"Beginning with an orbital speed of about 17,500 mph"

[applegrove]

I'm just saying!! - GOOD LUCK!


" .... Snip .....

Under new guidelines, Discovery will follow a trajectory that takes it largely over ocean.

Beginning with an orbital speed of about 17,500 mph, the shuttle is scheduled to enter the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and glide over Nicaragua, Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico.

It then should pass over Florida's Lake Okeechobee and, moving at about 220 mph, touch down at the Kennedy Space Center

......Snip "

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/08/07/space.shuttle/index.html

[edbermac]

1. Love NASA but the shuttle program should be ended...

Just like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo were ended. Shuttle technology is around 30 years old, which might as well be 300 years...maybe they should hire the guy who designed the privately funded Spaceship One; he seems to be using state of the art technology...

[applegrove]

2. I think it is ended. For all intents & purposes. They would never live

it down if they sent up a new shuttle and something went wrong.

[karlrschneider]

3. I agree. Think back 30 years and recall what computers were like then,

for example. I was programming & running a Data General "mini" with a whole 16K of core (true core, the little ferrite doughnuts!) and the hard drive was the size of a washing machine and held a disk about 14 inches in diameter...TEN MEGABYTES. I wrote the payroll program for the company I worked for in Fortran, of all things...had to use a LOT of overlays. :D

The shuttles are just, well, obsolete. We can do better, lighter, cheaper and safer. JMO...

[don954]

4. i seem to recall a story they did about the computer upgrade on the

shuttles about 5 years ago, if I recall right, they saved something like 400# by converting to a 486dx computer & increased calculation capability 1000 times...

[karlrschneider]

5. Wow...a 486. DX no less...

:D

Well, at least they avoided the Pentium floating point division error...
:evilgrin:

[don954]

7. was the only space hardened processor abv at that time

don’t forget, all the electronics have to be hardened due to radiation.


Plus, they prob had designed the actual upgrade 10 years before the upgrade was actually done.. ;)

[burrowowl]

8. LOL

But, old computer chips aside.
Mathematics is mathematics and riding the equivalent of an iron (like the old-fashioned irons you ironed your clothes with) must be 'The Biggest Thrill' (added to the thrill of being up there) on and above Earth!
Disney, Six Flags, Evil Keneval, bungee jumping, etc. have no claim on this.
The ones I feel sorry for are the ones that didn't make it into space. Those who did and died, I'm sure they would not have traded places with those of us alive who never got to see the wonders up there.

[The Traveler]

6. Yes. We can do better

There is one concern. Thirty years ago, this country had a robust manufacturing industry and the shuttle program drew heavily upon that. Now NASA procurement folk are browsing E-Bay looking for parts. Uh, we got a problem Houston.

There is a cost to outsourcing manufacturing and other jobs. Those costs are imposed on society. Companies that do so should not be permitted free access to American infrastructure, or the protection of its military and political might.