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Discovery's Final Launch Successful
Phoghat writes "Overcoming a down-to-the-last-second problem, space shuttle Discovery made history yesterday, launching on its final mission to orbit. The most-traveled orbiter is carrying a crew of six astronauts and one human-like Robonaut, along with a new permanent storeroom and supplies for the International Space Station."
The launch itself went as planned; a few pieces of foam insulation broke free of the external fuel tank on the way up, but it's not expected to be a safety concern, and they're planning an inspection to make sure. NASA has videos of yesterday's launch and a Discovery retrospective, and the Atlantic has a great collection of pictures involving the shuttle. Mike Coats, pilot of Discovery's first mission in 1984, spoke in an interview about his connection to the orbiter. Discovery comes back to Earth on March 7th.
"Final Launch Successful"?
Even if it were unsuccessful, it still would have been Discovery's final launch.
Trolling is a art,
Both.
Actually if you look at total deaths it is probably re-entry. There are multiple abort modes for the shuttle and conventional rockets that are survivable. Plus if you have an issue you do not have to launch.
As the old saying goes. Take off is optional landing is not.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
you might have noticed that 500 years ago some nations in europe spent a lot of money sending boats in the wrong direction, towards the ends of the earth
complete waste of money, right?
it should be a crime to display such ignorant levels of a lack of an imagination, like you do
nothing worth going into space for, right?
nothing worth sending perfectly good boats over the ends of the earth for, right?
what a pinhead
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I watched it, not planning to, after a friend posted it on Facebook. I didn't even know it was happening at that point.
Then I watched the live video. And I was gobsmacked. Amazed. I didn't realise that human endeavour involved something travelling at 14,000 (fourteen thousand) miles an hour after 7 minutes in flight. I just didn't know quite how incredible it was.
I was sad that it was at night in the UK, because otherwise I wish that schools would stop so that children could watch this incredible achievement. Just amazing.
But where is the next achievement like this after the final shuttle launch after this? Shuttles are gone, Concorde is gone. What's going to inspire our children to reach past our current achievements? I worry we're become a society of "now, next minute" rather than "what we could be".
Because it is used to build things and support the Space Station. It is used to learn and advance. We aren't going anywhere until some very specific problems are solved, and to solve them we need a place in space to research and test them.
The shuttle was an extremely valuable asset in making it happen.
And of course, the Shuttle itself has lead to many advancements in technology. I mean the things is about 15% lighter now then when it was built due to the replacement of parts with newer material developed for the Shuttle, and then used in the private sector.
We got far more out of the shuttle, and the space agency as a whole, then we put into it.
Money very well spent.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Or it's just someone failing at being funny. No need to get so worked up :)
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