Shuttle Launch Postponed To July 4th

mkosmo writes "NASA has yet again delayed Space Shuttle Discovery from launching due to growing weather conditions. Next launch attempt is the afternoon of the 4th of July." From the article: "Windows of opportunity are determined by the path of the orbiting international space station, the shuttle's destination. With each passing day, the time for a launch gets earlier by 22-1/2 minutes. That could be good news for NASA because summer thunderstorms are less likely to be a problem earlier in the day."

Comments

Lets just hope

[Anonymous Coward]

there arn't any billion dollar firework displays

god speed

Re:Lets just hope

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets just hope there arn't any billion dollar firework displays

I saw the phrase "Windows of opportunity" and thought "Those poor astronauts are headed big blue screen up above."

Tempting Fate

[dsraistlin]

I like fireworks and all but is this not just tempting fate as across the US lots of small rockets will be launched for our enjoyment as we wait and watch them explode.

Re:Tempting Fate

[bcat24]

Ah, but it's a way to appease fate, not tempt it. All the little rockets are a sacrifice to the God of Explosions. They make it safe for the Big Rocket to launch.

In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[apathy maybe]

I find it funny that the Russians pick a date and launch on that date, but the Yanks pick a date and launch 5 weeks later. The USA worries too much about wind and rain, sure a hurricane might upset the launch, but a bit of rain? It is a massive thing the shuttle. Does anyone know how many deaths the Russian (and USSR) space program has had? Is that more or less then the USA one?

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[wesley96]

It's a bit of apples-to-oranges comparison. Russians do not currently operate a shuttle fleet. They launch the much smaller Soyuz / Progress vehicles, which in turn need less stringent launch conditions.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[znu]

Yes, the illustration you provide is simple, clear, and wrong.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[tftp]

Russian space program lost 4 people in missions, in two Soyuz accidents in 70's, all on descent (one parachute failure when USSR leaders scheduled a flight for a national holiday, for political reasons, instead of launching when ready; and one outer air valve failure when they were brave/foolish enough to descend without light spacesuits.)

US space program lost 14 people in missions, in two Shuttle accidents, one on launch and another on descent.

Both programs had various accidents on the ground, not in missions.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[cdrudge]

Myth: Americans realized that they couldn't right with a pen in space so they spent millions of dollars developing one that could. The Russians just used a pencil.

Fact: Both Americans and Soviets initially used pencils.

Fact: The Americans (and probably the Russians as well) realized that having all these little broken tips floating around in space probably wasn't a good idea.

Fact: Graphite can conduct electricity, so having the graphite dust floating around wasn't good either.

Fact: The wood and graphite would burn easily in a oxygen rich enviroment

Fact: Fisher Pens developed the space pen on their own using their own capital. Only after developed a working pen that resolved the above issues (as well as a few more) did they pass it on to NASA to evaluate.

Fact: Both NASA and the Russian space agency have used the space pen in flights since 1968.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[djupedal]

>...a bit of rain...

The larger tank used to be painted white, until they thought about how heavy that extra coat of paint was, and how the primer color could be used to help heat the main tank on the ground. Now, calculate how much weight 'a bit of rain' would add to an already dew moistened tank and how that would require an immediate recalibration of many main systems. On the surface, it does seem as if NASA overthinks something as simple as punching a hole in the clouds, but the very nature of this particular roman candle is such that there are a myriad of complex issues and sub-systems all demanding attention. Ignore one and what looked simple while at rest can quickly become an unharmonious rage by the ghost in the machine...

I think the only ones that have any idea the cost in lives paid at Balkinor are the families left without sons/brothers/fathers/husbands/uncles.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[mdmoery]

Shuttle has to worry about rain because, unlike the Russians, the shuttle heat shield is 1) exposed during the entire ascent instead of being tucked safely between rocket stages and 2) is made of silica glass that is glued on to the orbiter's belly. Rain=BAD

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fact: Both NASA and the Russian space agency have used the space pen in flights since 1968.

This is not a fact, this is clearly a false statement.

From the Pedro Duque's diary: "I am writing these notes in the Soyuz with a cheap ballpoint pen... Seeing my astonishment, he [my Soyuz instructor] told me the Russians have always used ballpoint pens in space."

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[Ruie]

Another interesting tidbit that you might not know, is that Soviets never made their own ballpoint pens - they had quality issues with the size of the small metal ball that goes into one.

Instead, the balls were manufactured in East Germany (which was under communists not as long as Russia).

Even then, one sometimes had to file away a little metal at the end of the tube so it does not scratch paper when writing. This got resolved with time - either they fixed the process or (just as likely) switched to imports.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[AJWM]

The Russians have also been known to launch in the middle of a blizzard.

That's one thing that basing your launchers on ICBM technology gets you. After all, if it comes down to it, you can't hold up your ICBM launches for a little inclement weather.

Designing a vehicle with a safe abort mode in all phases of flight would help too (think "commercial aircraft") -- but vertical takeoff/horizontal landing just doesn't do it, and especially not when you've got SRBs that have to burn for two full minutes once lit -- and you can't separate them (or from them) while burning.

Not A Dupe!

[Ohreally_factor]

It would be funny, though, considering that it would be Zonk duping himself. =)

Anyways, they should delay all that they need to and not take any undue risks. We need another shuttle tragedy like someone named GothChick1989 needs another piercing.

Re:So

[cooley]

The "space program" doesn't end in 2010, the "shuttle program" is scheduled to be over in 2010. Folks are working on other vehicles to take over. Also yes, other countries (Russia) can make trips to the ISS also.

Of course, the shuttle can take a much, much larger payload than anything else currently available (I think).

Be serious

[Hao Wu]

Nobody ought to make jokes until AFTER the shuttle launch, since we don't yet know the morbid details soon to play out that will make the jokes funny or not.

Re:Be serious

[datafr0g]

Nobody ought to make jokes until AFTER the shuttle launch, since we don't yet know the morbid details soon to play out that will make the jokes funny or not.

I don't think anyone here is laughing and making fun of at the horrors of a potential disaster - that's not funny.

What is funny is the irony of the situation: On July the 4th, people all over the USA gather and celebrate while watching rockets explode in the sky - AND THEY CHOOSE JULY 4TH TO LAUNCH THE SHUTTLE??
Now that's Irony.

Re:So

[tftp]

The Shuttle is as capable as Atlas V Heavy to LEO (50,000 lbs) among currently active vehicles. Proton is close at 46,000 lbs. However STS can only to to LEO, whereas Proton can (and does) go to geosynchronous orbit, delivering up to 12,000 lbs.)

Energiya was a modular design, and could be configured to lift up to 400,000 lbs from the ground. It was flown twice in 160,000 lbs configuration (one of those flights launched Buran, which weighted about 80,000 lbs.) Given Energiya's thrust, Buran could lift up to 60,000 lbs in its payload bay, but that never happened because nobody was interested - we are not building starships yet.

Energiya as such is not manufactured now, but it's engines - RD-180 - are used on Atlas V. The "heavy" option can lift up to 50,000 lbs to the LEO, or 26,000 lbs to the geostationary orbit.

I imagine the weather is a bit different...

[ChePibe]

As someone who grew up in Florida, I can attest to the fact that random, intense thunderstorms occur practically everyday in the summer. It's amazing to watch. One moment, all looks well outside. The next, gloomy and overcast. Then, it appears that the very wrath of God has come down upon you - these are serious storms with very strong gusts, lots of lightning, heavy rains, and a bit of hail from time to time. Thirty minutes later, the storm ends, the sun comes out, and it's all good and fine - only even more humid. It's fairly unpredictable. This is why native Floridians don't take Tropical Storms all that seriously - they leave through miniature versions of them frequently in the summer, and they know how to handle them. It's the snowbirds that freak out.

I imagine weather patterns in Florida are a lot more difficult to predict than they are at Russian launch sites.

If the lightning don't get ya....

[tetrahedrassface]

"....due to growing weather conditions"
This just in.. Weather conditions are growing all over the world. Visual, and radar data combined with realtime satellite imagery have proven without a doubt that weather is growing! Scientists have so far been unable to explain why the weather is growing however recent CERN experiments have concluded that if left unchecked weather will soon sweep the entire planet@!

Save Yourselves!

lightning is the problem .. Re:In Soviet USA ..

[rs232]

"Shuttle has to worry about rain because .."

It isn't rain but lightning that is the problem. The column of ionized gases ejected from a vehicle in assent is highly conductive and makes for a very good earth. Apollo 12 was hit twice in just such an incident. The strike affected the parachute deployment system among other things. They didn't know for sure if it would actually work until the final moments of the descent.