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Steve

Steve

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NASA will begin the countdown for the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery at 5 p.m. EDT June 28, at the T-43 hour point. The countdown includes nearly 28 hours of built-in hold time leading to a preferred launch time at about 3:49 p.m. EDT on July 1. The launch window extends for about five minutes.​
 
*crossing fingers hoping that everythign goes off as planned*

a buddy of mine sent me an email last week saying something like: tickets out of ohare to florida are under 300 bucks, space shuttle goes off the 1st, lets go, not going to be many more, always wanted to see one. too bad Im broke.
 
I still see it as incredably incredible that they can 1)estimate such a window 2)hit the target. Is ISS the target?
 
its actually not too hard, i managed to learn it last year. they know exactly the motion of both the shuttle and sattelite, just need to know how much to lead the ISS by :)
 
tonycondon said:
its actually not too hard, i managed to learn it last year. they know exactly the motion of both the shuttle and sattelite, just need to know how much to lead the ISS by :)
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If it was simply the motion of the orbiting bodies, then why the launch window? It's the motion of the earth, including wobble, and of course the solar wind which acts like a headwind and creates drag on the conveyor belt.

Then you also have to calculate fuel burn and payload. I imagine there is a target wieght for docking procedures.
 
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Richard said:
If it was simply the motion of the orbiting bodies, then why the launch window? It's the motion of the earth, including wobble, and of course the solar wind which acts like a headwind and creates drag on the conveyor belt.

Then you also have to calculate fuel burn and payload. I imagine there is a target wieght for docking procedures.
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yes it would be easy to get them in the same orbit, the tricky part is getting them to arrive at the same point in space at the same time at the same speed.

yes of course fuel burn and payload are factors, plus they have to calculate the change in the ISS/shuttle orbit caused by hanging a bunch of weight off of it and the CG shift.
 
tonycondon said:
*crossing fingers hoping that everythign goes off as planned*

a buddy of mine sent me an email last week saying something like: tickets out of ohare to florida are under 300 bucks, space shuttle goes off the 1st, lets go, not going to be many more, always wanted to see one. too bad Im broke.
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I saw the first shuttle launch from the beach in Cocoa Beach. The ground shook magnificently. Years later, I lived in Orlando. I could stand in my driveway and watch it go up, but the sound didn't arrive until it was nearly out of sight. Night launches were great. And on landing we'd hear and feel the boom-boom as it went overhead. Got to see one sunset launch from a yacht anchored at the edge of the restricted area. Unforgettable!
 

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I've probably told this story too many times, but Mary and I spent the last night of our honeymoon at Jetty Park, Port Canaveral in our car waiting for the 1st Shuttle launch. I think that was the first time she realized I was really serious about this flying stuff...

Ken Ibold said:
I saw the first shuttle launch from the beach in Cocoa Beach. ...

Unforgettable!
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I worked for Martin Marietta Aerospace in Denver when the shuttle first flew. Remember those first 6 flights with the white external tank? They figured out that they didn't need the paint, so that's been gone ever since. 600 pounds that can be carried into orbit instead.

It was fun going to meetings where Rockwell guys were attending. They were all puffed up about having built the orbiter. We'd just laugh. How many did they get to build? 5 or so? Whoopie. We built (and Lockheed Martin still does) the external tank. They need a new one of those for each flight. That's where the money is in space flight. The expendibles! :D
 
Ghery said:
I worked for Martin Marietta Aerospace in Denver when the shuttle first flew. Remember those first 6 flights with the white external tank? They figured out that they didn't need the paint, so that's been gone ever since. 600 pounds that can be carried into orbit instead.

It was fun going to meetings where Rockwell guys were attending. They were all puffed up about having built the orbiter. We'd just laugh. How many did they get to build? 5 or so? Whoopie. We built (and Lockheed Martin still does) the external tank. They need a new one of those for each flight. That's where the money is in space flight. The expendibles! :D
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I was VIP at the shuttle tests at Edwards, courtesy of Rockwell.

So far the score is, Lockheed 1 Rockwell 1.
 
Ken Ibold said:
I saw the first shuttle launch from the beach in Cocoa Beach. The ground shook magnificently. Years later, I lived in Orlando. I could stand in my driveway and watch it go up, but the sound didn't arrive until it was nearly out of sight. Night launches were great. And on landing we'd hear and feel the boom-boom as it went overhead. Got to see one sunset launch from a yacht anchored at the edge of the restricted area. Unforgettable!
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Saw the first one too as well as the next 6. I was working there on that program. On STS-3 I was a launch control weenie in the firing room. I still can 'feel' those launches.

I still have two pieces of the SRB casings from STS-3 that I managed to get my hands on.
 
smigaldi said:
Saw the first one too as well as the next 6. I was working there on that program. On STS-3 I was a launch control weenie in the firing room. I still can 'feel' those launches.

I still have two pieces of the SRB casings from STS-3 that I managed to get my hands on.
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Now I'm jealous. Not simply enough to watch the launch, you got to participate. Cool.
 
Ghery said:
Now I'm jealous. Not simply enough to watch the launch, you got to participate. Cool.
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Best job I ever had. I got to see some really cool stuff and I have a gift from one of John Young from that first flight. He brought up tie tacks and some other stuff for the launch and mission support crews. I worked comm support and got a tie tack.
 
Last year a fellow who works at NASA spoke at our state glider convention. He helped train astronauts to land the shuttle, using the gulfstream at reverse thrust. He said that John Young was the best at landing the shuttle. Always less than 4 feet per second at touchdown. Anything below 7 or 8 and they consider you good enough to actually fly the thing.
 
tonycondon said:
Last year a fellow who works at NASA spoke at our state glider convention. He helped train astronauts to land the shuttle, using the gulfstream at reverse thrust. He said that John Young was the best at landing the shuttle. Always less than 4 feet per second at touchdown. Anything below 7 or 8 and they consider you good enough to actually fly the thing.
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Reverse thrust ? Wow...
 
yea its a highly modified gulfstream II I think. was featured with all the NASA planes in AOPA Pilot earlier this year. They put the main gear down, leave the nose gear up. Deploy reverse thrust to simulate the approximately 3:1 glide ratio of the shuttle.
 
tonycondon said:
yea its a highly modified gulfstream II I think. was featured with all the NASA planes in AOPA Pilot earlier this year. They put the main gear down, leave the nose gear up. Deploy reverse thrust to simulate the approximately 3:1 glide ratio of the shuttle.
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I wonder if that's hard on the engines. But you did say it is a highly modified aircraft.
 
yea i dont think the engines know the difference, it would be the deflector shield thingymabobs for lack of a better term that would be feeling the pain. Maybe some Jet hotshots can chime in here
 
585 pounds!!!! i can just imagine what it would be like to have one engine at reverse thrust and the other forward thrust, bet that was a tense few moments in the cockpit before they got it all sorted out.
 
151222main_sts_slf_lg.jpg
 
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