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STS-119 Finally Launches Into Space
Iddo Genuth writes "After several delays, including twice over the past week, the space shuttle Discovery has finally been launched into space. The spacecraft took off at precisely 7:43 p.m. EDT, embarking on the STS-119 mission, which will provide the International Space Station with the fourth and final set of solar arrays — and which will make the ISS brighter than Venus. The shuttle will also deliver to the ISS its newest crew member, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will replace flight engineer Sandra Magnus at the station."
This site looks like just what you want:
http://www.heavens-above.com/
Tag lost or not installed.
NASA, surprise, surprise.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Spaceweather.com has a simple Satellite Flybys/Satellite Tracker. http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/
I like http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544
http://www.n2yo.com/?s=99999
and http://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=33442&tz=GMT-05:00 is fun/interesting as well.
It's fun to have all three up at once, Discovery is right over my head now...
Your Moon, Your Mission, Get involved! http://www.openluna.org
I like http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544 [n2yo.com]
http://www.n2yo.com/?s=99999 [n2yo.com]
and http://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=33442&tz=GMT-05:00 [n2yo.com] is fun/interesting as well.
It's fun to have all three up at once, Discovery is right over my head now...
Your Moon, Your Mission, Get involved! http://www.openluna.org
You are remembering correctly: it didn't, but it did do atmospheric flights for testing purposes. Also, at one point they were considering outfitting it for space flight after the loss of the Challenger but chose to build Endeavour from leftover parts instead due to cost. With the possibility it had (or has) of being outfitted for space, I think it warrants inclusion when talking about the family of space shuttles for statistical purposes in some categories.
Douglas Whitaker
NASA's satellite sighting page is also very good:
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
It's sitting in the Smithsonian Annex at Dulles on public display.
The reason they built Endeavour is because Enterprise lacked a number of improvements to the flight design made in building Columbia and the other shuttles. Retrofitting Enterprise would have been more expensive than building Endeavour was.
Not to mention because Enterprise was a prototype which was never intended to fly in space, it is way over built. As such, it is the heaviest shuttle ever created. Because of its weight it could have barely achieved LEO, making it unable to service many of the missions to which the other shuttles currently service.
In short, making Enterprise space-ready means paying more for less capability than what is achieved with Endeavour.
Actually, compared to the Saturn V, the shuttle stack seems to jump off the pad.
It doesn't seem to... it does. The shuttle main engines are ignited 6-7 seconds before "0" or launch because they take that long to work up to their working thrust. If you ever see a close up of the orbiter during the final ten seconds, you'll see it rock a little from a slightly leaned-back angle to straight vertical as this happens.
The solid rocket boosters are bolted to the platform to prevent the shuttle stack from launching (or toppling) while that's happening. Imagine a car -- since this is /. -- spinning its tires in place before dropping the brake. That's what's happening. When the countdown hits 0, the SRBs have been ignited as well, and the shuttle is either going to be released or tear itself free. That's why those bolts are explosive. They pop off and the shuttle is gone.
The shuttle stack doesn't seem to leap off the pad, it really, really does.