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.'"

Comments

heh - it's true...

[Anonymous Coward]

See this

Moderators who call it a "troll" obviously can't read the standard admonishment that it is better to mod up than down...

Downloadable recorded launch video.

[antdude]

For those who hates streaming video and want to see the launch, here is a 14 MB MP4 file that can be downloaded.

Re:Downloadable recorded launch video.

[The Real Nem]

A complete video from launch to orbit (9 minutes) can be found on YouTube.

Re:Anything fall off?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the current estimate is 2012 for test flights, but don't quote me on that. It still puts it years after the end of the shuttle program in 2010, so they need to keep getting flights up to finish as much of ISS as possible.

I've heard that they are going to test a 5 segment SRB (with one stage being a dummy stage) with a dummy second stage and a dummy Orion spacecraft unit in early 2009. This will be the first of 4 test flights. It doesn't use all 5 segments because the manufacturer ATK won't have a 5 segment SRB ready until late 2009. I think the tests you were thinking about were for the Ares V (~2012-2014 for tests).

Additionally, NASA is considering shutting down pad 39A or 39B early and perhaps retiring Discovery early (late 2008?). The pads are within the design specifications for the Ares I and Ares V rocket thrust, but will need some modifications to suport the new spacecraft. We'll have to see once one or more of the pads are down whether they decide to upgrade the pads to support one of the Ares V modification options (i.e. 3 or more SRBs with a modified 1st and 2nd stages--note: SRBs are considered stage 0). While the Ares V will have the most powerful thrust of any rocket ever built (even greater than the N-1), the 2 SRB design won't need a pad rework. Three or more SRBs would rip up the pads on launch. But the benefits of having 3 or more SRBs with modified 1st and 2nd rocket stages would be that you could launch up to 200 tonnes (greater than the mass of the current ISS). This would be extremely useful if you wanted to build a Moon base (because going to lunar orbit will cut off >50% of you LEO value).

Re:tag = pointless

[cptgrudge]

Why aren't they investing our tax dollars into an endowment and let congress just spend the interest? That would make a lot more sense than just borrow, borrow, borrow.

IANA accountant, but...

The current US government budget is $2.77 trillion USD. Assuming an annual return rate estimate of 15%, we would need about $18.46 trillion USD in an endowment just to keep the same. To account for an annual inflation rate of about 3.2% and to allow for a real annual growth of 4% (to account for possible bad years, rainy day funds, etc) we need to adjust our figures. Now, we need an endowment size of $35.51 trillion USD.

The latest M3 numbers (broadest level of measuring circulating currency) for the US dollar were estimated at $10.34 trillion USD. Even if we cleared our National Debt (somehow) of just under $9 trillion USD and returned that currency to circulation, we'd still be short by over $16 trillion USD. The GDP of the US is around $11.6 trillion USD. Sorry, we just don't have enough money to do it. Even doing something unthinkable like reducing the budget to 25% of its size now wouldn't work. We'd need around $8.8 trillion USD, and the damage done by taking that much out of circulation and the quick reduction in government size (thus increasing unemployment) would be devastating to our economy.

Governments use debt to control the currency from inflating out of control by issing treasury bonds and such, thus taking money out of circulation and cooling the economy. Amounts of money in those sizes are completely different than you or I getting a home mortgage or buying a car, and they have different effects. Check up on it here. I do agree that the national debt is out of control and needs to be drastically reduced, but I don't think we'll get out of it in time. The time will soon come to pay the piper, perhaps in a decade, and I fear the result will be an as yet unmatched global recession.

I hope I'm wrong.