NASA examining images showing debris falling from Discovery

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3282060 ^

[hershey]

Where's Gorilla Glue when you need it.

[Textide]

Oh that. It was just the Enterprise coming back to witness a momentous lift-off.

[robertpaulsen]

Should be 'separation', also.

[konaice]

Should be 'separation', also.

Too busy correcting my errors to correct my spelling. ;-)

[konaice]

Per USA today:

A 1 1/2-inch-wide bit of tile captured on camera appeared to fly off the shuttle's belly, on the edge of a door that encloses the nose landing gear. It was not clear if the tile had been struck by anything. Pieces of tile, which protect the shuttle from searing heat on return to Earth, have been lost on past flights without preventing a safe homecoming.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-07-26-shuttle-debris_x.htm

[Trueblackman]

Mr. Worf, Phasers on stun!!!

[Sabatier]

As long as they have duct tape they'll be fine.

[Kewlhand`tek]

ALL MYGOD!1!1111!~!!!! DEBRIS HIT IT THEY ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!! Po0000r birdie :(
gawd I am sick of the media sounds like they want something to go wrong

[ARCADIA]

Discovery's liftoff marks the beginning of the end for the space shuttle fleet, which launched the first of its 114 flights in April 1981.

As a result of the Columbia tragedy, President Bush directed NASA to retire the remaining orbiters -- Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery -- by 2010 and accelerate the development of a successor that will transport American astronauts back to the moon as well as back and forth to the space station.

Do we have any info on the proposed successor shuttle program?

[burzum]

Actually they have the capability to do that with the Canada-arm. But more useful than that would be closeup photographs (since the shuttle is a big spacecraft, it would take a long spacewalk to do a full inspection). They are going to do this by pitching over prior to docking with the International Space Station. For about 8 minutes, the ISS crew will photograph in detail the space shuttle. These will be transmitted to Earth where scientists and engineers can examine them in much more detail.

Don't worry, they will at least understand what the damage is in the next couple of days. Per the mission timeline, they will do the pitch over maneuver at 6:08 ET on Thursday just before docking.

[Salvation]

Uh-oh! Praying that everything is minor.

[burzum]

The wikipedia article on the CEV is pretty useful. NASA has not yet decided the final design specs for the CEV, but is taking inputs from several companies. You can get more information from each of their product pages. In general, though, the CEV will be a capsule design with either an Apollo-like stack of rockets or Shuttle derived technology. It is highly unlikely that the CEV capsule will be reusable. This drastically reduces the complexity on several issues (especially on how to protect the heat shield).

[Veloxherc]

They have a new robotic arm that can put a camera all over the exterior.

[the invisib1e hand]

Expensive (training, suit usage, time lost from other pursuits) and risky (only a matter of time before an astronaut's suit is holed by dust or debris.)

expensive, relative to what? seven lives and a shuttle? risky, relative to what? complete loss on re-entry? puh-leeze.

[Ez2BRepub]

Actually, let them protest around the shuttle. Especially at around T-minus 5 seconds to liftoff.

[DoughtyOne]

There may be something to that idea.

[ARCADIA]

It sounds like a technological step backwards. Its no wonder that we haven't seen much about the conceptual design. Is there any new technology here or is it just a boondoggle?

[buccaneer81]

expensive, relative to what?

When you have a budget at NASA that is routinely outpaced by foodstamps, horny toad research and midnight basketball, you learn to make do. $15 billion is pissing in the ocean.

[Lx]

OK, I have a question. When the capsules for the moon missions were launched, they were encased in a plastic shell that I believe was attached to the tower on the top of the capsule that had the escape engines on it. Once it was in space it jettisoned the cover and escape tower.

My question is, why can't they have a cover over the vulnerable carbon carbon leading edges of the wings that are then jettisoned once the shuttle is in space. It's not like it needs the aerodynamic surfaces until it re-enters the atmosphere.

I know we have some serious experts here on FR, I remember all of the analysis after Columbia and FR had more, video, pictures and correct theories than NASA had at the time.

[mad_as_he$$]

My proposal is transporters! You know the beam kind.