NASA Launch

LoganK

As some of you might know, the NASA space shuttle is going to be launching at 10:39 Eastern Standard Time (since I don't know all your timezones, just know that it's roughly in about 20 minutes). And it will be launching right in my own backyard, so-to-speak, here in Cape Canaveral FL. What an interesting site!

What are all your thoughts on this, especially after the Challenger disaster back in 2003?

You can turn the MSNBC to watch coverage of it!

Jason_Batten

yawns It's been done before.

Turns on Star Trek

LoganK

It's been done before? Yes, shuttle launches have been done before but this is the first launch ever since the Challenger disaster in 2003. Please tell me you know what the Challenger disaster is/was!

Merve

But one of the fuel sensors isn't working. That could be a bad sign, even if they're flying with the regular amount of fuel sensors, another one of them may fail, or they could all fail, and that could be disastrous.
/me holds his breath and tries to not be a pessimist.

LoganK

1:30 minutes left as of this post!

Merve - they said that only 2 are needed, the 3rd and 4th are just backups.

Let's hope this works and goes off without a hitch!

piersk

Just seen the launch. So far so good

goldbug

LoganK wrote:
Yes, shuttle launches have been done before but this is the first launch ever since the Challenger disaster in 2003. Please tell me you know what the Challenger disaster is/was!

Well unfortunately you don't.
Challenger accident = January 28, 1986
Columbia accident = February 1, 2003

Jason_Batten

January 28, 1986... I was exactly one year old.

And yes, the accidents were not a pleasant thing.

LoganK

It's going great so far! Currently over the Indian ocean, 142 miles altitude, and will be playing "orbital catchup" with the International Space Station until it docks. Around 3:00 p.m., another engine firing is planned to re-align itself. Currently, they are doing a gimble check.

OK, I'll stop the CCTV comentary 😃 I'll be watching the webcast all day (well, not watching it, just having it open) so I can monitor it and post interesting news. When I'm not posting about it, I'll be posting other things on this forum 😉

LoganK

So netnerd, you're 20 years old now.

Goldbug - I just realized that mistake as I was looking up some history of NASA. Forgive me, please!

I've seen both accidents/disasters - not fun at all.

longbow

what a nice launch it was, thank GOD there was nothing that went wrong. thats the last thing the country needs to happen. we have enough going on in Iraq to keep out plates full for a while. i know first hand.

Jason_Batten

longbow wrote:
what a nice launch it was, thank GOD there was nothing that went wrong. thats the last thing the country needs to happen. we have enough going on in Iraq to keep out plates full for a while. i know first hand.

You mean Vietnam 2.
Sad what you do to your youth, very sad indeed and if I read the word 'freedom' after my post, I'll puke.

Merve

Please, let's not start a political discussion.

Glad to see the launch went off well!
/me stops holding his breath and lets his face turn back to its regular colour.

Jason_Batten

Ah, I am sure all is well in zero-G 🙂

LoganK

Everything's fine. Just checked the feeds - their last orbital maneuver (I have no clue how to spell that word) went off without a hitch. On the third day we'll get some interesting footage back.

And why not start a political discussion? This is the echo lounge - and we already had a discussion on two other sensitive topics - "to frame or not to frame" and "is html a programming language".

LoganK

Ouch

Elizabeth

LoganK wrote:
And why not start a political discussion? This is the echo lounge - and we already had a discussion on two other sensitive topics - "to frame or not to frame" and "is html a programming language".

I'd prefer not to start one either; we went down that path once before and it wasn't pretty, trust me.

piersk

Elizabeth wrote:
I'd prefer not to start one either; we went down that path once before and it wasn't pretty, trust me.

Are we talking about the US vs France one? Yeah, that wasn't nice

vaaaska

Elizabeth wrote:
I'd prefer not to start one either; we went down that path once before and it wasn't pretty, trust me.

In Elizabeth We Trust.

Elizabeth

piersk wrote:
Are we talking about the US vs France one? Yeah, that wasn't nice

Yes, that one- and the one America vs. Iraq one (which may have been one and the same, I don't remember). Those got pretty nasty iirc.