Next shuttle launch

[Crimson Ghost]

Originally Posted by MaggieL

No, no, no...

The TPS (thermal protection system) on the *Orbiter* is ceramic tiles over most of the surface. The places where tiles won't work--like the leading edge of the wings-- are made from reinforced carbon-carbon composite. Fairly strong, if somewhat brittle. Both the tiles and the RCC are insanely heat-resistant.

The external tank (which doesn't fly to orbit and is not reused; it's a one-shot per flight) is coated with foam insulation just to keep the cryogenic liquid fuels from boiling away too fast. The issue is that the chuncks of foam sometimes crack off from being very cold, or having liquid hydrogen or liquid oxy boil off into gas between the foam and the tank.

Ok, I'm with ya so far...

Originally Posted by MaggieL

This didn't used to be viewed as a big deal...after all, it's approximately the density of a Nerf ball.

But imagine getting hit by a Nerf ball moving at 500 mph.

Oww. OwwOwwFuckingOww.

Originally Posted by MaggieL

Columbia was lost because a couple-pound chunk of foam came off the ET at the worst possible time during ascent...while still in the atmosphere moving supersonically. By the time the foam reached the leading edge it had been slowed by air friction (relative to the Orbiter) to a speed 500 mph less than the Orbiter. It smacked into the RCC leading edge of the wing and made a substantial (maybe 20 inches across) hole.

During reentry, hot air at the leading edge, instead of flowing over the wing, flowed into the hole and was trapped *inside* the Orbiter left wing...which is made mostly of aluminum.

It melted.

Got the picture now?

Now I understood the physics of the disaster, but at least now it's a lot clearer. Thanks.

[plthijinx]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Maybe they can ride a kite tube down...

that or I can go over to the Johnson Space Center and borrow a space suit and then go to the airport and hook up a nitrous oxide bottle up to a cessna 172 and pick'em up!

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

Not as impressive a sight from Tampa, but there's Discovery lifting off just minutes ago. What a way to kick off the 4th!

Well, at least you can see it at all and take a pic. I had to settle for the TV.

Congrats to NASA and especially the shuttle crew for having the cajones to get humans back into space.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Congrats to NASA and especially the shuttle crew for having the cajones to get humans back into space.

They had no choice. Appreciate how close the entire shuttle and ISS is to total collapse and disintegration. Appreciate how many other nations would have spent $bilions that would never get used. Every shuttle launch from here on out is a crap shoot where snake eyes is the complete and utter disaster for both ISS and America's only manned program. Appreciate how close to the edge NASA has come, in part, because almost all their eggs are in only one basket.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

--snip--


I shot this image of Columbia's second to last mission from Spaceview Park. This is about as close as you can get, anymore, thanks to heavy security measures.

Kitsune, thanks for the magnificent picture. Majestic, awesome.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by tw

They had no choice. Appreciate how close the entire shuttle and ISS is to total collapse and disintegration. Appreciate how many other nations would have spent $bilions that would never get used. Every shuttle launch from here on out is a crap shoot where snake eyes is the complete and utter disaster for both ISS and America's only manned program. Appreciate how close to the edge NASA has come, in part, because almost all their eggs are in only one basket.

So, are you suggesting we abandon it, should never have started it, or should have had an alternate vehicle by now?

[Elspode]

The ISS and NASA are now paying the price for successive administrations who were wishy-washy about the space program in general. Unmanned exploration is delivering great dividends, but shortsightedness has kept our manned program from moving forward.

In retrospect, the money spent on ISS might have been better targeted at more specific goals, but a permanent manned presence in space is, in itself, nothing to be sneezed at. It is sort of hard for us to know how what we learn now might be applied in the future. Failure to think of the future is one of the greatest shortcomings of Mankind, IMHO.

[xoxoxoBruce]

These were posted on Wunderground by a guy in Florida but he said they were taken by Gene Blevins/LA Daily news?

[xoxoxoBruce]

And a big un.

[wolf]

I am a child of the Sixties. Most of my hopes and dreams involved the space program. These kinds of pictures still excite me.

Yeah. I'm that easy.

[Tse Moana]

Me too Wolf, and I'm not a 60s child. I am however a big Trekkie (in a conversation, me and a friend agreed my trekkieness was the size of the Q-Barrier, aka infinite...) and truly believe every launch of a satellite or a shuttle or a whatever is a step into the future.

Every time I see a picture like this, I get all giddy inside.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

So, are you suggesting we abandon it, should never have started it, or should have had an alternate vehicle by now?

Appreciate the major difference between management that saved three lives in Apollo 13 verses management that all but tried to kill shuttle astronauts. My first experience was standing on a runway in California when a P-3 airplane landed on that same runway and came to a stop. All I could see was the top of its tail; it stopped that far away. And there was at least one more mile of runway behind me.

So I went back to the blockhouse to ask engineers (who had nothing to do with shuttles) why that runway was so long. The brakes on the Space Shuttle did not work. The MBA solution was to make 10+ mile long runways throughout the world rather than fix the brakes. These engineers who had nothing to do with the Shuttle then proceded to tell me tens of problem with the Shuttle.

I specifically remember sitting on that airplane reviewing what I had been told and saying, "It could not be that bad". Then Challenger exploded. No, it was worse.

The problem with Shuttle are mostly traceable to management that does not understand how the work gets done AND uses the 'communist' principles taught in Harvard Business School. Communist? Yes. Engineers did not make decisions. In non-communist organisations, when the little guy finds a problem, he is then empowered to fix it. In communism, you don't have a problem until the top man says so (the difference between socialism and communism).

Challenger was directly traceable to a management that created not just those tens of problems I was told. The problems cited by the Roger's Commission were thousands - directly traceable to bean counter or communist type management (they are same).

Why was that runway so long? Why could engineers not fix brakes on the shuttle until they were listed in the 200 most critical problems to be fixed before shuttle could fly again? Why did those engineers who had nothing to do with the shuttle know of these problems? And most important, why did top management not know of or deny these problems? That is why Shuttle has had a marginal history. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. That is why Shuttle has problem, is so expensive, and has failed to do what it was intended.

So why do we put all - every - egg in that basket? Same reason why a president thinks a man on Mars is called science.

Meanwhile, we don't need new shuttles. First we need strategic objectives that are not based in the greater glory of a political agenda. We need an agenda that is instead based upon the advancement of mankind and the promotion of science. Until we have that, then, well, why do you think the world leaders in space science launching and satellite launches are the French? Again, look at who(foolishly) defines America's strategic objectives in space exploration. Not science educated people.

[Ibby]

A simple, one-line answer would have sufficed, tw.

Ah, yeah right. I forgot who I was talking to here.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by tw

Until we have that, then, well, why do you think the world leaders in space science launching and satellite launches are the French?

The French are in it for the money. Let's review the list of French pure research accomplishments and *then* decide if we're comparing apples to apples.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Boeing is launching lots of satellites......with russian rockets.