Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on a mission to NASA's Hubble Telescope
from its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, May 11, 2009.
REUTERS/Scott Audette
Posted on 05/12/2009 11:59:02 AM PDT by buccaneer81
Space Shuttle Damaged After Lift-Off
Updated 2:47 PM EDT, Tue, 12, 20 May09
The space shuttle Atlantis suffered damage to the exterior two minutes after take-off.
Astronauts discovered a 21-inch stretch of nicks over four or give of thermal times on the right side of Atlantis.
They can’t go to the space station on this mission because Hubble (and consequently Atlantis) is in a completely different orbital plane. Orbital plane change maneuvers of that magnitude are far beyond the shuttle’s capability (as well as any other spacecraft). That’s why for this mission, Endeavour is already standing by on pad 39B - a rescue would have to occur quickly before Atlantis’s supplies are exhausted.
A lot of pilots are on this site, a pilots sense of humor cannot be understood unless you fly. It is kind of a scientific fatalistic low key type humor that can be dark.
creaky operation..
maybe it is flying 20th century technology in the 21st century, but stuff happens, no matter how much fore- and after-thought goes into putting these big birds in the sky.
I wouldn’t be too embarassed, this is one of the few things the US does reasonably well, foul-ups or otherwise..
Lets hope it's not needed.
Yes, shuttle is old and it is a classic example of what you get when you engineer to political requirements. However it is a testament to man’s ingenuity that they continue to make it work.”
I guess you do not get it!! continual problems from the same source, the Foam insulation and they do not learn from past Gross errors in that area..
ping to me
I agree but a lot of nail biting could be eliminated here.
I was taught at Ft. Rucker Army Aviation School that any landing you make that you can walk away from or even crawl away from is a good one.
I understand all that, I have pilots in the family, going back years, flying many different aircraft in combat, law enforcement etc.
However, were not talking about your typical fixed wing Cessna here or other atmosphere bound aircraft. The shuttle is a way different animal, and it's extremely dangerous, just sitting on the pad, when it's fueling up.
The news media barely covers the launch anymore, thinking it's just somehow routine.
When the shuttle fly's, it's never routine, and there are few second chances in regards to critical failures, during launch, orbit, or reentry.
nail-biting goes with stuff like this.
they’ll get a chance to check it out when they start space-walking.
I have handled shuttle tiles, while light and delicate, like Miss California, they are still tough as heck. ;-)
my only concern would be of the depth of any damage and I need to check the re-entry aero flow and heat hot spots info, these tiles are likely not in a high heat flow area, even so, a patchjob is a viable option if some tiles are suspect.
hang in there.
You are right A name comes to mind Jake Garn.Even when the Soviets copied the thing they stuck it on top of a heavy lifter case closed.
my only concern would be of the depth of any damage and I need to check the re-entry aero flow and heat hot spots info, these tiles are likely not in a high heat flow area, even so, a patchjob is a viable option if some tiles are suspect.
hang in there.
LOL will do.
Many times. In '86 I took my '59 Chevy Apache to FL. Saw the Challenger blow up while I was there in fact. 8,000 mile round trip. I guess it was only 27 years old then.
In '94 and '97 I loaded it up and took it on trips from CO to WA through WY, ID, MT, OR and UT to collect plants in wild places. Lots of off road duty both years. Plus spring trips to AZ, NM and UT for the same type backcountry exploring.
In '98 I loaded up again with a trailer and moved 700 miles to sw NM and drove back to CO for more stuff a couple of times then moved back to CO in '00.
In '02 I packed it again and moved 2,000 miles to VT. In '05 I moved back to CO. I'm leaving out about 60,000 miles of shorter trips. Solid truck. No plastic. Over 100K on the engine and about 130k on the tranny.
Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on a mission to NASA's Hubble Telescope
from its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, May 11, 2009.
REUTERS/Scott Audette
The Webb Telescope is scheduled to launch in 2014. The Hubble needed servicing to make it until then, plus they are enhancing it to make it better. Perhaps it will last past the launch of the Webb and will still be useful, since the Hubble and Webb are designed for different missions.
Will the next telescope after that be named "Chelsea" in honor of his daughter?
Holy cow! I just read that the Webb is going out over 1 million miles. That’s certainly different from Hubble, to be sure.
Depends on how ugly it is.
NASA: Nicks on shuttle don’t appear to be serious
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090512/ap_on_sc/us_shuttle_hubble;_ylt=ApA57DK._lQX3rxRNS7sc3lvzwcF
excerpt..
Flight director Tony Ceccacci told reporters “it’s too early to tell” whether the astronauts will need to conduct a more detailed inspection of that area. Any additional survey, to determine the depth of the nicks, would be done Friday right before the second of five spacewalks planned for Hubble.
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