Topic: Space Shuttle Launch Live

[-<WillyP>-]

In less than 10 minutes:

Spaceflight Now - live streaming video powered by Livestream

Edit: it's off, here's a screenshot:

[-<WillyP>-]

discovery_iss_4256.jpg (JPEG Image, 4256x2913 pixels)

[Crash]

This is gonna be the last year we see these launched in all probability, is that right?

[-<WillyP>-]

Last flight for that particular shuttle, the 'Discovery'.  Not sure about the program. As long as the space station is up there, it's going to need a shuttle.

[TechPro]

I recently got a NASA app for my iPod Touch ... and according to the schedule the last shuttle launch will be the Endeavor on (or about) April 19 with the Atlantis scheduled for June 28 if needed (but only if needed).  This is Discovery's last and is the first shuttle to be retired.

Consolidated Launch Manifest

Side note:  Discovery is the shuttle that next launched first after each of the shuttle 'disasters' and at 38 missions and more than 5,600 trips around the Earth, Discovery has done more missions than any other shuttle to date.  It was also the shuttle that carried the Hubble telescope into space.
STS-133 Discovery's Final Flight

[Alieo]

I'll be there for Endeavor April 19th!!! Skipping twice-flunked college algebra and all to go see it! Wouldn't miss it for the world!

[Scyphi]

Wish the US had something readily available to replace the shuttles once they're all retired, so to keep up with the space flights, but for the moment, that's aways off, and depends entirely on the budget NASA gets from the government. :|

Once the shuttles are retired, the plan is, as I understand it, is that the US will get rides into space from the Russians until they have a new means of space-transportation. There's also talk about seeing if future space flights could be done through commercial companies (so commercial companies that build the crafts for the US that NASA then flies).

[Crash]

They all get retired in summer. After that the Russkies and maybe the Chinese give us a ride until private corporations take over the puddle-jumping to the ISS while NASA focuses on exploration.

[Alieo]

I just have to rant about something, and I don't care if I cross the political discussion boundary lines, but I just have to express this. First of all, yes, the shuttles are old and are long overdue retirement... but that's why NASA came up with the Constellation program and the Aries spacecrafts. They looked like the old Saturn V's that took the first men on the moon on Apollo 11 and were designed to take us into deep space, specializing in radiation protection. Here's where I might offend some people. OBAMA cancelled the constellation program and told NASA it isn't cost effective enough. He has said that we've been to the moon... we need to go to an asteroid or Mars... conveniently for him, by 2035 (so he doesn't have to worry about it). Hello! We need to go to the moon to establish a "Lunar Outpost" (no pun intended). And the link between the moon and Earth? The ISS. The shuttle's mission was to complete construction of the ISS and it will be done by April... maybe June if that last Atlantis launch is necessary.

Bottom line... someone who simply isn't a "fan" of space exploration and believes that we should focus on problems on earth shouldn't sabotage the space program for everyone. Why oh why did I vote for him?? I won't in 2012, no matter WHO is running against him!

[NUMBERZero]

What we need is a mass driver, 2 miles long, that launches spacecraft into orbit using electricity. Power that thing with a nuclear reactor next to it. It'll cost LOTSA MONAY to build, but it'll be paying for itself in no time once we set up a moon base harvesting Helium 3 or Tridium and start selling power to the world.

[Scyphi]

Okay, in regards to Alieo's post...

First off, I'm not saying any of this to make an argument, so PLEASE, nobody go turning it into one.

Second off, I agree that Obama's choice to not fund the Constellation Program is regrettable, and not really a step forward for the good ol' US of A.

BUT...he is right. Project Constellation would be extremely expensive to pull off, and all we would've had to shown for it is a lot of rockets, maybe a bit more science learned, and the honor of having done it, but in the long run, nothing that would really help a lot of the bigger issues here on little ol' Earth, and with the country's economy being in the state it is, economically speaking, it's a logical move.

The mistake here is the fact that the shuttles are being retired with nothing really being worked on to replace them, THAT'S the problem here.  

[Alieo]

Agreed that the Constellation Program would have been a very expensive program to pursue amongst all our other economic problems. What I don't understand is, what is so hard about building a space shuttle that takes off like an airplane, flies to the upper stratosphere, then activates thrusters to reach sub-orbit... then flip another switch to activate some other gizmo and travel further. Sure it takes a lot of fuel to get a rocket off the ground from a standstill like we currently do, but wouldn't it save that much more money and fuel if they took off like airplanes and fired thrusters in the upper stratosphere? Hmm...

[Scyphi]

Because it requires A LOT of fuel and momentum to pull off, and currently, there hasn't been an aircraft designed of the right dimensions that could contain enough fuel and maintain enough lift to achieve orbit with current rocket technology. New means of propulsion have been theorized, but for the moment, they are just theories that actually haven't been developed and tested, and there are still various things holding back a lot of those alternate means that need to be resolved first. Doing so would also be quite expensive.

But it probably can be done if some focus was placed on the problem. Up until now, NASA and the such hadn't been bothering too much because they already had the space shuttles, and didn't really have the budget to experiment with other types of spacecrafts that often, so now priorities can be changed...assuming NASA gets the budget it would need to do that with, which is again part of the issue.

[Ronin RedFox]

It'll cost LOTSA MONAY

Money, Money, Money. It's raining money! Grab it while ya can, lads!

Anyway, on the topic of the Launch. I think it's pretty cool that SomaFM (internet radio) has a channel just for this, they play a bunch of spacey tunes to the live radio transmissions of the launch. 

[NUMBERZero]

Alieo is also right in making a carrier ship for the space craft.

So many cost effective ways, and we decide to do the one that creates the biggest bang.


IF I became president for a day, I would personally go down to NASA and tell them either build a mass driver or a carrier aircraft and make a decision within 24 hours and go do it...... Then I would go drilling for oil in Alaska and off the coast of Florida so that Americans can be happy again at 99 cents for a gallon of gas.



EDIT: And then give Interplay some funding and help in advertizement for D4