Slashdot Mirror
Space Shuttle Endeavour Heads To Space Station
RobGoldsmith writes "The STS-127 crew began its journey to the International Space Station at 6:03 p.m. EDT Wednesday when space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The shuttle crew will complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and deliver a new crew member, astronaut Tim Kopra, to the orbital outpost."
In other news, 40 years ago, in 30 minutes Apollo 11 lifted off for the first moon walk. I remember it like it was yesterday ... okay, maybe a month ago.
Salut,
Jacques
Incidentally, this is the first time in history that there will be two Canadian astronauts working aboard the ISS simultaneously.
Aikon-
p.s. Better work quick if they've only got 'til 2016 =P
This article says about 9 pieces fell off of the fuel tank and struck the shuttle.
So I am to understand that a large part of this mission is to put "Kibo" in orbit...
James Parry must be doubled over with laughter right about now.
... DO NOT POST a "God Speed" message.
This is one colloquialism that deserves to die.
Why not cover "real news" like How the smartphone rivals are building their communities, [techradar.com] referring to Android and iPhone platforms?
You know, I like my iPhone. It's nice. But compared to reporting on mankind's efforts in space I really don't think we're talking about the same level of importance...
Cheers,
Ian
The irony of your wondering ``What have we gotten from all the experiments done in space since the sixties anyway? Do these expenses justify the cost?'' and then posting a story about smart (cell) phones has pegged my bogometer, actually bending the needle.
Here's a clue --- all interesting smartphone capabilities are intricately tied into satellites --- which are the result of space exploration and experimentation.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
difference is that Russian spacecrafts hardy explode for no reason any more. The Shuttle however has a good chance of doing that, so it's sort of a "everyone claps after a shaky plane landing" deal.
The real news is, that that piece of shit called the "space shuttle" got to orbit at all, without breaking into its parts and killing everybody.
(You people convinced me that the space shuttle is this crappy, so you can call yourselves trolls if you disagree. ^^ Apparently it is discontinued for a reason, and is way below the usual reliability standards.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I do not agree that the Space Shuttle's heading to the space station qualifies to be on Slashdot's front page and here's why: This news is so much like yesterday...move on. We've had decades of shuttle launches, that this is now routine.
Ok, then the following topics should also not be slashdot news as they have also happened so many times before it is routine
- any announcement of a new operating system - this has been happening every few years since the 1980s
- any announcement of a new coding language - same reason as for operating system
- any announcement of a new phone/ipod/crackberry/whatever. This also happens too frequently to care about anymore
- any virus attack. This happens all the time and will happen again
- any news story related to infringement of personal freedoms. People who think they are being spied upon will always think that no matter what happens. Most other people dont care.
Your cooperation is appreciated. Thank you.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
You mean you rather want to see yet another article of the two dwarfs of the cell phone industry having a mud fight to death with each other, while Nokia and some east-Asian companies laugh at them?
This is not comedy wrestling, sir! ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
> We've had decades of shuttle launches, that this is now routine.
It stopped being routine when Challenger blew up. It became even less "routine" when Columbia disintegrated.
Oh well, I guess people risking their lives (there's a current story that large pieces of foam struck the shuttle on launch) isn't news, but rather some uninspiring BS about phone "communities" is.
I know, I have been trolled, but this made me rage.
--
BMO
Each one is dedicated to finishing the space station -- now 81 percent complete -- and hauling up supplies and big spare parts that are too big to fly on any other rocketship.
Apparently the author of your linked MSN article has been reading a bit too much 1950's Sci Fi lately.
Unless it wasn't a troll, and that guy actually believes "phone communities" being more important "news"...
"We've had decades of shuttle launches, that this is now routine."
Call it routine all you want. Watching something the size of a building lift off to space has always, is, and will continue to be an impressive technical achievement for the foreseeable future.
The shuttle is an expensive, impractical, fragile, dangerous, whatever vehicle, but it is still a remarkable machine. It may not be the best solution to place stuff in LEO, or not even a very good one, but it's beautiful and inspiring and that counts.
As for putting stuff in LEO, well... 40 years ago, we ventured into the vast ocean of space, swam a little until the island we see close to the beach and came back with wonderful stories. Since then, we have restricted ourselves to our shores, learning how to do stuff, how not to do stuff and dreaming of our future voyages. It will be a very sad day the one when we give up exploring beyond the confines of our beautiful planet.
Robots can't tell stories and none can say how it felt to watch the Earth from afar.
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
I think the shuttle is awsome but where else is it going to go?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Wrong. The transistor was all about communications and making reliable repeaters for undersea cables WAY before the space age. The space age came about from extensions of WWII technology. You've got the cause and effect totally backwards, pegging MY bogometer.
Who cares about a few high achievers flying in a badly designed firecracker? Doing the same shit decade after decade? Can you link to a signle scientific paper from all these space missions? Can you show me a single invention you use that came from the space race? No, none, because the technologies existed BEFORE so you could use them for the space race, not the other way around.
My teenage sons were able to watch the liftoff yesterday as they are spending some time with their grandparents in Florida. They both thought it was
well worth the wait and are anxious to show me pictures and video they took when they get home. With any luck, this opportunity will keep their up interest in science and space through high school, and they now have something to remember from the primitive days of the space program (primitive, assuming we ever develop true interplanetary capabilities in their lifetimes).
At about 11.22 local time here in Ireland, I got to see the Shuttle pass overhead just after the EFT seperation. Seeing both objects at 1700mph and a nice low altitude of 60 miles meant that the speed across the sky was really fast, and that the brightness of the shuttle was on the high side of magitude -5 or so. The orange of the EFT was clearly seen also.
The icing on the cake was seeing the ISS as well about 20 minutes later at about the same real speed but much slower across the sky given its distance.
I'm looking forwards to seeing the Shuttle play catch-up over the next few nights!
- This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
I work in the space industry and, honestly, it feels like an extremely isolated community. Aside from my coworkers and other companies' workers cheering on various satellite launches and successful space walks, it seems like nobody else gives a damn about what I consider to be one of the most exciting scientific endeavors in the history of this planet.
This is, however, why I love slashdot. I come on here one morning on a low-gumption thursday and find a tart complaining about the importance of smart phone communities only to see him doubly rebuked for being such a short-sighted self-obsessed fiend. Thanks to you and the others that have put that tool in his place for continuing to remind a young up and coming space-industry worker bee just how much intelligent people really do care about this realm of progress.
Cheers.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
Now some Slashdot reader must have a powerful enough LASER beam around in order to shoot at the moon.
Get it right: it's frikkin' "lasers".
I know, I have been trolled, but this made me rage.
Why? Driving to work is routine. Yet people die every day doing it. Routine doesn't make it risk-free. It has happened enough that there is a lack of interest. That's what the statement means, and based on people's reaction, it was a correct statement. So the question becomes, why do you rage at someone making such a statement? Why are you so personally offended that others don't share your priorities?
Learn to love Alaska
I know, I have been trolled, but this made me rage.
Why? Driving to work is routine. Yet people die every day doing it. Routine doesn't make it risk-free. It has happened enough that there is a lack of interest. That's what the statement means, and based on people's reaction, it was a correct statement. So the question becomes, why do you rage at someone making such a statement? Why are you so personally offended that others don't share your priorities?
I'd guess it has less to do with sharing priorities than it does with some pretentious ass stating that virtual communities built around silly-assed devices is in any way newsworthy.
-- toolie
When are they going to abandon this new Eco friendly foam and go back to the stuff that did not blow holes into the ship?!?!?!
NASA was granted a waiver by the EPA on the old foam but continued its implementation of this new foam.
It has now been found to be a mistake.....STOP ALREADY.... Go back to the old stuff.
Here:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml
or here:
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html
Also, how does the GPS in a smartphone work w/o a satellite?
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Does James "Kibo" Perry know about this? Has he not commented? I think that maybe Kibo is just getting slack in his old age.
Nothing compares to the sensation of being there. You can *feel* the immense power required to lift that huge piece of machinery up to space.
I saw it once as a kid. I will never forget. I won't say that made me an engineer, as I joke this is an innate condition, but it certainly helped.
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
What do GPS satellites have to do with manned space exploration? Nothing, that's what. GPS can be traced back to LORAN, a WWII-era technology, and various systems like Transit (see Connections series for a demo). None of these have the slightest thing to do with the Shuttle, either.
Face it, for the amount of money we've pumped into manned space exploration, we get nothing in return. Your links are not scientific papers. It's easy to say NASA developped this and that, clearly I get the feeling papers on the growth of wheat germ in free-fall would be laughable at best.
Look, I just don't understand the knee-jerk worship of the Shuttle and space exploration. A slight interest in the history of technology will show that the Space Race innovated nothing; space exploration relied on advances in all fields in order to happen. The fields were mostly advanced because of telecom, war or super nerds. The manned space stuff came after, not before.
Satellites were already working before the first American went into orbit, so there's that too.
Look, I just don't get the fuss over the Shuttle launches. There's no science, no discoveries, just the same rehashed pseudo-science for decades, an expensive roller coaster ride for overachievers. Big deal.
And as for smartphines with GPS, if that's all that came out of decades worth of space "science" and billions of dollars, I'd say that's a terrible return. Sure, if people were getting lost all the time, maybe it was worth it. But the say I see it, smartphones are toys.
PS: You can easily figure out your location by triangulating known locations of cell towers. See? Another example of something that can be easily solved by mundane technologies but no, you want GPS satellites launched by Shuttle so you can find your way to WalMart because you can't be arsed to look at a paper map? Ridiculous.