Second last space shuttle launch ever!

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 08:55PM #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbhXE-AyieM

Launched today @ 13:57 Irish time.

Endeavour was built to replace Challenger and this was its last flight.

The very last space shuttle flight will be Atlantis in a couple of months.

phasers · 16-05-2011 08:58PM

Why are they stopping?

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 09:04PM

phasers wrote: »

Why are they stopping?

They are going to focus on spacecraft to reach out further than the ISS...

In the absence of the shuttle over the next few years they will be using Russian Soyus spacecraft to reach the ISS

That means going back to splashdowns or by parachute to the earths surface in a capsule

Donkey Oaty · 16-05-2011 09:04PM

I remember Jimmy McGee doing the commentary for the first space shuttle coming down to earth after a sucessful mission.

At least, I think it was the first one. It was shown live on RTE.

With a few minutes to go he said: "And if you threw a sack of potatoes out of the space shuttle now, the shuttle would land before the spuds."

Pauleta · 16-05-2011 09:05PM

I remember seeing endeavour flying over Ireland about 2 years ago. It was a pretty awesome sight even though it was just a light in the sky. I will never forget it.

Grumpypants · 16-05-2011 09:05PM

My favorite spacecraft of all time just lovely.

TeddyTedson · 16-05-2011 09:08PM

Imagine going up in one of them. I'd half be expecting for it to blow up with me inside.

El Guapo! · 16-05-2011 09:10PM

I never get tired of watching stuff like that.

cosmicfart · 16-05-2011 09:11PM

CommuterIE wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbhXE-AyieM

Launched today @ 13:57 Irish time.

Endeavour was built to replace Challenger and this was its last flight.

The very last space shuttle flight will be Atlantis in a couple of months.

I hope they bring back Elvis!

smk89 · 16-05-2011 09:12PM

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Imagine going up in one of them. I'd half be expecting for it to blow up with me inside.

Why? Are you combustible?

TeddyTedson · 16-05-2011 09:17PM

CommuterIE wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbhXE-AyieM

Launched today @ 13:57 Irish time.

Endeavour was built to replace Challenger and this was its last flight.

The very last space shuttle flight will be Atlantis in a couple of months.

smk89 wrote: »

Why? Are you combustible?

I'd would be a bit alright.

It's amazing how quickly they get there

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 09:19PM

Mark Kelly (The Commander on this mission), his wife Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who was shot in the head not so long ago in Arizona in an assassination attempt was also at the Kennedy Space Centre to see the flight.

TeddyTedson · 16-05-2011 09:22PM

CommuterIE wrote: »

Mark Kelly (The Commander on this mission), his wife Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who was shot in the head not so long ago in Arizona in an assassination attempt was also at the Kennedy Space Centre to see the flight.

Is she better already?

InTheTrees · 16-05-2011 09:23PM

Penultimate

Its a good word.

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 09:24PM

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Is she better already?

No apparently she could only clap and say "good stuff"

She's still in treatment

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 10:38PM

Another interesting fact is that the solid rocket boosters plus the main booster parachute back to earth to be reused

Mrmoe · 16-05-2011 10:43PM

The best thing that can be said about them is that we almost take these flights for granted and that they are ordinary. They are far from ordinary, it blows your mind when you think about what is involved and where they are going.

robinph · 16-05-2011 10:46PM

Remember watching the first flight in school.

Bit rubbish that they are scrapping them, and they are more than a little limited in how to get stuff up there now with only the Russian craft available.

Ghandee · 16-05-2011 10:50PM

CommuterIE wrote: »

No apparently she could only clap and say "good stuff" She's still in treatment

That sounds like me in Coppers on a Tuesday night!

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 10:51PM

Mrmoe wrote: »

The best thing that can be said about them is that we almost take these flights for granted and that they are ordinary. They are far from ordinary, it blows your mind when you think about what is involved and where they are going.

Indeed, the tragedies that happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JOjcDFtBE

(this is why I look cautiously at the throttle up command

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clseDHnTx08

They risked their lives in pursuit of mankinds ambition to visit the solar system and beyond... they knew this and they will never be forgotten just like many Russians have done the same

mgmt · 16-05-2011 11:08PM

CommuterIE wrote: »

Indeed, the tragedies that happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JOjcDFtBE
(this is why I look cautiously at the throttle up command

Apparently the astronauts were still alive after the explosion. The crew compartment survived the blast and they were killed when the compartment hit the sea.

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 11:16PM

mgmt wrote: »

Apparently the astronauts were still alive after the explosion. The crew compartment survived the blast and they were killed when the compartment hit the sea.

This is quite possibly true, video evidence shows the pod leaving the shuttle, whether they were alive or not is anyones guess... obviously the parachute on the pod failed

baalthor · 16-05-2011 11:21PM

robinph wrote: »

Remember watching the first flight in school.

Bit rubbish that they are scrapping them, and they are more than a little limited in how to get stuff up there now with only the Russian craft available.

They were supposed to be a cheap(er) way of geting stuff into space but it didn't work out that way, according to one commentator: "if solid gold bars were floating around in low earth orbit it wouldn't be economical to send the shuttle up to bring them down"

KilOit · 16-05-2011 11:22PM

About time they scrapped these ancient oversized fuel tanks and put all that money into research for better spacecrafts, i want to see spacecrafts that can get to the edges of the solar system in hours not decades in my lifetime damn it :mad:

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 11:26PM

KilOit wrote: »

About time they scrapped these ancient oversized fuel tanks and put all that money into research for better spacecrafts, i want to see spacecrafts that can get to the edges of the solar system in hours not decades in my lifetime damn it :mad:

Oh really, can you propose new engine designs that will defeat earths gravitational pull???

No, didn't think so :mad:

bonerm · 16-05-2011 11:27PM

I'll look forward to the Space Elevator thank you very much. They've been talking about it for 120 years so it should be ready any day now.

baalthor · 16-05-2011 11:29PM

KilOit wrote: »

i want to see spacecrafts that can get to the edges of the solar system in hours not decades in my lifetime damn it :mad:

That would be Project Orion

CommuterIE · 16-05-2011 11:33PM

baalthor wrote: »

That would be Project Orion

Heh, you'ld probably have Greenpeace etc crying foul, that we are destroying space.... LMFAO!

mgmt · 16-05-2011 11:39PM

baalthor wrote: »

That would be Project Orion

Project Orion was a study of a spacecraft intended to be directly propelled by a series of explosions of atomic bombs behind the craft (Nuclear pulse propulsion). Early versions of this vehicle were proposed to have taken off from the ground with significant associated nuclear fallout; later versions were presented for use only in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29

Sounds like that crap movie "The Core".

For Forks Sake · 16-05-2011 11:43PM

Cool photo taken from a place as the shuttle was launched : http://twitpic.com/4yg6hs

Ciano35 · 16-05-2011 11:45PM

The retirement of the Space Shuttle will be the end of an era, really looking forward to the future.

Second last space shuttle launch ever!

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