Discovery landed..

[dsee8driver]

I was listening as they landed to the NASA channel. (I know, get a life) They were 45 miles at 81k at 1000knts. They were hauling butt. Nice view though...Welcome back..

 

[crash-proof]

Gotta love msnbc.com! Saw it live, nite landing but clear as day to watch.

I tried looking it up but couldn't find the runway length used for landing. I know Edwards is 15,000 but how much of that does it need to land? They come down at around 190kts.

 

[Whale Rider]

Congrates and welcome home Discovery!!!!!!!!!!

 

[VampyreGTX]

Gotta love msnbc.com! Saw it live, nite landing but clear as day to watch.

I tried looking it up but couldn't find the runway length used for landing. I know Edwards is 15,000 but how much of that does it need to land? They come down at around 190kts.

They use up about 13K of the 15K of runway.... Talk about not much margin of error for landing long...

 

[rvsm410]

Landing Length for Shuttle

They use up about 13K of the 15K of runway.... Talk about not much margin of error for landing long...

The length of the roll out has nothing to do with Margin, the shuttle is fully capable of stopping in much shorter distance if required and the touchdown point is very precise. As you recall a drag chute was added to the fleet after over 50 flight with out a chute, this was done as a method to reduce the wear and tear on the very expensive burillium (sp?) brakes and to minimize tire blow outs on landing which occured a few times.

By the way they do replace the rubber on every flight, and the tires are supplied by Good year, are nitrogen filled to over 600 psi, so they present quite a hazard to ground crews after wheel stop as well as damage to the tile.

Welcome home Discovery! we all can breath some relief for a little while.

 

[bizijet]

Has anyone ever imagined how many shuttles were damaged on launch and returned to earth with enough damage to disentigrate during return but didn't. The crew of Discovery was told that if the shuttle was damaged enough on lift-off, they will be rescued by Atlantis. Why wasn't the crew of Columbia offered the same advice even though the engineers knew the shuttle's wing was damaged during lift-off?

Columbia's crew was told of the problem while they were in orbit. The shuttle could have docked with the space station and another shuttle launched to rescue the crew. This was as much a possibility now as it was two years ago. NASA knows the world is watching.

 

[Joseph II]

The problem with the space shuttle program is it makes me want to leave my job and take a stab at flying for a living.

I was impressed by the infra-red? cameras that tracked the shuttle when it was on approach. Nice.
JP

 

[JonJohn82]

Then what happens if the standby shuttle is damaged too?

 

[bizijet]

If the standby shuttle is damaged also we lose 14 Astronauts instead of 7. Which begs the question. Can they configure the shuttle with 14 seats or does the rescue shuttle merely replace the rescued crew on the ISS. If they replace the rescued crew on the ISS then the rescuers become the stranded crew. Sounds like a dog chasing its tail.

 

[minitour]

If the standby shuttle is damaged also we lose 14 Astronauts instead of 7. Which begs the question. Can they configure the shuttle with 14 seats or does the rescue shuttle merely replace the rescued crew on the ISS. If they replace the rescued crew on the ISS then the rescuers become the stranded crew. Sounds like a dog chasing its tail.

I'd find it hard to believe that NASA couldn't send it up on "auto pilot" without anyone on board.

Anyone know?

-mini