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Shuttle Discovery Lands Safely

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the congratulations-to-all dept.

Tuxedo Jack writes "CNN and NASA report that the space shuttle Discovery has landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Concerns for its safe return were raised when spacewalks were necessary to repair the vehicle when external components were damaged; however, the shuttle landed safely with Commander Eileen Collins at the control yoke."

14 of 668 comments (clear)

  1. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    fp

  2. First Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Neeerr!

  3. UPDATE: Re:woman driver lands shuttle safely by maxbang · · Score: -1, Troll

    On backing up the shuttle, eight trash cans and a tabby were trampled. I blame the lipstick.

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  4. Re:Almost Home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Are you brain dead? They fly it back on top of a 747.

    Though there's no hurry, 'cause that piece of shit ain't gonna fly again any time soon. 2 and a half years to fix the problems that caused the Columbia disaster, and what do we find out? Oh, yeah, the foam still falls off, we didn't make any changes to fix that. WHAT THE FUCK? 2 and a half years and however many hundreds of millions of dollars, and THEY DIDN'T FIX THE FUCKING THING THAT CAUSED THE COLUMBIA FUCKING DISASTER???

    NASA deserves to be dismantled. Just shut that whole group of losers down.

  5. Why bother? by Blitzenn · · Score: 0, Troll

    It will probably never fly again anyway. It took 2 + years to rework it the first time and they didn't fix the problem, by their own admission. What makes you think it will take less time to fix it right the second time? By the time another few years have passed, I would hope we have something better to blow the billions of dollars on than this thing.

  6. Re:Welcome home by koi88 · · Score: -1, Troll


    So what has the shuttle discovered? And is it good this discovery has landed safely?

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  7. Re:Groan... by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 0, Troll
    Feynman's published comments are

    The computer system is very elaborate, having over 250,000 lines of code. It is responsible, among many other things, for the automatic control of the entire ascent to orbit, and for the descent until well into the atmosphere (below Mach 1) once one button is pushed deciding the landing site desired. It would be possible to make the entire landing automatically (except that the landing gear lowering signal is expressly left out of computer control, and must be provided by the pilot, ostensibly for safety reasons) but such an entirely automatic landing is probably not as safe as a pilot controlled landing. During orbital flight it is used in the control of payloads, in displaying information to the astronauts, and the exchange of information to the ground. It is evident that the safety of flight requires guaranteed accuracy of this elaborate system of computer hardware and software.

    source

    So, let me get this straight.

    The Landing gear extension is placed under manual control because an accidental deployment of the gears could strand the shuttle in orbit, as no mechanism for retraction is provided.

    Why does the shuttle need landing gear in the first place?
  8. Re:Welcome home by Gherald · · Score: 0, Troll

    Sorry kid, but the people NASA doesn't hire are a different kind of retard.

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  9. Re:woohoo by madaxe42 · · Score: -1, Troll

    lololololol sandniggers haha stfu.

  10. Re:Never gets old by demachina · · Score: -1, Troll

    "Incredible. Flawless. Heroic." ... and more importantly its OVER. Not the mission, the articles posted on Slashdot every four hours with people struggling to find something new to say every four hours.

    On this side you the people struggling to find new superlatives singing praises of the Shuttle likes it God's gift to mankind, that its "Incredible", "Flawless", "Heroic", "Amazing", a "Remarkable Engineering Achievement", acting like it hasn't flown 114 times and they are just now trying to get it right.

    And on this side you have the people pointing out its "A Waste of Money", "A Waste of Time", "Dangerous", "Risky", "Pointless", "A Senseless Diversion", "Boring".

    Maybe now we can return to our regularly scheduled programming of duped articles, shameless plugs, stupid Ask Slashdot questions, Microsoft and SCO bashing, Linux and Google worshiping.

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  11. Too Bad by kirk26 · · Score: -1, Troll

    it landed safely. I wanted some excitement.

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  12. Re:Faith in humans et al made them safe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I had faith that Allah would bring them home safely. Why did you decide it was Jesus?

  13. Re:anyone else woken up by the sonic booms? by BoredByPolitics · · Score: 0, Troll
    Although the shuttle is American and the Concord wasn't.

    And there's your answer.

  14. Surprise by justinpfister · · Score: 0, Troll

    Surprise!! We're already in outer space right now.. So where did they really go?

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