Free Republic

Well since the shuttle landing was scapped this morning due to the weather. Well second time is the charm.

Well since the Space Shuttle is landing at 4:45 am, I figure I start a live thread now (I won't be awake)...

Go to NASA-TV to watch. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Reports say Space Shuttle Discovery's July 25 liftoff generated a Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud (the mysterious "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" formations sometimes observed in relation to jets in transonic flight). Link: http://www.BoingBoing.net/2005/07/27/shuttle_makes_spooky.html

Poised for Liftoff Space Shuttle Discovery rests in full view on the launch pad. Image above: The rolling back of Launch Pad 39B's Rotating Service Structure reveals orbiter Discovery. + Click for larger image. Image credit: NASA/KSC Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-114, NASA's Return to Flight mission, is set for Tuesday at 10:39 a.m. EDT. The launch pad's Rotating Service Structure (RSS) was rolled away from Discovery at 3:38 p.m. on Monday. When in place, the giant enveloping appendage is used to install payloads into an orbiter's cargo bay and provide protection from inclement weather. With the...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA managers put a brief but embarrassing setback behind them as the countdown to the first space shuttle flight in 2 1/2 years entered its final hours Wednesday, with only predicted thunderstorms posing some concern. A temporary window cover fell off the shuttle and damaged thermal tiles near the tail Tuesday afternoon, just two hours after NASA declared Discovery ready to return the nation to space for the first time since the Columbia disaster. The mishap was an eerie reminder of the very thing that doomed Columbia — damage to the spaceship's fragile thermal shield. Discovery...

NASA (news - web sites) released today a status report on safely returning space shuttles to flight. Presently, the space agency has a shuttle liftoff slated for no earlier than March 2005. Called NASA's Implementation Plan for Space Shuttle Return to Flight and Beyond, the report is putting into action the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) recommendations after the tragic loss of the seven-person crew and craft on February 1, 2003 during atmospheric reentry. NASA's just issued plan points out that considerable progress has been made in the past months in the agency's return to flight efforts and to make...