Discovery launch

[wolfee]

Congrats to Discovery and everyone involved in today's successful launch of Discovery's last fight.

Best wishes on the 11 day mission and a safe return home.

[race9]

Re: Discovery launch

Got to see this one from the air. Very cool!

[steve D]

Re: Discovery launch

Any pictures?

[race9]

Re: Discovery launch

I'll have a video up tomorrow night.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Discovery launch

History was made today.

For the first time ever, space vehicles from 4 different space agencies were linked together in orbit. The USA's shuttle orbiter and several station modules, Russia's modules and the 2 Soyuz capsules, and both Europe and Japan have cargo freighters docked. It truly is an international space station now.

[spinner]

Re: Discovery launch

What a shame that the program has been scuttled by our present admin. Another slice of the pie gone......

[flyingjibus]

Re: Discovery launch

The shuttle program is an outdated relic that sucks money away from programs that can get us into space cheaper, safer, and more efficiently.

[stuntflyr]

Re: Discovery launch

I don't recall a lot of manned spaceflight progress implemented from 2000 to 2008. Am I missing something?
Chris...

[Mluvara]

Re: Discovery launch

Pretty cool. Someone caught the launch from an airliner.

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_USPTmYXM&feature=player_embedded[/YT]

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Discovery launch

?

Oh Boy..... technically, we're going to take this thread off-topic... because, it's, likely to become more of a policy debate than about the Shuttle/Space program...

OK... Gonna play devil's advocate here.. I'm not even close to sure but I'm pretty sure that the Shuttle program was determined to be WAY out of date and needed something else to happen to economically get men into space.. again, by admittedly flawed memory, prior to the current administration taking power...

Obama DID cancel the program that was hoped (by some) to be the replacement for the Shuttle... the Constellation program; turning over to the private sector, the research and subsequent implementation of whatever program they, (private businesses), come up with to get men into "space".

Just for the sake of discussion, some of my friends and acquaintances who are the most staunch opponents of government spending, are absolutely incensed that our government would even consider turning over the "space race" to private business..

I'm deliberately not going to put in my personal opinion on this subject, but I see some ripples in the purest sense of logic, or the *potential* sense of "wanting it both ways"....

So riddle me this.. How do you decrease government spending and involvement in our, and our corporate brothers daily lives, and not try to turn some programs over to the private sector??

Again, I'm deliberately not including my personal stance, this is all for the sake of good old AMERICAN free spirited debate... I got my flame suit on... and I'll promise that I'll delete ANY attack against ANY ONE'S opinion posted in this thread which goes beyond discussion and approaches "personal attack".... IE... it's OK to say, "I DISAGREE AND HERE'S WHY" but NOT OK to say, "I DISAGREE AND YOU ARE A DUMB ASS FOR THINKING WHAT YOU THINK"......

Y'all OK with this idea??

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Discovery launch

Yes. Way to go Wayne. Smart move.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Discovery launch

Yes. Way to go Wayne. Smart move.

Thanks Bob... wasn't that an AWESOME video of the launch from the airliner!!

I don't think I've ever seen that perspective before and it truly does "put it in perspective" when somoene lets us see it from somewhere most of us have been (back of an airliner)... the sense of "space and time" that this video lets us see is incredible.. Having never seen one (a launch) from anywhere other than TV or movies, my personal sense of a launch would have been that it would have been much more of a "woosh/zoom" thing.. In real time, from several thousand feet, and a few miles, it looks downright S-L-O-W...

[Race 29]

Re: Discovery launch

This reminds me of a couple launches that I've seen from Vandenburg while flying back home from Texas. Very cool to see from the air! One of them was at night!

Anyway, I agree with you Wayne. Great way to handle it! A pre-emptive "chill out"!!

Race 29

[kiwiracefan]

Re: Discovery launch

Smart move indeed Wayne..
Ok im going to chime in here from way down in NZ where we dont have a space program at all..
The Shuttles did their job magnificently apart from the Challenger and Columbia Disasters, but they were very labour intensive to get to the launch pad and back into orbit, the philosophy was right, re-usable orbiters, but the fact it was controlled by the Military/Nasa made it expensive, after all, ive read stories and heard accounts where a $2 Stop watch holder has turned into a $500 stop watch holder by the time it goes through the Govt Chain and ended up in the Transport/Fighter/Bomber/Patrol plane...

Yes giving up the program to civilian companies takes it out of Govt Control, but it also breeds competition as companies try to deliver the best bang for their buck, and new technologies will be tried and tested, and not on Tax payer money.
Also the Govt has a major part in saying yes, Company A can fly, because they have met the regulations, but Company B can ALSO fly yet Company C who have the most promising thing cant because they need to test things more
I Also think one of the worst things to happen to the Shuttle program was the Soviets cancelling the Buran program.. Again because if the Russians had got it past the single ship stage and had the program fully implemented, surely the U.S. govt of the time would have taken the stance that the ruskies have copied us, lets go find something better...

[tow-3]

Re: Discovery launch

i've seen two from the cockpit. first was over TLH at 370 there was an over cast below us and it just glowed orange and then the orbiter punched through. very cool sight.

I had forgotten that it was launch day the other day. I was over bimini at 13,000 and someone asked MIA center if it had gone up. two seconds later, I got a message from dispatch that it has just launched, I looked to my right and there it went streaking downrange.

very cool sight.