Posted on 06/12/2007 4:48:53 PM PDT by XBob
Space Shuttle's Left Wing May Be Damaged Meteorite, Space Junk May Have Struck Panels
POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT June 12, 2007 UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT June 12, 2007 Email This Story | Print This Story Sign Up for Breaking News Alerts WASHINGTON -- A meteorite or space junk may have struck Space Shuttle Atlantis' left wing, according to NBC News space correspondent Jay Barbree.
NASA recorded a hit on reinforced carbon panels 7 and 8 on the left wing. The panels keep heat from re-entry from burning the spacecraft.
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This is the same area where foam damaged Columbia's left wing and caused it to break up, killing its crew on Feb. 1, 2003.
We must be around the same age; the teachers used to let us all go sit in the hallway where kids from several classes could all see the TV. Those were such amazing times. Some of those old broadcasts are on YouTube, check 'em out.
My favorite pre-Shuttle NASA pic (of Apollo 11):
Yeah, and all we are looking for is a place to go to before our Sun gets big and red and incinerates us.
apparently they have gotten the space station back under control. I wonder if this will be publicly reported?
How many miles of fence could be built with the $30 Billion dollars Bush wants to throw away on African AIDS?
We felt like we were watching history. In fact, we were.
:^)
I’m not talking abuot 30 years ago, I’m talking about today.
It costs over a billion dollars to launch a space shuttle...and the space station is what, $50 billion and counting?
The rover missions to Mars were much cheaper, and more beneficial to science.
Something about this pic doesn't sit right with me. I watched every single Apollo launch, but I always recalled the launch vehicles being pretty much vertical as they ascended until they were much higher. I don't know how high the flag was in this picture, but I can't imagine the Saturn beginning its program at the altitude that seems to be indicated. This was either taken with an incredibly long lens (not entirely unlikely, given the hazy appearance of the Saturn V and its angle), or a very inspired mash-up.
I would love to be proven wrong, because I like the shot.
Back then we didn’t have naysayers preaching on internet forums either.
Nowaday anybody can become a keyboard commander with an audience of followers.
You are correct about that. But there was another amazing feat to accomplish: The ground crew was controlling the tilt on the Lunar Rover camera, and they had to adjust for the 2.5 second round-trip signal delay between earth and moon in order to track the Ascent Module on its way up and confirm that they were indeed tilting at the correct rate. Not only that, the rate was constantly changing as the angle of the tilt increased. As far as I know, there is no computer yet that can handle that kind of tracking purely on a calculation.
OK donning my aluminum foil hat...do you think the frightened old men in Beijing did that "test" on purpose to slow down the US's space program? Considering the fact that the Chi Comms don't have anything to match our capabilities in space...
No, but it was a message that they DID have the capability to shoot down satellites in low earth orbit.
Believe it or not, there were some temperence groups...i.e. busybodies....that Lobbied NASA to NOT carry any alcohol on any of their missions back when the shuttle was being planned. Teetotalers ruining it for everyone else, once again. ;)
We’re gonna need a contingency plan to life on earth, unless we wanna just sit around waiting for doomsday. We definitely need to stay focused and keep exploring, and figure out how to live elsewhere. It may take 500 years, but we need to do it. It’s destiny.
I have read through a lot of the posts, but not all of them. H
as instrumentation problems been ruled out as a reason for the indicated left wing problem?
I apologize if this has been discussed here already.
You would think NASA would have added an autonomous or remote control landing capability to the shuttle during the two years they spent fixing it after Columbia.
A dinged tile or leading edge, even after an in space repair, might be too damaged to risk a manned return. But if NASA could bring the orbiter home unmanned, assuming it survives, NASA could then determine if it is worth making further repairs.
"And that will mean the end of the Shuttle program, and of US manned space missions for at least a decade."
It should not take a decade, as the Orion spacecraft's first manned flight is planned for 2014.
Me too, FRiend! I’ll go.
“Personally I preferred the original project Orion. None of this messing around with capsules and shuttles. Just chuck 8,000,000 pounds of payload onto an escape velocity with enough Delta V to get to mars in 90 days. But it was a bit too hard on launch facilities. :)”
So launch from the Bikini Atoll. It’s not much use for anything else. ;)
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