Shuttle Launch Postponed To July 4th

mkosmo writes "NASA has yet again delayed Space Shuttle Discovery from launching due to growing weather conditions. Next launch attempt is the afternoon of the 4th of July." From the article: "Windows of opportunity are determined by the path of the orbiting international space station, the shuttle's destination. With each passing day, the time for a launch gets earlier by 22-1/2 minutes. That could be good news for NASA because summer thunderstorms are less likely to be a problem earlier in the day."

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[wesley96]

It's a bit of apples-to-oranges comparison. Russians do not currently operate a shuttle fleet. They launch the much smaller Soyuz / Progress vehicles, which in turn need less stringent launch conditions.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[znu]

Yes, the illustration you provide is simple, clear, and wrong [snopes.com].

Re:dupe

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, unless that was a poor attempt at humor, then your post just shows your mind boggling lack of common sense. You obviously don't even read the summaries, and you clearly don't follow the news. FYI, it was originally scheduled to launch Saturday, then it was delayed to today(Sunday). Now it has been delayed to Tuesday, again because of poor weather conditions.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[Eric Smith]

Amusing but false. Both the US and Soviet manned space flights used pencils until 1968, after which they both used the pressurized Fisher pen, which was privately developed by Fisher without any government funds.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[tftp]

Russian space program lost 4 people in missions, in two Soyuz accidents in 70's, all on descent (one parachute failure when USSR leaders scheduled a flight for a national holiday, for political reasons, instead of launching when ready; and one outer air valve failure when they were brave/foolish enough to descend without light spacesuits.)

US space program lost 14 people in missions, in two Shuttle accidents, one on launch and another on descent.

Both programs had various accidents on the ground, not in missions.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[cdrudge]

Myth: Americans realized that they couldn't right with a pen in space so they spent millions of dollars developing one that could. The Russians just used a pencil.

Fact: Both Americans and Soviets initially used pencils.

Fact: The Americans (and probably the Russians as well) realized that having all these little broken tips floating around in space probably wasn't a good idea.

Fact: Graphite can conduct electricity, so having the graphite dust floating around wasn't good either.

Fact: The wood and graphite would burn easily in a oxygen rich enviroment

Fact: Fisher Pens developed the space pen on their own using their own capital. Only after developed a working pen that resolved the above issues (as well as a few more) did they pass it on to NASA to evaluate.

Fact: Both NASA and the Russian space agency have used the space pen in flights since 1968.

Re:So

[tftp]

The Shuttle is as capable as Atlas V Heavy to LEO (50,000 lbs) among currently active vehicles. Proton is close at 46,000 lbs. However STS can only to to LEO, whereas Proton can (and does) go to geosynchronous orbit, delivering up to 12,000 lbs.)

Energiya was a modular design, and could be configured to lift up to 400,000 lbs from the ground. It was flown twice in 160,000 lbs configuration (one of those flights launched Buran, which weighted about 80,000 lbs.) Given Energiya's thrust, Buran could lift up to 60,000 lbs in its payload bay, but that never happened because nobody was interested - we are not building starships yet.

Energiya as such is not manufactured now, but it's engines - RD-180 - are used on Atlas V. The "heavy" option can lift up to 50,000 lbs to the LEO, or 26,000 lbs to the geostationary orbit.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[djupedal]

>...a bit of rain...

The larger tank used to be painted white, until they thought about how heavy that extra coat of paint was, and how the primer color could be used to help heat the main tank on the ground. Now, calculate how much weight 'a bit of rain' would add to an already dew moistened tank and how that would require an immediate recalibration of many main systems. On the surface, it does seem as if NASA overthinks something as simple as punching a hole in the clouds, but the very nature of this particular roman candle is such that there are a myriad of complex issues and sub-systems all demanding attention. Ignore one and what looked simple while at rest can quickly become an unharmonious rage by the ghost in the machine...

I think the only ones that have any idea the cost in lives paid at Balkinor are the families left without sons/brothers/fathers/husbands/uncles.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[mdmoery]

Shuttle has to worry about rain because, unlike the Russians, the shuttle heat shield is 1) exposed during the entire ascent instead of being tucked safely between rocket stages and 2) is made of silica glass that is glued on to the orbiter's belly. Rain=BAD

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fact: Both NASA and the Russian space agency have used the space pen in flights since 1968.

This is not a fact, this is clearly a false statement.

From the Pedro Duque's diary [esa.int]: "I am writing these notes in the Soyuz with a cheap ballpoint pen... Seeing my astonishment, he [my Soyuz instructor] told me the Russians have always used ballpoint pens in space."

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[Rudolf]

US space program lost 14 people in missions, in two Shuttle accidents, one on launch and another on descent.

And let us also remember the three lost in the Apollo 1 fire.

Here's a link to information at NASA:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_ feature_255.html [nasa.gov]

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[sconeu]

Not really applicable, as they're two different birds, but Apollo 12 took a lightning strike just after liftoff.

Re:In Soviet USA, Shuttles launch you?

[Mike Peel]

... but when they did have a shuttle (the Buran), it launched (once) in poor weather conditions (going off Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]).

Russian technology is sturdy

[Opportunist]

Do you know what the recommended procedure to de-ice a frozen AK74 is? Wrap it in some blankets and jump on it repeatedly. If a tank is available, alternatively you can run it over the blanketed AK.

Now try that with an M16.

Russian technology is often less sophisticated than US technology. But it can often take a lot more stress, and you can fix it fairly easily. You'd be amazed what junk you can find in some Ural trucks used in lieu of spare parts...

Re:Lets just hope

[zippthorne]

I got his point, but it's still a rocket, and a damn impressive sight if you ever get a chance to see it "up close." Far more spectacular than a run-of-the-mill starburst mortar. If you ever do get the opportunity to watch one and you can't convince your congress critter to get you a VIP pass, make sure you check the wind before you pick the spot to watch from. If the wind is blowing away from you, it's barely audible from many of the possible locations, but if the wind is blowing toward you...