MetaFilter posts tagged with SpaceShuttle

The Economist: The World in 2010

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:09:43 -0800

In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. Previously: 2009, 2008, 2007. How did we do last time around? Guest contributions: President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso lines up Europe's priorities President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev argues for dialogue and cooperation President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed wants his island nation to remain above water President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would like for Islam and the West to live in harmony President of South Africa Jacob Zuma says Africa should rise to the occasion Director-General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan predicts the development of the flu pandemic Managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn explains how to prevent another crisis CEO of Yahoo! Carol Bartz believes business leaders should tap into the information flood Chairman of HSBC Stephen Green argues that the financial sector should welcome emerging economies CEO of Fiat Group and Chrysler Group Sergio Marchionne thinks greener cars require bolder action CEO/CTO of SpaceX Elon Musk says the private sector should handle space travel

What goes up

mattoxic — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:53 -0800

Blast into Space, Spectacular Fall to Earth {SYTL}

Shuttle launch aborts.

loquacious — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:53:54 -0800

Space Shuttle launch aborts. Approximately six minutes of on-pad post-ignition pre-liftoff aborts in a single YouTube link.

When the Shuttle program nearly ended - in 1988

Major Clanger — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:36:09 -0800

"I said to myself, 'we are going to die.'" Space Shuttle commander Hoot Gibson on his reaction as he saw pictures from the Shuttle's robot arm of gouged and missing tiles along its underbelly. Shades of Columbia - but this was mission STS-27, over fourteen years earlier. Yet mission control discounted the reports from orbit, perhaps misled by the poor quality of the downlinked images that resulted from encryption demanded by the mission's secretive military profile. In the end, Atlantis made it back, but with visible damage along her right flank. But like most classified DoD missions of the time, little was reported, and NASA was arguably wary of drawing attention to the near-loss of only the second flight since the Challenger disaster. But if this near-miss had been better known, might NASA have been more concerned about indications of debris damage during the launch of STS-107?

Quick, Robin! To the batosphere!

ardgedee — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:57:50 -0800

NASA Interim Problem Report 119V-0080: The bat that went up with the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The Future Is A Giant Smelly Series Of Tubes. In Space.

awenner — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:36:33 -0800

Behold the mundane wonders of the space age. NASA offers a four-part hi-def tour of the International Space Station. [via] Cynical-C Choice quote: "On the deck, we call this a deck, uh, this is the Minus Eighty Lab Freezer, uh, Melfi. We use that a lot. We store a lot of our biological samples, urine and blood there. And on the ceiling . . ."

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery

grouse — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:54:14 -0800

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery

For Arthur

CunningLinguist — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:16:35 -0800

A handful of pretty great spacewalk pix from last summer's Endeavour mission.

Cryogenic Venting

brownpau — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:42:32 -0800

Light Reflection: a brilliant fan of cryogenics venting from a relief valve on STS-122 Atlantis' ET (external tank) post-separation. Also see this handheld video of the ET, with money shots at 2:15 and 3:55. Atlantis just landed yesterday, completing the delivery and installation of Columbus. Next up, STS-123 Endeavour delivers Kibo.

Video and photos of spacewalks

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:31:40 -0800

The environment does terrible things to the human body and it smells. Many people go for that walk anyway. Found these while looking for video of the spacewalks from Gemini 10, 11 or 12 or any of the Apollo spacewalks (not the moonwalks), but nothing much exists, not even photos.

Space shuttle does a back flip

jouke — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 03:15:48 -0800

The space shuttle does a back flip while the earth races by underneath. Shuttle Atlantis has performed a giant back-flip to give NASA a close look at its thermal shield. The footage has been speeded up. At speed it seems a very frivolous manoeuvre. Open Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra in a tab in the background for full effect.

Video of a Tour around STS-120/ISS

brownpau — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:15:49 -0800

A tour around Discovery STS-120 and the International Space Station with Paolo Nespoli and Dr. Scott Parazynski. Tomorrow, Parazynski will be perched at the end of a robot arm and sensor boom assembly, stitching up a damaged solar array in what might be one of the riskiest EVAs since Skylab 2.

Space: 1989

dersins — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:20:46 -0800

Some photo galleries (and youtube video) of Buran, the USSR's space shuttle program (previously) from the 1980's, long since abandoned. Bonus: A comparison between Buran and the US space shuttle. Double Bonus: More on Buran from russianspaceweb.com, which is awesome. Combo breaker: An official page with NASA's take on Buran, (and their photos), frozen in time a decade ago.

Look at the Space Shuttle

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:03:16 -0800

Space World is a joint project between NASA, Microsoft Live Labs and MSNBC.com. It uses Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth to create 3D tours of the space shuttle Endeavour and NASA's Kennedy Space Center facilities.

(Tech preview, Windows XP SP2 and Vista RC 1, IE 6&7, Firefox 1.5 and 2 only, gotta install Photosynth plugin). Others can see a movie demo.

Accident Prone

Chinese Jet Pilot — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:06:49 -0800

I hope STS-117 isn't delayed by this train wreck like it was from that hailstorm last March.

Your tax dollars at work.

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:20:26 -0800

Space Shuttle Discovery lands. (WMV) Watch for the view from the cockpit.

It's Cheaper to Throw Them Out

Chinese Jet Pilot — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:02:52 -0800

Are reusable spacecraft history? Tonight's space shuttle launch was spectacular. Watch them while you can; there are only fifteen launches left before NASA retires the shuttle, and with it the concept of reusable spacecraft. Turns out that, despite previous efforts, governments just can't make the original, common-sense idea of reusable spacecraft economically feasible. Leave it to private industry to figure out how.

Space Shuttle Launch

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:15:12 -0800

Launch of the Space Shuttle as seen from the International Space Station

When you touch down/You'll find that it's stranger than known

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:20:08 -0800

300 Miles High

Tragic triana

445supermag — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 20:55:39 -0800

Bob Park mourns Triana in his "What's New" newletter: NASA has quietly terminated what may have been its most important science mission. Critics of programs to limit emissions argue that climate change is caused by solar variation, not by atmospheric changes. There is one unambiguous way to tell: locate an observatory at L-1, the neutral-gravity point between Earth and Sun. It would have a continuous view of the sunlit face of Earth in one direction, and the Sun in the other, thus constantly monitoring Earth's albedo. Originally called Triana, the Deep Space Climate Observatory has already been built and is sitting in storage.

"Go" for de-orbit burn...

tomcosgrave — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 04:02:38 -0800

Discovery is coming home... Around now (6.06am EDT) STS114 is due to commence firing its orbital maneuvering engines for 2 minutes and 42 seconds and commence its entry of the atmosphere to return home to Edwards Air Force base. Florida was declared a "no go" both yesterday and today due to weather conditions.

Weather at Edwards is good. Landing tracks from NASA available here.
BBC story with live video footage is here.
Pilot Jim Kelly is handling the de-orbit burn, according to commentary and mission commander Eileen Collins will make the final approach and touch down at Edwards.

Best of luck, Discovery, I'm sure I speak for all when I say that all of our thoughts are with you.

Shuttle Launch Exhaust

brownpau — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:55:07 -0800

Ecological impact of Space Shuttle launch exhaust. Aluminum oxide powder, hydrogen chloride, and of course, water vapor, which can form noctilucent clouds. The environmental impact is supposedly minimal.

Listen first, before reading transcript

hank — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:11:48 -0800

Next to last words from Columbia reentry, at 9 seconds into this -- wma (windows media audio) file at the first link -- very brief. listen to the audio link, first -- just twelve or so seconds long -- and give your brain the chance to hear what it hears. then, see what nasa made of it in the transcript. this and much more can be found at chris valentine's website. the particular page which he discusses this audio file is here but don't miss the movies at his home page. I can agree with Chris Valentine (whose movies are at the same site and much worth watching) that NASA may honestly not hear what he heard -- and I hear -- in this bit of audio. But, as I listen to and watch NASA TV live right now, I notice that every time we start to hear anything at all revealing of plain old humor, or comments about having to reboot Windows again or power cycle when shutdown won't work, or much else, Houston intervenes with "hot mike" and the sound goes away for a while. They micromanage what we get to hear. Valentine's movies have far better video than we see live from NASA too.

STS-114 Liftoff

brownpau — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:05:27 -0800

Liftoff! Discovery is in orbit, and STS-114 is well and fully underway. The fuel sensor problem which had previously delayed the launch was not an issue this morning. Mission timeline, mission updates, and the Wikipedia entry.

Everything you ever wanted to know about spaceflight

tgrundke — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:21:33 -0800

And we thought it was just a load of Soviet propaganda: Buran was pretty sweet Well, no doubt a little bit of industrial espionage helped them in its design, but the Soviet Buran really was an impressive technological achievement and in many ways superior to the United States space shuttle. Of particular interest is the impressive technology the Soviet's developed for heavy-lift boosters. Does anyone know what's become of any of this, or know of any other interesting bits of Soviet -v- American space race trivia? This stuff always fascinates me. (Great website for geeky-cool aerospace information as well)