Space Shuttle Discovery Launches!!!

[Granite]

First space shuttle in 2 years launches successfully!!!!

I watched the launch online - very exciting!



Launched without any glitches at 10:39am eastern standard time in US

Here's a pic of the crew



And a pic of the shuttle being transported to the launch pad

[Kn'thrak]

this reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer goes into space.

"Hows the shuttle doing?"
"I don't know. All this equipment is used for monitoring ratings!"

[radstar]

I always envy those people when they go up to space. It has got to be the most awesome thing to do! :big grin:

Hope they'll return safetly!

[redbear]

im glad that finally did it. i have a friend who lives close to there and she took some pics. as soon as i get them, i'll post them.

i had heard the crew were "a little nervous" because of what happened the last time (i know i would be...)

[chernabog_ca]

I watched the launch this morning. Very cool to see man back in space. I was really happy that the 'next' shuttle launch finally came and that all things went alright. What was really cool was the camera mounted to the external tank and the fact that it transmitted the whole thing up to and including seeing Discovery jettison it.

[editman]

"Hows the shuttle doing?"
"I don't know. All this equipment is used for monitoring ratings!"

Except they ARE closely watching the launch with all the multiple camera setup.

I'm interested in the video Bill Hunt of the Digital Bit mentioned:

A camera placed on the external tank captured a beautiful video image of the launch from the pad all the way into orbit, including shots of the shuttle separating from the external tank and firing its thrusters to move away from it. It was the first time those moments had ever been seen on video, and it was pretty extraordinary.

[htitos]

(CNN) -- Discovery docked with the international space station Thursday as NASA tried to determine why insulating foam fell off the shuttle's external fuel tank during its launch.

Since Columbia, NASA has developed contingency plans for astronauts to try to repair damaged shuttles so they can return to Earth. If a spacecraft cannot be repaired, plans call for the crew to take refuge in the space station until a rescue mission can be launched.

I hope they come back safe, and I believe that someone in NASA is not doing his/her job as they supposed. How can so much money placed on a project can't prevent stuff like this to happen, so they can keep some of it for other purposes? How many shuttle crashes do they need to take this seriously?

[Jake]

Ok, great, I've always been a great advocate of Space exploration and regard astronauts as true heros BUT why are we still using the shuttle? The program was supposed to work for 100 launches and I believe we're on mission 110 or something like that. I mean the craft itseld was never engineered to fly more than a hundred times, so let's think we had over 110 launches between Columbia, Discovery, Challenger, Endevour and Atlantis. Challenger went kaboom after only 10 missions and Columbia after i think 26. Discovery currently has nearly 30 launches under its belt which means there that at it's most likely out of all the shuttles to go down. I certainly hope that we will never have another disaster but they usually happen because people don't want to look at statistics and hang on to blind hope. Scrap the shuttle fleet, develop a new one and let's get back to the moon and build me a home in which i can retire lol

[Kn'thrak]

Funny. Reading the paper today and they are already have plans to fix it up in space. They have the resources to patch things up. They say its not a problem.

[Jake]

Funny. Reading the paper today and they are already have plans to fix it up in space. They have the resources to patch things up. They say its not a problem.

Hehe, right, they have a mechanical arm and one guy that can go outside with a screwdriver. Gee, oh why didn't we just build the damn thing in space in the first place? :big grin:

on the other hand my friend today said that anything can be fixed with duct tape, maybe they should use that

I've become a total NASA basher, what happened to those people that organized the Apollo program, fixed the Hubble, or at least gave us some pics of Mars. Now we spend billions to study how plants grow in space, give me a break. Sure Bin Laden isn't quite the super competitive force in space exploration that the Soviets were but we could still make an effort.