Posted on 08/25/2006 4:48:21 PM PDT by RightWhale
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2006 1430 GMT (10:30 a.m. EDT)
The shuttle Atlantis' countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch on a space station assembly mission. Liftoff is targeted for 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The latest forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of favorable weather, improving to 80 percent "go" Monday and Teusday. The concern Sunday is for possible afternoon thunderstorms within the launch area.
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(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
The shuttle has not even flown 200 times. The amount of people that have been in space would not fill a high school auditorium.
You're absolutely right. And what that means is NASA shouldn't be wasting its resources on a system that is only going to put a couple of dozen people in space every year. And it looks like the replacement program isn't going to do any better. NASA needs to use its resources to build a more reliable and cheaper system that will open space travel to everybody, such as what the private sector is attempting.
> NASA needs to use its resources to build a more reliable and cheaper system that will open space travel to everybody, such as what the private sector is attempting.
So... you want the government to spend it's limitless billions to compete against the private sector?
Why do they have to compete? Wouldn't it be better if they were partners?
How are things going this AM?
Article of interest; http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1690370/posts?page=11
spaceflightnow.com
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2006
1430 GMT (10:30 a.m. EDT)
The shuttle Atlantis' countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch on a space station assembly mission. Liftoff is targeted for 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The latest forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of favorable weather, improving to 80 percent "go" Monday and Teusday. The concern Sunday is for possible afternoon thunderstorms within the launch area.
Above, someone mentioned a station component was added about four years ago. The ones going up on this mission were going to be launched six years ago, and this should begin the completion phase of the ISS in about four more years if everything goes correctly.
That is neither a necessary or sufficient condition to becoming an astronaut.
spaceflightnow.com
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 2006
1515 GMT (11:15 a.m. EDT)
The shuttle Atlantis' countdown is back on track today after delays Friday because of stormy weather. More afternoon storms are expected today and again tomorrow, prompting forecasters to predict a 60 percent chance of weather that would block the shuttle's planned 4:30 p.m. Sunday launch on a space station assembly mission.
The debt figures are wrong because they include the Social Security "trust fund" which does not really exist. The real debt is about half that $8T.
Appears to be a large object. And that's only one side of one array.
Yeah, only one side up on this mission. Next mission has another one going up. They are also installing the SARJ, which will allow the new arrays to rotate during orbit to grab as much sunlight as possible. Once these two new arrays and trusses go up, they will remove some of the existing panels in order to install another set of two trusses with panels.
ISS is gonna be one big object in the sky in a few years.
Sorry, I erred, one truss goes up on this mission with 2 arrays to be deployed. My bad.
And still, even if the panels catch the sun like that old telephone satellite system, what's it's name, it still won't be visible from Fairbanks.
Assuming a launch on Sunday, Atlantis will dock with the space station Tuesday. The new solar array truss element, known as P3/P4, would be attached the next day using the station's robot arm. Two spacewalkers then would make the electrical connections needed to power heaters and other critical components to keep the new gear alive.
Two more spacewalks are planned to remove launch restraints, deploy the arrays and to activate a massive rotary joint that will keep the giant panels facing the sun. But in a worst-case scenario, P3/P4 could survive in orbit if the shuttle crew was forced to depart after the first spacewalk.
"There is a point at which we're going to leave the truss on orbit," said MIke Suffredini, space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center. "Before that point, the truss can be put back in the payload bay and brought home. I hope we don't do that, that would really be not much fun, but once we get the truss attached and umbilicals hooked up, which happens very early in the docked time frame, we are in a safe configuration. The heaters are working, the hardware would be safe. The shuttle could leave if it needs to do that."
And when we are finished, it will look like this:
It's been a while, but will they move one of the existing arrays from where it is to its final location later on?
Delayed 24 hours, no reason yet.
AP
Weather forces shuttle launch delay
9 minutes ago
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has delayed launch of the space shuttle Atlantis by 24 hours because of a lightning strike and other weather concerns, officials said Saturday.
NASA managers said they wanted more time to see if there was any damage from the lightning, which struck a wire attached to a tower used to protect the shuttle from such strikes at the launch pad.
NASA managers also were worried about storms passing through the area before launch time Sunday.
spaceflightnow.com
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 2006
1835 GMT (2:35 p.m. EDT)
NASA managers are to hold a news conference at 3 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) to discuss the launch delay. The mission management team took the decision to delay tomorrow's planned liftoff during the routine L-1 meeting.
Launch is rescheduled for Monday at 4:04 p.m. EDT, if engineers can complete the post-lightning strike testing in time.
1815 GMT (2:15 p.m. EDT)
NASA has delayed the launch of shuttle Atlantis by 24 hours to allow for additional testing following a direct lightning strike at launch pad 39B yesterday. A news conference will be held later this afternoon. A launch on Monday would occur at 4:04 p.m. EDT (2004 GMT).
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