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Safe Landing For Space Shuttle Discovery

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the made-it-back-done dept.

dylanduck writes "Discovery is back safe and sound, despite minor problems with a leaky power unit and a last minute change of approach direction to the runway. The mission tested some post-Columbia safety changes, and also set up the space station for future construction. But in some ways, the tough job starts now - NASA has just 40 days or so to get Atlantis up."

9 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Good news indeed by Quasar1999 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is good news that nothing major went wrong... but somehow lately when I hear of the space shuttle making a journey, I'm reminded of my first car... towards the end of its life, I was quite happy as well to make a long road trip without major problems... But unlike with Nasa, that didn't mean I was eager to go on a long road trip again, just because I got lucky... I knew not to trust push my luck...

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
    1. Re:Good news indeed by Golias · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "A 2% failure rate is to be expected"

      Really? That's pretty bad news for all these space-tourism schemes. No way in hell I'm taking a vacation where there's a one-in-fifty chance of not ever coming back. It would be safer to take a vacation in Iraq.

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    2. Re:Good news indeed by BodhiCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The media tends to concentrate on problems with the Shuttle, but we forget that there have been minor problems and glitches with any of the prevous manned space programs. We hear about the missions where they had major problems, such as Apollo 13, but even John Glenn (The first American to orbit the earth) had a problem with his heat shield which could have prevented a safe reenty. What makes for a good space program is not that everything goes perfect, nothing ever does (ask Mr. Murphy), but how mission control handles problems as the crop up. The same could be said for any technological undertaking. A good programmer is not one who writes a program without bugs, but one who is able to find them and make the corrections before they cause larger problems.

  2. Congratulations! by GundamFan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Congratulations To the crew and all of NASA. I am glad to have our astonauts back home safely. And I am glad NASA is willing to overcome this chalange and continue our space program.

    --
    I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
    Mark Twain
  3. post-CAIB mission over by helioquake · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This was technically the last flight to test the changes made for the CAIB recommendations.

    In the next flight, the shuttle program resumes the construction of the ISS (not just delivery of the supplies and take back some garbages). So until the next mission is complete, I wouldn't say that we are back on track with this mission.

    It's good to have her back safely, nontheless.

  4. Orbital Decay? by Darth_brooks · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Random ISS question here: Are the shuttle dockings ever used to give the ISS a slight nudge to counteract a decaying orbit? I know the ISS isn't going to drop back into the atmosphere anytime in the near future, but i wonder if there are any adjustments made to its orbit by the shuttle of the supply rockets.

    --
    There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  5. Re:2% is a meaningless number by mrxak · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're remembering right. But it's not like they don't have the blueprints around somewhere. The only thing stopping them from building another 100 Shuttles is the lack of funds and launch dates.

    --
    -mrxak
    Onions Will Kill You
  6. Re:Journaists and public perception by jo7hs2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Watch the launch (and landing maybe, not sure) on CSPAN next time. Nothing but the NASA radio chatter. The cameras aren't as good, but they don't have tickers everywhere.

  7. You have to be kidding. by pavon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It would take longer and cost more money to restart production on the shuttle than it will for the CEV to be completed. It took over five years for endevour to be built, and they already had stuctural spares. It is the worst possible decision that NASA could make both politically and pragmatically.

    Shivetya is right. The reason for the ultraconservative behavior with regards to NASA is because they can't afford another failure until the CEV is ready to fly. It would very likely result in the termination of the shuttle program altogether. Now many people here would applaud that, thinking that it would free up money for the CEV, but it wouldn't.

    One of the major costs of any rocket program is the maintainance, launch, and support crews. There is no CEV related work for them to do right now as it is still on the drawing board, and you can't just fire all those people, and then expect to hire them back once there is work again. They will have moved onto other jobs, and the people you hire as thier replacements wouldn't have the working knowledge of the system that they current staff does - remember that the new launcher will be heavily based on shuttle technology.

    So NASA has to keep flying the shuttle, in order to justify these jobs, and they can't be to risky about it, lest they lose another. I have the luxury of saying that we should just accept the risks, and finish the ISS with the shuttle as quickly as possible, but NASA doesn't. So we will continue to see slow sheepish behavior until the replacement is ready, and NASA is poised to do things that the public finds worthy of risk.