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Shuttle Atlantis Finally In Orbit
Klaidas writes "After delays, the shuttle Atlantis has finally been launched today as expected. NASA reports: 'The shuttle Atlantis is in orbit, headed for a challenging new phase in the construction of the International Space Station. Commander Brent Jett and his five crewmates will install a new 17-ton segment of the station's truss backbone, adding a new set of giant solar panels and batteries to the complex. Three spacewalks are planned.'"
Look it up!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Solar panels are good and all but if I were them, I'd install the bathrooms, internet connection, and Dance Dance Revolution cuz that would be awesome in space. I just hope someone doesn't appear inside the part they're working on saying that the new part will destroy his universe with exotic particles that don't obey the laws of physics (what? that joke was worth another whirl)
now stop reading and go play Dance Dance Revolution!
Moderators who call it a "troll" obviously can't read the standard admonishment that it is better to mod up than down...
It really says something when the "It's scheduled to go up" post appears when it's launching, and the "It's in orbit" post is 12 hours late, after all the comments in the former post say "It's in orbit already. Had your coffee yet?"
I was watching MSNBC's shuttle coverage with 2 minutes left on the clock until launch when Cowboy Neal's "scheduled" post hit the front page. As Richard Hammond of BBC's Top Gear would say, "Oh no this is bad..."
May I propose a "This is going to happen within X hours/in the future" option for the submit on logged-in users, sorta like what Pud does for F*ed Company? That way they can get more priority, those who abuse it get banned from using it, and makes things work better.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Does anyone else find it odd that we all now hold our breath after take off to find out if it is irreperably damaged? Seems like a bad thing to me ... Kind of like building a bridge and then inspecting it after each car drives over. Time for a new model.
...but isn't 10:36pm a little late for a story called, "Shuttle Atlantis Finally in Orbit"? You'd think it took 12 hours to get up there or something!
Exqueeze me, but why are we still spending gigabucks on the Shuttle and ISS programs? The ISS, notwithstanding the fact that it's still under construction, is rapidly approaching the end of its design life. We won't even talk about the gruesome hack that is the modern shuttle program.
More pointless than war in Iraq, and more deadly if you're an American. (Something like 7% of astronauts have died on the job, a significantly higher death rate than the US military.)
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
Being an astronaut is an incredibly hard job and I salute the brave men and women who risk their lives (and sanity) in the name of science. There's a reason something NASA related is a recurring theme in PopSci's "Worst Jobs in Science."
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Seriously, did anything go wrong? It almost always does. Near misses, falling foam, inspections ... Hate to troll, but everytime I watch a launch now my heart races and I break out in a cold sweat whenever I see a thruster flare or a t.v. screen artifact near the shuttle. NASA tries to project confidence, but don't we/they really want a next gen orbiter without all the worries?
a year ago.
I'm going to step back and argue from the opposing side of this issue (from my opinin, as I support the ISS).
What is the purpose of the ISS?
1. No major scientific gains have come from this project except from the few things we have learned about biology in space (while here I aside that this alone is valuable information and will be useful over the next few decades).
2. There is no economic value of such a object at current time (aside: I agree, but see my last aside; science doesn't always have immediate economic uses: anyone think Gregor Mendel would have thought he was pioneering a multi-billion dollar industry with those peas?).
1960's: We sent people to the moon
1970's: We put a space station into low earth orbit
1980's: We had frequent flights to LEO with a reusable craft.
1990's: We had occasional flights to LEO with a reusable craft.
2000's: We managed to get people into orbit with a craft that might get used two more times before the end of its life.
For those who hates streaming video and want to see the launch, here is a 14 MB MP4 file that can be downloaded.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Great, They get it in orbit just before the ZPM gets completely drained
After being tagged a troll on my last post for hoping that they had fixed the foam problem, NASA annouced today that two pieces of foam came off during the launch this time.
*sticks tongue out*
Take that, you small minded moderators!
2 cents,
QueenB
HDGary secures my bank
Good luck and Godspeed to the crew on their current mission. Being an astronaut is an incredibly hard job and I salute the brave men and women who risk their lives (and sanity) in the name of science.
Easy, chief. Don't hurt your flag-waving hand too much.
Please help metamoderate.
Well, if there was a "-1 Persecution Complex", I'm sure you'd get that instead.
They had to stop in the ionosphere off of exit 50 on Space Highway 7 to go to a Bob Evans because Joseph Tanner forgot to pee and were getting kind of hungry. And you know how the ionosphere Bob Evans is, it takes FOREVER to get going again.
Monstar L
Being an astronaut is an incredibly hard job and I salute the brave men and women who risk their lives (and sanity) in the name of science.
As a job, being an astronaut today is not that great. The guys who go up on the ISS are being worked really hard for their whole tour, because it's now so hard to get people up there. The workload has increased substantially since the number of flights declined. There's a good chance the tour of duty in space may be longer than expected, due to problems on the ground. (The Soviet-era cosmonauts had it even worse; one guy was up on Mir for 438 days, being unfortunate enough to be up during the collapse of the Soviet Union.)
But that's not the worst part. NASA has too many people for the flight slots, so many of the "astronauts" will never fly. Right now, there are 100 flight-eligible astronauts, most of whom are doing mid-level management jobs. (NASA's phrase is "will serve in technical assignments until assigned to a space flight.") Or worse, filling the daily "lunch with an astronaut" slot. NASA is no longer training new astronauts.
Being an astronaut doesn't make you famous any more. Here's the list of active astronauts. How many have you heard of?
The main difference is that they need to use the same astronauts over and over again because they are highly trained
I call bullshit. How many PhDs does one have to have in order to push a button (which is essentially all they do)? Is optimum physical fitness required for working in weightless space? "Astronauts" are just technicians that have been idolized and aggrandized by the myth and hero-making marketing machine. Yes, the original guys (who were actually test pilots - true daring and fearless men) were pioneers, but these days it's just a job. It's an exclusive job to be sure (the only way I'll ever get into space is if Chuck Norris kicks me) but the fact remains that all those brains in space are performing tasks that a similarly-trained 8 year old could do.
Shot, bro.
Just a couple of comments about the USA intentions in space:
a)" In 1969, Americans cheered as our astronauts took their first steps onto the moon. The giant rocket that blasted them into space was Arthur Rudolph's crowning achievement as NASA's project director for Saturn V.
Fifteen years later, Rudolph relinquished his U.S. citizenship and left the country rather than face Justice Department charges that he had committed war crimes while working in an underground factory that had used Dora concentration camp prisoners as slave labor. The charges stemmed from Rudolph's "complicity in the abuse and persecution of concentration camp inmates who were employed by the thousands as slave laborers under his direct supervision," according to former Justice prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum, who directed the Rudolph case. Dora played a significant role not only in Hitler's efforts to win the war, but in the lives of Rudolph, Wernher von Braun, and other German rocket scientists who are now touted as American heroes in our history books. "
b) Having Nazis running the USA's space program clearly identifies the purpose of the program. World domination from space. Don't like someone? Just pop in the GPS co-ordinates at the space station - launch missile and goodbye! How long will it take USA voters to figure it out? USA voters seem to be awakening from their slumber now. Gee... Bush is a liar. (WOW) Bush hates Blacks ... Katrina (WOW). Hopefully voters will now figure out what the space program is all about and then demand that the money being spent on the space program be switched to - spending on scientific education in elementary and secondary classrooms. ( I.D. geezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
c) If anyone actually wanted to study other planets - little robots designed by bright people not by the dummies at NASA (where are those Nazis when we need them?!) - fired off into space in little rockets is all that is necessary - at a fraction of the cost.
"WTF is up with "rebuilding iraq"? Why do we want to rebuild it for? We should just smash it up real good and then leave so that the arabs know not to fuck with us."
/.? Who can say now that the Bush administration doesn't try to be open and forthcoming with the American people?
/snark
Donald Rumsfeld? Posting on
Tags != Comments, and -1 (Troll) != -1 (I Would Respond Angrily To This Poster So They Must Be Trolling)
Harry Carey: Hey! So they shot the shuttle Discovery up into space!
Linda Ham (NASA flight director): Yes.
Harry Carey: Is that thing ever coming back?
Linda Ham: Uh, it landed a week ago.
Harry Carey: How many survivors?
Linda Ham: Everyone survived, Harry.
Harry Carey: Oh. That's a relief. [ long pause ] Hey, Linda! What was it like inventing the space shuttle?
Linda Ham: Uh.. I didn't invent the shuttle.
Harry Carey: Well, I wonder, whoever did, made a lot of money! And then, I bet he tried to invent something else. But it wasn't as good. Life can sometimes turn your greatest successes into your most crushing defeats!
Linda Ham: [ not sure how to respond ] Yeah.. I guess that's right..
Harry Carey: Linda Ham! Linda Ham! Linda Ham! Does your name ever make you hungry?
Linda Ham: No. No.
Harry Carey: Well, it makes me hungry! One time, I named a sandwich "Linda". It was a beautiful sandwich! And guess what kind of sandwich it was.
Linda Ham: I don't know. Ham?
Harry Carey: I guess. I don't know. Hey, Linda! When are we finally going to get over to Mars?
Linda Ham: Well, there is a manned expedition being discussed..
Harry Carey: No! I mean you and me! We could make an evening of it. We'll head over to Mars, and I'll bring my sandwich "Linda". And we can make sloppy Martian love in the back of my dunebuggy. So, what do you say? Is it a date? It's a simple question: Do you want to go to Mars with a dead guy and a sandwich? Yes or no?
Linda Ham: Uh.. no..
Harry Carey: Yeah, you're right.. it probably wouldn't work out. But it doesn't hurt to be a dreamer! If we didn't dream, we wouldn't have the space shuttle.
Linda Ham: That's right, Harry. That's a very good point.
Harry Carey: Also, if we didn't dream, our brains would devour themselves, in madness and paranoia. The Viet Cong knew that. That's why they used sleep deprivation as a form of torture! [ long drawn-out pause ] Anyway, that's all the time we have! Hey! Join us next week at nine o'clock Eastern time, and watch me eat an entire planet! [ stagehand whispers in Harry's ear ] Oh! Thanks, Pete! That's actually eight o'clock Eastern time. I'm still going to eat a planet! See you then! Cubs win! Cubs win!
[ fade out ]
Weeelll, then again, maybe they will!
I was happy to see Vance Brand, of Apollo Soyuz fame as well as the backup CMP for Apollo 15, listed as active. I was hoping to find John Young but I forgot that he retired 2 years ago.
Driving the truck. That's what the job looks like. Those guys even look like truck drivers.
Then when they get there, they have to unload the truck. ""There's an awful lot going on, and it's going to be non-stop work from start to finish ... with virtually no time for breaks."
That's the reality of the job.
Small minded moderators? Meaning mindless moderators?