26-07-2005 15:33									#61
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A little over 4 hours to go for the launch of STS-114.

From www.nasa.gov:

quote: Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-114, NASA's Return to Flight mission, is set for today at 10:39 a.m. EDT. The launch pad's Rotating Service Structure (RSS) was rolled away from Discovery at 3:38 p.m. on Monday. When in place, the giant enveloping appendage is used to install payloads into an orbiter's cargo bay and provide protection from inclement weather. With the RSS now out of the way, propellant loading is set to begin after midnight Tuesday morning with the pumping of more than 500,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen into the vehicle's orange External Tank. The chance of Kennedy weather cooperating for the launch has increased to 80 percent. First Lady Laura Bush will join other dignitaries and VIPs at Kennedy for the Return to Flight liftoff, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan announced earlier today.

	26-07-2005 17:08									#62
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You can watch launch preparations live at NASA TV, which was linked to earlier. At this time, the crew has entered the orbiter and is being fitted by the support team.

	26-07-2005 17:50									#63
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The crew members are now seated and fitted inside the shuttle, and the crew module hatch is about to be closed.

The launch time has been confirmed as 10:39:00 EDT, in just over 1 hour 40 minutes from now. There is a launch window of 9 minutes today.

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	26-07-2005 17:58									#64
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Ignore this post. I'm stupid.

	26-07-2005 18:00									#65
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I hope they jiggled all the right wires this time.

	26-07-2005 19:30									#66
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Countdown has resumed at T - 9 minutes, after a built-in hold of 45 minutes.

Very best wishes for the mission.

	26-07-2005 19:35									#67
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Boy, won't they feel stupid when they are told that the USAF has a big-ass hyperdrive capable spacecraft?

	26-07-2005 19:41									#68
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Twin solid rocket boosters separated, everything looking good.

	26-07-2005 19:48									#69
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T + 9 minutes, main engines cutoff, external fuel tank separated. Altitude is 68 miles.

	26-07-2005 20:16									#70
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They said that about the Columbia, too....

	26-07-2005 20:32									#71
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CNN has video of the launch...

	26-07-2005 22:02									#72
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If you really want to do it right - send out a mission, catch a very small asteroid or comet, say several hundred yards accross (one or two miles would be cool, but that's alot of energy) and put it into orbit, if you can a La Grange point. I'd prefer a comet, the gases if harvestable would be worth decades of earth launches. Now that would bootstrap humans back into space.

	26-07-2005 23:41									#73
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It was cool watching the launch from the fuel tank.

edit: spell fix

Last edited by chegitz guevara on 27-07-2005 at 06:22

	27-07-2005 00:25									#74
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quote: Originally posted by shawnmmcc If you really want to do it right - send out a mission, catch a very small asteroid or comet, say several hundred yards accross (one or two miles would be cool, but that's alot of energy) and put it into orbit, if you can a La Grange point. I'd prefer a comet, the gases if harvestable would be worth decades of earth launches. Now that would bootstrap humans back into space.

The amount of energy required to do this would be phenomenal. Might as well send the cargo from Earth or harvest the moon.

	27-07-2005 00:42									#75
	Put an end to popups!

There's video of something falling off the shuttle, hitting another part of it and creating a hole.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/...ttle/index.html

If you subscribe to CNN (free) you can see the video. Since I have no perspective as to what's being shown it's impossible to tell if the hole is 10mm or 10cm or even 10m across.

	27-07-2005 01:50									#76
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I was under the impression the debris didn't hit the shuttle



here's a link to the video:

http://www.local6.com/technology/4770949/detail.html

	27-07-2005 02:18									#77
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Godspeed Discovery.

	27-07-2005 03:51									#78
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quote: Originally posted by Dis I was under the impression the debris didn't hit the shuttle here's a link to the video: http://www.local6.com/technology/4770949/detail.html

I hear it's basically a piece of paper.

	27-07-2005 06:21									#79
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Not bloody likely.

	27-07-2005 06:25									#80
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On the slide show you can see that it doesn't hit Discovery at all.

	27-07-2005 07:56									#81
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Apparently it did -- they're looking at the damage to see how bad it is.

	27-07-2005 08:02									#82
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****ing shuttles. I wish they'd scrap that pork and build something so we can support a real space program.

	27-07-2005 08:53									#83
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They just can't let go of their memories.

It's like Civ, Civ1 is what made it all, and now you want them to upgrade to Civ2? BLASPHEMY!!

I'm sure NASA are working on it. Don't forget that Bush has already planned for 2025 for a Mars landing and a moon landing by 2010. I can't quite remember the year.

I also hear that the Moon and Mars missions have been granted 30? 60? billion for the mission just recently.

	27-07-2005 09:02									#84
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Yeah, Bush says he supports space reseasch but will he fund it ? No, just some spare money - much more funding is needed.

	27-07-2005 09:37									#85
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Congress funds the space program, not the President.

	27-07-2005 09:53									#86
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quote: Originally posted by Dis Unless we find a faster way to get to mars, I'm against it. It may be possible to survive and reach mars. But what of the mental stability of being locked in a can for over a year? I have seen reports of the mental stability of that cosmonaut who was trapped aboard the space station Mir for a very long time. And a report that mental confusion may have led to a crash of a docking module with Mir.

I believe most of the psychological barriers will be overcome by today's online gaming generation. Just give the can a big fat wireless link.

	27-07-2005 10:21									#87
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I agree. And the operative word here is wireless.

	27-07-2005 10:25									#88
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quote: Originally posted by Winston Congress funds the space program, not the President.

Hey !!! Please stop interfering when I'm trying to bash Bush bashers

	27-07-2005 11:09									#89
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Did I bash bush or are you referring to someone else?


Anyway, what would be so hard about a wireless link?

Can't we set up small satellite type devices and spread a few hundred of them out evenly between the Earth and Mars; they can act as jump points to link the two planets.

	27-07-2005 11:22									#90
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Jeez...

It'd be a little difficult to achieve if it wasn't wireless.