Space Shuttle lift off

[DansSlk]

Have you noticed the tie of the guy on the far right of the briefing team? Someone has clearly cut his tie At first I thought he just looked sruffy, but a closer look showed how he had the 'snip'

Someone has a sense of humour.

Regards
John

Yeah thats Doug,

The LD is normally Mike with Doug following along so today was his first time calling the shots.

 

[glojo]

Yeah thats Doug,

The LD is normally Mike with Doug following along so today was his first time calling the shots.

He has since confirmed my observations and stated it was part of a successful graduation ritual, no wonder he looked happy. Having his tie snipped was no doubt pain free??

I was hoping to see the cargo doors opening but typical, the shuttle has moved to the other side of the earth.

The comments regarding some trailing small pieces of equipment never sunk into my woollly head, but they did not think it was important.

I hear the cargo doors have successfully opened but I think some folks are going to be more interested in when those doors finally close, and that pipe does not obstruct anything.

What an amnazing launch. the noise\power of that beast must be mind blowing.

The other day I was listening to one of the Space Station crew being interviewed and he was saying how the laboratory is now bigger than the inside of a jumbo jet and at the moment there are only three persons onboard the station and they could quite literally go for many hours or even days without seeing their colleadues! Spooky how big it is getting and atlantis is taking up another large section. It looks like we are really getting our act together regarding this space station, although I think the 'we' is really the United States of America

The shuttle is just about to go by our window (over the middle of France really.... oops it is deviating and going over Portugal )

Regards
John

 

[DansSlk]

From what I've been told John only 3 pieces of debris from the tank that where not expected are being looked into but Atlantis would have been under no aero loading at that point so they probably just dropped away, nobody's really concerned about that.

I was hoping to see the doors open also but the KU band antenna is stowed and S band can only give moving picture over a ground station, once the KU is out and they are using the TDRS satellites you will get live video for the whole orbit.

 

[glojo]

From what I've been told John only 3 pieces of debris from the tank that where not expected are being looked into but Atlantis would have been under no aero loading at that point so they probably just dropped away, nobody's really concerned about that.

I was hoping to see the doors open also but the KU band antenna is stowed and S band can only give moving picture over a ground station, once the KU is out and they are using the TDRS satellites you will get live video for the whole orbit.

Yes they talked about the three pieces but I could not understand when they were talking about this 'trailing piece' It may well be me getting confused, but now they are organised we are seeing much better video footage. The camera is located close to the shuttle air lock.

Regards
John

 

[DansSlk]

Will let you know when i find out for sure, they will probably have an answer at the next briefing but will have one for sure after the inspection of the TPS.

Getting some good views now.

 

[DansSlk]

None of those pieces of debris made contact with Atlantis so as it looks right now she's a clean ship.

The OBSS is getting ready for TPS inspection now anyways so we will see what it picks up if anything.

 

[glojo]

None of those pieces of debris made contact with Atlantis so as it looks right now she's a clean ship.

The OBSS is getting ready for TPS inspection now anyways so we will see what it picks up if anything.

Been watching it all morning

So far the only problems have been with Microsoft Outlook

It's annoying that the post launch de-brief hasnot been re-televised as it was there that the question was asked. There is no doubt in my mind that I heard something being asked but I'm blowed if I can recall what. The NASA officials confirmed they saw thee pieces of foam fall away but as you say it is thought that when these pieces fell away it was deemed they have not hit the shuttle.

Wtching the crew in the space station was brilliant, to see them gliding from one end of the lab to the other is fascinating, and I wonder how often they clout their feet as they 'fly' across the surface of the laboratory.

Made me laugh when Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko stated walking in space was quite dngerous........ The boss lady Commander Peggy A. Whitson nearly had kittens. The bloke merely stated the obvious but Whitson had to spew out the party line about not taking risks, only doing the required walk at night etc etc brilliant to see though. and respect for his honesty. Of course walking in space is blooming dangerous, but I'm positive NASA tries their hardest to minimise any risk, plus loosing an astronaut is bad!!! VERY VERY, BAD

Regards
John

 

[DansSlk]

Got a PM and an E-Mail on the way to you mate.

 

[glojo]

From what I've been told John only 3 pieces of debris from the tank that where not expected are being looked into but Atlantis would have been under no aero loading at that point so they probably just dropped away, nobody's really concerned about that.

I was hoping to see the doors open also but the KU band antenna is stowed and S band can only give moving picture over a ground station, once the KU is out and they are using the TDRS satellites you will get live video for the whole orbit.

Hi Dan,
Thanks for that,
The incident I heard was a question asked by the press representative from Houston (imediately after the tie cutting was expalined)

This person stated that just prior to the seperation there was an extra ordinary amount of ice falling away from the shuttle, this culminated in a large piece falling off from around the exhaust cone area which then appeared to follow the shuttle!!

The NASA spokes person acknowledged this event and stated it did not appear to be out of the ordinary, but they would be examining that particular piece of footage very closely. This incident was above and beyond the three pieces that have been acknowledged.

I was not with it at all yesterday and therefore was not sure if I heard corrrectly, but having seen the re-run of the interview it now confirms my original post. It is about seven eights of the way through the post launch interview.

Thanks again for all the help\advice
Yours sincerely
John

 

[DansSlk]

I think i know the one you mean, 95% sure they have cleared that one because it was either at MECO or just after it but i will check for sure.

This launch did show a lot of what looked like ice at that point and some of it was but the angle's involved put the sun right behind the orbiter so everything was visible when normally a lot of it is hidden, those few seconds with what looked like a slow motion explosion where a huge amount of debris appeared in the just before and just after tank separation was the MPS safing and the orbiter blows any remaining liquid oxygen out of the engine bells and the liquid hydrogen out via the fill/drain point on the side of the vehicle.

 

[glojo]

This last lot of ice was subsequently described as falling off 440 seconds in to the flight. Some of this ice might have hit the vessel, but at the altitude of the shuttle was way above that where this type of incident is a concern Whewww

Onwards and upwards

Regards
John

 

[glojo]

Hi Dan,
Could you look at your pm box please, tis full up.

I referred to Commander Poindexterm but he is actually a Captain

Regards
John

 

[DansSlk]

Sorry, sorted now.

 

[glojo]

For those that are interested, the shuttle can now see the Space Station and we are three or four hours away from docking.

All burns are going ahead are so far have been perfect.

Live footage is being shown on the NASA link

Regards
John

 

[glojo]

Been a busy afternoon with the shuttle docking with the European space station.

There have been a couple of press conferences during which it has been stated there has been a slight tear on the cover of a rear engine of the space shuttle. This is being discussed and NASA has released a picture.

The two images on the left show the current damage on Atlantis and the right-hand picture is the same space shuttle with similar problems on a previous mission. I believe though that the present damage is to the starboard engine and the previous damage was to the port engine??

The next piece of information relates to Hans Schlegel. This astronaut has been declared medically unfit to perform tomorrow's space walk and as a result the space walk has been delayed by a minimum of 24 hours. It is NASA policy NOT to discuss medical issues so that is the end of any discussion relating to this very unfortunate astronaut.

It is now very probable that the whole mission will be extended by a minimum of 24 hours and the shuttle is now going into what NASA are describing as a power conservation mode.

So all the light bulbs will be replaced with energy saving lamps and the exercise bike has been connected to a dynamo (joke)

My thoughts are with Schlegel and I wish him a speedy recovery as this mission is something an astronaut spends quite literally years to train for.

Regards
John

 

[glojo]

Hans has been assisting the two space walkers and hopefully he is now recovering from whatever his medical condition was.

Regards
John

 

[glojo]

NASA has requested more detailed pictures of the damaged thermal protection blanket.

Here is an example of the pictures being taken

 

[Simon]

Japanese planning to glide paper aeroplanes back to earth from ISS.

http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7230949.stm

 

[DansSlk]

The TPS is practically cleared for re-entry now and apart from a few minor glitches that are thought to be caused by the ISS the shuttle is in good shape.

Columbus is already suffering command and control issues.

 

[smartbrabus]

Re-entry burn complete - due to land in about an hour I think.