Space Shuttle Discovery [FONT=Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif]Discovery Enjoys Successful Launch [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif]{Cape Canaveral, Fla.}(AP) Discovery and seven astronautsblasted into orbit Tuesday on America's first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster, ending a painful, 21/2-year shutdown devoted to making the shuttle less risky and NASA more safety-conscious. At stake were not only the lives of the astronauts, but also America's pride in its technological prowess, the fate of the U.S. space program and the future of space exploration itself. "Our long wait may be over. So on behalf of the many millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do, good luck, Godspeed -- and have a little fun up there," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff. Space program employees and relatives of both the Discovery and Columbia crews watched nervously as the shuttle rose from its pad at 10:39 a.m., climbed into a hazy midsummer sky, pierced two decks of clouds, and headed out over the ocean in the most scrutinized launch in NASA history. Two chase planes and more than 100 camerasdocumented the ascent from every possible angle to capture any sign of flying debris of the sort that doomed the last flight. There was no immediate word from NASA on launch damage to the spacecraft. The multitude of images will not be fully analyzed -- and NASA will not give a final verdict on whether Discovery is safe to return to Earth -- until halfway through the 12-day flight. [/FONT] (HA-HA! Beat Josh to a story!)
And, in that case, what will they do if they deem the Discovery is unsafe to return to Earth? What happens to the astronauts then?
I just hope that with this shuttle it won't have any problems in space or when returning into Earth's atmosphere. and good one on beating Josh to this topic.
Well, if I were them I wouldn't be leaving the space station. hmm...but then you might be there for years... and run out of food.
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]Multiple Pieces of Foam Fly in Shuttle Launch, Forcing Fleet Grounding [/FONT] HOUSTON -- NASA officials have grounded the agency's remaining space shuttles after the Discovery orbiter's external tank shed chunks of foam, including one piece more than 2 feet long. The problem is similar to what occurred in the disastrous Columbia flight in 2003 and was thought to have been fixed. Space shuttle officials said that while there is currently no indication the foam contacted the Discovery orbiter, the incident should not have happened in the first place and is reason enough to put a hold on future flights. Images taken of the external tank in orbit identified the foam separation, and also detailed additional areas where the material pulled loose from its tank, they said. "Until we've fixed this, we're not ready to fly," said Bill Parsons, NASA's space shuttle program manager, during a press briefing here at Johnson Space Center. "You could say that we're grounded." The Discovery orbiter and its STS-114 crew launched into space Tuesday morning and are approaching the International Space Station (ISS), where they will dock early Monday. It is NASA's first shuttle to fly since the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, which was fatally struck by falling foam debris during launch. The briefcase-sized foam chunk hit Columbia's left wing back then, gouging a hole in its heat shield that led to the orbiter's destruction -- and the deaths of all seven astronauts aboard -- during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003. The foam shed during Discovery's Tuesday launch originated on a protuberance air load (PAL) ramp that juts out from the orange external tank and protects vital cables, wiring and pressure lines running along its length. Current estimates place it between 24 and 33 inches long at its longest point and up to 8 inches wide. 'We need to do better' NASA has spent two-and-a-half years redesigning portions of the shuttle's external tank to prevent exactly such foam loss, and early discussions on the need to address the PAL ramp -- which is swathed in thick foam layers -- ended with engineers believing no changes were needed. External tank project manager Sandy Coleman said the modifications had resulted in "the safest, most reliable tank we have ever built" for the shuttle program when the first of three new units were delivered to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in January 2005. The tank used by Discovery in Tuesday's launch was the second of those tanks delivered. "We need to do better than this," said Wayne Hale, deputy shuttle program manager, during the briefing, adding that it was fortunate the incident occurred when it did. "If this had happened earlier, it would have been bad." Because of Discovery's high altitude at the time of the PAL foam loss, there was not enough air to sweep it back fast enough to impact the orbiter, Hale added. The space shuttle Atlantis, being prepared to launch in September, will not fly before shuttle engineers fully understand and address the PAL ramp foam loss, shuttle officials said, adding that they did not know if any fix could be implemented in the next month, three months or by the end of the year. Discovery was slated to fly after Atlantis. NASA's third, and last, remaining shuttle -- Endeavour -- is currently in its major modification period. Today's announcement came at the end of a day in which Discovery's astronaut crew spent hours conducting a methodical inspection of their spacecraft's nose cap and wing leading edges using a new orbital boom sensor system (OBSS). Capped with a video camera laser sensors, the boom is designed to inspect the shuttle's vital reinforced carbon carbon panels and heat-resistant tiles that safeguard the orbiter and its crew from the extreme heat of reentry. "We feel very confident of Discovery's thermal protection system, but we are looking into this," Parsons said. Additional foam loss, known tile damage Handheld images taken by the STS-114 crew of the external tank also revealed other incidents of unexpected foam loss. In addition to the PAL ramp incident, a chunk of foam separated near the tank's bipod structure, where its connected to the forward section of Discovery. Shuttle officials made modifications to the foam application in that region, and were surprised to see foam loss there, Parsons said. "We need to take another look at that," he added. A short distance beneath the bipod, in a region known as acreage foam, another small divot appeared. Acreage foam is applied to the external tank by machine, a process NASA engineers made no changes two in the last two years. "Personally, I'm disappointed," Parsons said of the foam loss, but added that it was advantageous that it occurred without harming Discovery. "We learned something. What if this had happened three, four or five [missions] down the line?" NASA already knew they had a chipped tile near Discovery's nose landing gear doors. Hale said that images taken by an external tank-mounted video camera caught the small chip flying off Discovery during the launch. Also in the image was a small white area on the shuttle's belly that will be an "area of interest" when the orbiter exposes its underside to the space station astronauts for photographs. "Are we concerned? We're treating it very seriously," Hale said of the apparent tile damage. "Are we losing sleep at night? Not yet." The STS-114 crew will likely train the cameras aboard the orbital boom sensor system on the chipped tile region during a three-hour block of time on July 29 already set aside for follow up inspections to Discovery's thermal protection system, Hale added. Astronauts notified The crews of both Discovery and the International Space Station -- where two astronauts plan to take extremely high resolution images of the shuttle's tile-covered belly early Thursday - have been notified, and data packages uplinked to their vehicles for analysis, Parsons said. "They were very glad to get [the data] and there will be more discussions about it tomorrow," Parsons said. While no new space shuttles will fly for the time being, NASA will not stop preparations for the follow-up to Discovery's mission, the STS-121 spaceflight aboard the Atlantis orbiter. Atlantis is already mated to its own external tank-solid rocket booster launch stack, and was slated for a Sept. 9 liftoff before today's foam find. NASA also tapped Atlantis to serve as a rescue ship for the STS-114 crew in the remote chance Discovery were too damage to return home and its astronauts forced to take shelter aboard the space station. That contingency rescue mission is known as STS-300. "We think the requirement for an STS-300 mission is remote at this time," said Wayne Hale, deputy shuttle program manager, during the briefing. But Parsons said that should it be needed, the decision would be "very difficult." Meanwhile, Discovery's crew was sleeping Wednesday evening and is expected to awaken at 11:39 EDT (0339 GMT) and prepare to dock at the ISS. That docking is slated for 7:18 a.m. EDT (1118 GMT) on July 28.
For me the news is very sad. The idea that exploration should be risk-free is silly. But in a world where most technology is obsolete before the sales transaction is complete it is a hell of a lot sillier even to consider an attempt at exploration of the most hostile and unforgiving environment with equipment that was designed before more than half the world's population was born.
4 I believe U.S.S. Enterprise - Retired U.S.S. Discovery - On Mission U.S.S. [SIZE=-1]Endeavour[/SIZE] U.S.S. Atlantis
The orbiter system was flawed from the outset. The disposable tank is not just nuts but is obviously a crazy sort hazrd to have hanging about. I wonder how many missions were completed with insulation tiles damaged by foam-fall during take of before Columbia was lost. The loss of Challenger was a separate avoidable tragedy that was caused by the same basic set of design flaws caused by the corporate inertia of of a project that was always going to be beyond the technological capability of its human-scale components. The money that the US taxpayers have sunk into the shuttle could have achieved so much more I suspect. The reusable space bus concept appears to me to have failed before the first vehicle ever left the ground in its operational configuration. A far better solution would have been (and still would be) to have: Develop a small reusable craft for transferring crew from ground to orbit and back again Develop traditional rockets to place large items reliably into orbit. Develop an orbital maintenance vehicle (think space shuttle that is not designed to return to earth - can be simply resupplied and refuelled -- to do the things the current shuttle does but without the risks inherent in rentry of a huge and complex vehicle that also contain extrememly precious human life) Lastly using #1,#2# & #3 it would've been relatively cheap and simple to throw up and maintain a permanently manned space station. Call me simplistic but that couldn't possibly have cost more than the shuttle. The Saturn V already worked. The shutrtle would've been a lot easier to build if the cargo bay could have been built as a separate non landable orbital garage for satellite capture, servcie, repair and relaunch and the crew launching part of the shuttle would've been easier, cheaper and safer if it wasn't attached to a whacking great truck that requires a ridiculous amount of fule to get moving.
Enterprise was the prototype. It was never designed to actually go into space, it was just built to test the gliding and landing. So we have Discovery and Endevor and Atlantis. I agree with Slim and Mirelly that we need a new design for the Shuttle. The shuttle was desinged in the late 60's to be put into place in the early 70's. When Columbia first launched it was already about 10 years behind schedule!! By the 80's we were supposed to have a higher level of space flight and exploration, and it was supposed to be a regular as jetting off to Europe. But it was a question of money. That's the root of all evil, boys and girls. Money makes the world go around. The last few Apollo missions were cancelled because of money, the shuttle's testing was postponed because of money. Then, when they finally got the money, they didn't have enough to do a redesign, they had to go with what they had drawn up in, oh,1968 or 69? The international space station finally got off the ground in the 1990's, and it was originally planned in the same time the Shuttle was!!!
Discovery cleared to return By Guy Gugliotta The Washington Post HOUSTON — NASA cleared the space shuttle Discovery yesterday for its flight home next week after concluding that a frayed thermal blanket below the commander's window is not a serious flight hazard. Wayne Hale, deputy shuttle project manager, said engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California tested similar strips of fabric in a wind tunnel overnight at speeds between Mach 1 and Mach 6, six times the speed of sound. Hale said the engineers found that even if the entire blanket tore away at the worst possible time, it had only a 1.5 percent chance of striking Discovery, and, at worst, it could put a hole in the orbiter's rudder brake but not disable it. "We have released Discovery to re-enter," Hale said during a news conference at Johnson Space Center. "We have decided not to take any action on the thermal blanket because we have determined it is a negligible risk at this time." Formal clearance for re-entry is an important milestone in any shuttle flight, particularly for Discovery, the first shuttle to fly since Columbia broke up over Texas 2 1/2 years ago, killing the seven astronauts aboard. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had equipped Discovery with a wide array of new sensors, imaging devices and inspection systems and had expected to clear the shuttle four days into the 14-day mission. Instead, during launch the external fuel tank shed chunks of foam insulation similar to the one that caused the Columbia tragedy. NASA has grounded the shuttle fleet until this problem is solved. In-space inspections before and during the shuttle's nine-day sojourn at the international space station then turned up two protruding "gap fillers" in the underside heat shielding and the frayed blanket, a rectangular piece of fabric installed just above the "D" in "Discovery" painted under mission commander Eileen Collins' window. On Wednesday, spacewalker Stephen Robinson made the first in-flight exterior shuttle repair in history when he removed the gap fillers. Yesterday, the Hale-led Mission Management Team conducted its daily review with the blanket as the last impediment to re-entry clearance. In Mission Control, shuttle Communicator Julie Payette called Discovery and said another spacewalk wouldn't be needed. "So, basically, no EVA 4," she concluded, using NASA shorthand for "Extra Vehicular Activity" — a spacewalk.
Digging around in NASA's site is like looking for grit in a sandpile. Anyone know how much insulation tile repair/replacement was "normal" between flights prior to Columbia?
