Shuttle Taking off at around 9pm......

i was over in florida a few years ago and got to see one take off for real, was pretty amazing :)

pity i was sat beside the most annoying american family and it was painfully hot and i burn easy :(
 
The ISS passes have now moved from very early morning to late evening, so you will hopefully be able to see both tomorrow night.

I know this has been put up before, but go to:

http://www.heavens-above.com/ and find your location for your personal sky map.

When the passes are at a suitable time, all the kids in the street meet up at the top of the road and watch the ISS go overhead. It takes 2 minutes to go from the top of the road to the bottom.

Tomorrow, the shuttle should be 1 minute behind the ISS. Let's hope for a clear night.
 
Just seen that pic of the foam. :eek:

That looks about the size of the one that did for Columbia, and it's the most obvious one I've ever seen (and I've seen all the launches from STS-114 onwards), but it's later in the ascent and it may be thinner. Good thing it missed though. They really are supposed to have stopped those by now. :/
 
Berserker said:
Just seen that pic of the foam. :eek:

That looks about the size of the one that did for Columbia, and it's the most obvious one I've ever seen (and I've seen all the launches from STS-114 onwards), but it's later in the ascent and it may be thinner. Good thing it missed though. They really are supposed to have stopped those by now. :/
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Aye not seen the footage myself, but yeah there's gonna be some serious words with the engineers/designers
 
I'm not sure what was going on with the leak checks either - they took about 5x longer than they should have. Even the commander queried why they were taking so long.
 
True, that foam segment was of a decent size, although the team at the press conference did say that at the time the foam would have been traveling slowly enough to not cause any major problems - namely that it didn't break up upon making contact with the shuttle and just bounced off.

Hopefully when they make some checks once docked with the ISS they will come up clear of any problems.
 
I assuming covering the foam in a thin layer of CF would weight too much, but it would solve the problem. Or even some sort of netting.
 
If it were that easy, I suspect they'd have done it, but I'd have thought if the dynamic stresses of ascent were sufficient to pop off chunks of foam, they'd do a pretty convincing job of shredding netting, and the thought, however briefly it may last, of large pieces shredding off and fouling critical parts of the space shuttle doesn't fill me with confidence.
 
Documentary available on 4od about the moon landings. If anyones interested

In the Shadow of the Moon

Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. In the Shadow of the Moon brings together for the first, and very possibly the last, time surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission which flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words.
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I missed it the first time round. Just watching it now so not sure how good it is.
 
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