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Discovery launch countdown thread.

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It's less 'if it gets off the ground' and more like 'if it stays off the ground'.

Alot is riding on this. Hell if Im nervous about it, im sure the folks at NASA are shitting themselves.
 
well it is rather pathetic if it fails after 2.5 yrs of work on nothing but safety. This considering the fact that we were able to land on the freakin moon nearly 40 yrs ago with less computer power than found on a typical digital watch these days... Anyway, ye, hopefully it'll stay off the ground for the next 2 or so weeks though personally, I wouldn't mind seeing nasa focus on non-man based mishions exclusively for the next decade or two. We simply don't need to send humans up right now. Robots can do a lot more a lot cheaper.
 
It's going to work. I'm positive.

By the way, if the launch that was canceled was successful, I would have been able to see the shuttle all the way here in the Netherlands, because during the launch it was nighttime over here and stuff. :(
 
Just in. Nasa has put the risk for "catastrophic failure" for this flight at 1/100 (1 percent). That is pretty damn high if you ask me. lol
 
I was under the impression a 1% chance of catastrophic failure was low.

I'm sure I saw a program once where NASA said they expect a massive failure once in every sixty launches (thats from memory so it may be off a bit)
 
Why not design a new shuttle or send humans into space with standard rockets, like the Russians do?

The shuttle is almost 30 years old. They retired the Enterprise in Trek movies for less time than that. :lol
 
Phantom said:
I was under the impression a 1% chance of catastrophic failure was low.

I'm sure I saw a program once where NASA said they expect a massive failure once in every sixty launches (thats from memory so it may be off a bit)
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1% is very high. Back in the atlus days (moon), they estimates were 1/100000. The current rating is 2/150ish (challenger and columbia).
 
What's going on? How long till they launch? I thought they were gonna launch 14:39 GMT. I saw the counter go to 9 minutes and stop and I think the guy said it's paused like that for 45 minutes!!
 
About time they picked up the slack. The Russians have pretty much single handedly kept the ISS running in the past few years.
 
Ruzbeh said:
What's going on? How long till they launch? I thought they were gonna launch 14:39 GMT. I saw the counter go to 9 minutes and stop and I think the guy said it's paused like that for 45 minutes!!
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We're about a half hour from launch.
 
Wow the camera shots from on the main fuel tank as Discovery entered space and then jettisoned it were amazing.





Edit: Thats freaky.
 
ye the live images from the external fuel tank were incredible. Amazing that camera operated all that time (it was a sony I believe... seems like nasa trusts sony quality hehe). Whewww. The most dangerous part IS over and seeing that all the tiles are intact.... i call it an early success. :)
 
Be neat if they capture and make available video of the tank as it re-enters the atmosphere, as long as it continues to transmit anyway.
 
wow that new camera view was awesome. even in that view they maintained 60 frames per second.... oh wait,... :lol


in all seriousness, I hope the entire flight goes well :)
 
thank god. those new cameras were beyond awesome. I hope thye were HD cameras. I want a wallaper of that shot when it separated.
 
I love this pic...
072605_space_shuttle10.jpg

:lol
 
Anybody ever see launch live? I have always wanted to see one, and the one time we had an excuse and were about to get tickets, my aunt's project was canned. I have heard its one hell of an incredible site.
 
MrPing1000 said:
space is boring we need to hurry up and build something on the moon or go to mars either one is good.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House Friday overwhelmingly endorsed President Bush's vision to send man back to the moon and eventually on to Mars as it passed a bill to set NASA policy for the next two years.

The bill passed 383-15 after a collegial debate in which lawmakers stressed their commitment to not just Bush's ambitious space exploration plans but also to traditional NASA programs such as science and aeronautics.

There is some tension between Congress and the White House over the balance between Bush's vision for space exploration and other NASA initiatives. Originally, the measure would have shifted $1.3 billion in funds from exploration to other NASA programs. But after administration objections lawmakers added the money back to the budget for exploration during floor debate. That was done by adding to the bill's bottom line -- now at $34.7 billion -- not at the expense of science and aeronautics.

Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee said Bush's ambitious moon and Mars missions "should not be done by cannibalizing other NASA missions.''

The bill is the first NASA policy measure -- its budget is funded by a separate bill -- to pass the House in five years. It advanced as the space agency tries to rebound from the Columbia disaster in February 2003 with the launch of the space shuttle Discovery next Tuesday.

The measure permits but does not explicitly endorse retiring the space shuttle fleet by 2010, as the administration would like to do. It directs the agency to launch a new crew exploration vehicle -- which would lack the full capabilities of the shuttle but could travel to the International Space Station -- as close to 2010 as feasible.

NASA's plans call for a new vehicle to be ready by 2014, which unnerves lawmakers who do not want the United States to have to rely on other countries to catch a lift to the space station.

A companion Senate measure approved by the Commerce, Science and Transportation panel last month would bar NASA from retiring the shuttle before a replacement vehicle is ready.

Both House and Senate bills also endorse a servicing and repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Without such a mission, the Hubble will fail when its gyroscopes and batteries wear out in the next few years, but the agency has not announced whether to let the telescope fail or whether it will undertake a costly manned repair mission.

"Congress endorses the President's Vision for Space Exploration,'' said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y. "The United States will work to return to the moon by 2020, and then will move on to other destinations.''

The full Senate has yet to act on the NASA measure.

Regardless of the ringing endorsement Friday, NASA must still compete with other agencies for its budget in the annual appropriations process, which moves on a separate track. That promises to make it difficult to fulfill all of the policy recommendations made by the House on Friday.

Still, there was one lone voice against the bill. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., questioned spending billions to go to Mars when "day after day ... we're told we can't do enough for housing and we can't do enough for health care.''

"This is a fundamental debate the country ought to have ... about whether or not to commit these untold billions ... at the expense of other important programs,'' he said.
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On the way... I hope.
 
Still, there was one lone voice against the bill. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., questioned spending billions to go to Mars when "day after day ... we're told we can't do enough for housing and we can't do enough for health care.''

"This is a fundamental debate the country ought to have ... about whether or not to commit these untold billions ... at the expense of other important programs,'' he said.
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Barney Frank needs to STFU. Stupid Harvey Feinstein-sounding bastard. When will people wake up and realize that space technologies trickle down, from mattresses to airplanes.
 
ConfusingJazz said:
Anybody ever see launch live? I have always wanted to see one, and the one time we had an excuse and were about to get tickets, my aunt's project was canned. I have heard its one hell of an incredible site.
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Yeah, I saw I believe it was Atlantis launch in 1996. I was on a US Navy ship docked in Port Canaveral somewhere between 6 and 10 miles away. Watched the countdown until about 2 minutes to go inside, then ran up to the highest point I could get to outside.

What struck me was a) how BRIGHT the flames were, you can't really see that on TV, and b) how long the sound took to reach me -- and how long you could HEAR the sound after liftoff, even though the thing wasn't really in sight anymore.

Very cool.
 
tetsuoxb said:
Barney Frank needs to STFU. Stupid Harvey Feinstein-sounding bastard. When will people wake up and realize that space technologies trickle down, from mattresses to airplanes.
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Seriously, just attack the war and its cost, don't knock NASA. They are only advancing mankind, something I actually agree with spending money on.
 
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