died crossing the oceans and continents. If no one wanted to take risks we wouldn't be here. There's a fair amount of risk just driving to the supermarket. I think it'll be a long time though before the risk in space flight ever drops as low as commercial aviation. Got to admire those astronauts willing to accept that 1 in 50 (or 100, whatever) risk of failure.

I submit to you, that we are not exploring, but populating near-space with garbage, at great expense.




M

There is still a lot of science to explore involving physics beyond the constraints of earth. The folly part is that we gotta "send someone". Just no inclination for the public (~congress) to throw money at stuff with no "heroes". NASA had great interest in the Mars rover, but W's decree was "Lets send a man to Mars!" Only cheese is cheesier.

I could go off on three arguments, but the biggest one, overall, is to privatize space.


M

If anyone deserves to explore space I think it should be .

I therefore nominate to go to Mars.

I hear several people have already been to his anus, I mean Uranus.

Space.......... 's final frontier...

The sonic boom from the space shuttle landing just shook our building. Felt like a freight train backed into it.

Home safe

time to retire the whole shuttle fleet. put them in museums. the big space station is a folly too. men to mars . back to the moon? why? it's like the notion of building bridges across the straits of gibralter and the bering sea..

k

going to mars and the moon signifies that earth is not the limit....


i hope its not staged like last time though.