Forum: Civil and General Aviation

Yes, the Shuttle does break Mach during launch. It reaches 17K MPH+ before entering orbit.

Mach 1 is roughly 750 MPH....

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Malas noticias...

NASA, or "The NAS-holes" as I like to call them Wink

just grounded the Shuttle again because of this debris.

If you ask me, it's a media coup. They latch onto some really irrelevant Bravo Sierra and cause the court of public opinion to outweigh common sense. However, with safety being paramount, this will be the last Shuttle flight for some time, so they can make sure that only the smallest of specks of debris will come off of the ET. This really eats Sierra. Mad

"Alright, I'm cooler than you are! Why don't you fix your little problems and light this candle?!"--- Alan Sheppard, shortly before launching in Freedom 7

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

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TC - I totally agree. Sometimes I wonder if this situation is not a move to further promote manned space exploration outside of Earth Orbit. Possible unexplained motivation to end the program totally and enter a new dimension of vehicles and missions. We're starting to get a little tired of orbiting for the last 25 years. Haven't we gotten rid of the scientific exploration of weightlessness for crying out loud???

I think there is some secracy regarding this mission. I, personally feel it's time to move on to bigger and better things. The methodology of this plan, (this mission, if intentional, is beyond imagination) I can't believe it. We have some extremely bold people at NASA.

NASA says it is normal for the shuttle to have as many as 15,000 small dents in it when it returns from a mission!!!

Really concerned though. What the hell happens if the orbiter turns out to be too badly damaged to return??? I would hate to be the person who makes the call over whether it is safe or not......

Lets not speculate too much right now....

Does anyone know the gross weight of the shuttle and stores on the pad and the weight of the shuttle when it's empty?

snypa777 wrote:

What the hell happens if the orbiter turns out to be too badly damaged to return??? I would hate to be the person who makes the call over whether it is safe or not......

According to CNN, if the Orbiter is damaged beyond repair while in orbit, the crew would need to be moved to the ISS, and then Discovery would be ditched.

allenperos wrote:

Does anyone know the gross weight of the shuttle and stores on the pad and the weight of the shuttle when it's empty?

The empty weight of the Orbiter itself is around 165,000lbs, and the whole shuttle (Which includes the Orbitor, the external rockets, and the external fuel tank) weighs about 4,500,000lbs when ready for liftoff. Here's a link that provides some more interesting information on this:

http://www.users.interport.net/r/i/richdoran/shuttle

Guys, the space shuttle was designed to be able to lose quite a lot of tiles on the underside and still reenter safely. Frankly, I think they're just doing it for the media attention. NASA gets absolutely no media coverage unless something goes direly wrong. I think a few pasty nerds want to bask in the lime light for a little while so they are hyping this up big time. If this happens know, then it has assuredly happened many time before and the shuttle has survived all those times as well. So just remember, "Don't worry, be happy!"

YAY, the shuttle got back safely. Thing is it landed at Edwards. That means it has to be flown back Smile

. That's quite costly if I remember correctly. Anybody have a picture of that big a$$ 747 with the mods.

Yes I do. I have a pic of Columbia's very first piggyback flight. I'll add that to my list of scan and posts that I've promised for so long in so many other threads.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

LordOfBunnies,

So what it landed at Edwards? Flight plans are always done with an alternate. The cost is, dramatic pause,,,,,,,,, ONE MILLION DOLLARS! So BFD, it's in the budget to land in CA versus FL.

TC,

Both of us need to get a scanner!!!

TC and JR - GO BUY SCANNERS!!! THEY'RE CHEAP! EVEN I OWN ONE Very Happy

!!!

TC, I'm still waiting for pics!

LordOfBunnies - I'd rather see it land at Eddie's safely than come down through overcast Wink

!

Sooooo good to see the shuttle and it`s crew back home safely. The only people who didn`t panic were NASA! What about the job Eileen Collins did?

Did you all see her backflip manoeuvre she did so the ISS crew could take pictures of the shuttle belly, looked so cool!!!!!!

The alternate landing place was a bit of a dissapointment for the crew`s families who wanted to greet them! The were all in Florida! I am sure they were just relieved they got back safely though...

Here's a few rather interesting pics of shuttles on 747s I found on the web:

I hope you all like them, as I sure thought they were cool...

Oh, I nearly forgot to add a video of a shuttle on its "piggyback" flight on a NASA 747.Well, here it is to those who are interested:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/X-Press/2000/Nov30/movies/STS-92_depart.mov

snypa777 wrote:

Did you all see her backflip manoeuvre she did ...

That was WAY cool! Cool

Since when did Bela Krolyi start teaching astronauts to do orbital gymnastics? Definately a "10" for both artistic impression and degree of difficulty. Although the Slovakian judge only gave her an 7.5, that twit... Wink

And one other thing about the 747 SCA? It actually has the words "ATTACH SHUTTLE HERE" next to the 3 mounting pylons. Laughing

Well thank you Captain Obvious!!

Forum: Civil and General Aviation

What's up with the Shuttle?