MetaFilter posts tagged with space and shuttle

Super slomo high-resolution space shuttle goodness

googly — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 07:26:47 -0800

Each space shuttle launch was documented by 125 cameras aimed at its engines, solid rocket boosters, orbiter, and umbilicals. The 45-minute film Ascent compiles the "best of the best": astounding 400 fps footage from three missions (STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124), produced by NASA aerospace engineer Matt Melis, and narrated by Melis and photographer Kevin Burke.

Viewing the Earth from orbit changes your perspective

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:21:08 -0800

The Overview Effect

To infinity & beyond

growabrain — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:27:22 -0800

Photos of the Flight Deck (cockpit) of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, fully powered for one of the final times, by young former NASA photographer Ben Cooper

Space Shuttle Discovery arrives at its new home

Brandon Blatcher — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:25:04 -0800

The Space Shuttle Discovery, known for launching the Hubble telescope, as well as being the workhorse of the fleet, made a final flight today. After being cleaned up and prepped, it was mated to a specially modified 747 and flown from Florida to Washington DC. Upon approach to DC, it was flown around the city before landing. The decomissioned spacecraft will become an exhibit at The National Air and Space Museum . Can't wait? No problem, there's an up close and personal tour of the orbiter, in three parts.

Dissecting OV's 103, 104 and 105.

zarq — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:10:02 -0800

Orbiter Autopsies "What NASA will learn from dissecting Space Shuttles Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour" before they transition into retirement. (From the May 2012 issue of Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine.)

Back again, in 1/128 size.

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:00:50 -0800

A Space Shuttle flies again.

Moon Camera's Missing Instructions

Chinese Jet Pilot — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:47:59 -0800

It's probably too late to take your Hasselblad aboard a Space Shuttle, but if the opportunity arises, read the Astronaut's Photography Manual (PDF) and you might capture photos like this one. Previously.

How many people traveled on the space shuttle?

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:37:37 -0800

How many people flew on the Space Shuttle?

What humans are doing in space these days

Brandon Blatcher — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:00:37 -0800

Hey, remember the ISS, that space station the Space Shuttle helped build before the shuttle was retired? Turns out humans might have to vacate that nifty space station for a bit. What happened? The Soyuz rocket used to launch crew and supplies to the station is having a bit of problem. Specifically, two rockets have exploded recently. Since that rocket is currently the only way to get to the ISS, if the problem isn't fixed by November, then the current crews might have to come back to Earth. The Soyuz spacecraft is fine though, but you should look at this neat interactive graphic of it. As to US manned spaceflight, NASA is at work on the Space Launch System, a heavy lift rocket designed to send humans to somewhere else by besides low earth orbit. Currently the plan is to visit an nnamed asteroid by 2025, then onward to Mars. A manned mission to the Moon is not currently on NASA's to do list, since they've "been there, done that". At the moment, NASA is working out the design, costs and capabilities of the rocket, much to the impatience of members of Congress, particularly in light of the Soyuz failures. Supposedly the Space Launch System is more of boondoggle, earning it the nickname Senate Launch System (Seriously, you gotta watch this, the politics are insane). It's enough to make past NASA administrators wonder if the Obama administration is serious about human spaceflight. Meanwhile, private company Space X is busy working on the second launch of their Dragon capsule, which is supposed to dock with the ISS as test. If that works out, they'll be launching supplies and eventually crews to the ISS under a contract from NASA. What's China, the third and latest nation to send humans into space, been up to? They're prepping a space station of their own, Tiangong I, set to launch by the end of 2011. Manned expedition to the station will begin in 2012 with Shenzhou 9. Mind you, several other countries are interested in launching humans into space. Asian countries really have a thing for it, there's even an Asian Space race. India plans to send a humans into space by 2016, Iran by 2021 and Japan by 2025. What about the Shuttle you ask? After being stripped of those dangerous engine parts, they'll be sent to various locations around the United States. Not to fear though, the process of choosing those locations was not political, according to NASA. Houston, Texas, home of the Johnson Space Center and who won't be getting a shuttle, ain't buying it. And the ISS, that big old station in the sky? The Russians have spoken of deorbiting it in 2020, which prompted a "SAY WHAT" from the USA and quick correction from Moscow. Evidently they were just talking about plans to deorbit that station, just to be on the safe side.

All space shuttle missions, in 8 minutes.

Zarkonnen — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:29:44 -0800

All space shuttle missions, in 8 minutes. (SLYT)

T-Minus 2 minutes and counting

HLD — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:47:44 -0800

STS 133 Space Shuttle Discovery (Single Link Space shuttle Launch)

One small step for a robot

philipy — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:11:27 -0800

One small step for a robot, one giant leap for robot-kind... but not yet. The Robonaut R2 (sic) will have to wait at least another three weeks, as the final mission of Space Shuttle Discovery is delayed.

Space, an expensive frontier

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 26 May 2010 08:08:50 -0800

Can the free market save the space program?

Blink and you'll miss it

disillusioned — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:01:13 -0800

As the shuttle program winds down, astrophotographers like Thierry Legault are taking advantage of these last opportunities to capture absolutely incredible shots like this one, showing Atlantis' transit in front of the sun as it performs its inspection backflip before docking with the ISS. His other photography includes this magnificent series of the launch of STS-125.

For this transit of a maximum duration of 0.54s, the visibility band crossed Spain, southern France, Northern Italy, Austria etc. This band was 4.8 km wide but being placed at its edge implies that the transit duration becomes zero, so in practice I had to be placed less than 1 km from the center of the band. The choice of central Spain has been deduced from the study of weather forecast and detailed maps on Google-Earth. ISS distance to observer: 391 km. Speed in orbit: 7.4km/s (26500 km/h or 16500 mph).

Godspeed Atlantis

cloax — Fri, 14 May 2010 08:59:30 -0800

Barring the need for STS-335 and any potential extension to the program, today's 2:30 EST scheduled launch of OV-104 Atlantis on STS-132 (pdf) will be her 32nd and final trip to space. She's had a good run (gratuitous launch vid).

I sweep the skies with fire and steel

blue_beetle — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:38:55 -0800

Journeys to the Internal Space Station (SLBP) Breathe deep, mine eyes, the frosty saga of eternal suns From unseen depths and dreams undreamt, I sing the gleaming cantos of unvanquished space By thought I embrace the universal With wings of mind I sail the infinitude Glory! 'tis the stars which beckon man's spirit and set our souls adrift! — Hart Crane, 1930

Space Shuttle STS-129 Ascent Video

pashdown — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:38:24 -0800

The best space shuttle launch video you will see today. As compiled and edited by NASA's SE&I imagery team at Johnson Space Center.

But that's where the fun is

dhartung — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:01:12 -0800

Atlantis. Hubble. And a big, yellow friend. Astrophotographer Thierry Legault managed to get amazing shots of Space Shuttle Atlantis approaching the Hubble Space Telescope during a transit of the sun. Don't do this at home, kids. (His site is down, so the link is through Coral.)

Space Twits

lipsum — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:02:19 -0800

A space shuttle is fired to sky. People from all around the place gets a camera and shoots it. They publish the photos on Twitter. Result: Awesomeness.

NASA releases Columbia report.

herrdoktor — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:57:59 -0800

NASA releases the Columbia shuttle disaster report. Space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry in 2003 as a result of damage sustained to its thermal protection system. This report details the possible lethal incidents and the investigation board's recommendations based on their findings. A synopsis on Wikipedia provides a good, brief review. Here's MetaFilter's original thread about the disaster. According to the report, there were five events with lethal potential: depressurization of the crew module, trauma from a "rotating load environment" and lack of upper body restraint as the as the forebody starting spinning, disintegration of the crew module, exposure to an extreme environment, and ground impact. It is believed that the crew lost consciousness very quickly and soon after depressurization.

Video and audio from jettisoned solid rocket boosters, STS-124

not_on_display — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:26:21 -0800

Video and audio from a camera mounted on one of the side solid rocket boosters during the launch of STS-124. As the camera is initially facing the main booster, there's not that much to see (except water vapor collecting on the lens and interesting-looking changes in the main booster's surface) until around 1:50, when the booster rocket is jettisoned. After that, enjoy the ride from space to splashdown, but watch out for flying debris! Here's the view from the other booster, without sound. More onboard STS cameras, previously. [N.B. -- Adjust volume accordingly, it gets loud! Looks even better in high-quality and full-screen modes.]

For Arthur

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

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

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.

In Mission Control, while the loss of signal was a cause for concern, there was no sign of any serious problem

ae4rv — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:22:06 -0800

Four years ago today the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated shortly upon reentry. Here is a sad, but, fascinating real time video recreation of the final moments, compiled from various sources including Nasa radio transmissions.

Discovery flies!

BeerFilter — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:35:56 -0800

Rocket's red glare! STS-121 lifts of successfully on the Forth of July, on a mission to deliver equipment, supplies and an additional crewmember to the International Space Station. Said Wayne Hail, Shuttle Program Manager, "Great nations dare great things and take risks along the way, and I can think of no better way to explore the space frontier than the way we set out today." Photos - Videos