NASA Clears Shuttle Atlantis for Sunday Launch

Davemania writes "This Sunday, NASA will resume the reconstruction of the International Space Station with the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. NASA predicts a 60% chance that the weather will hold but will be keeping their eye at Tropical Storm Ernesto. The six-astronaut crew is tasked with deploying two large solar arrays and integrating the port 3/port 4 truss segment. As usual, the live launch can be seen on NASA TV."

Re:woohoo!

[PatTheGreat]

Actually, the Space Shuttle's systems are run on proprietary software written by a company that basically just writes the shuttle software. They have uber-secure programming practices to prevent any bugs in the system. The software, because it's so carefully written, is the most expensive piece of software in terms of dollars per line.

Re:woohoo!

[sphealey]

> the Space Shuttle's systems are run on proprietary
> software written by a company that basically just
> writes the shuttle software.

Specifically, of the five CPUs in the primary Shuttle management system, four run identical copies of the management/control software. This version was originally written by IBM's then Federal Systems Division, which was later sold (to Loral I believe). The fifth CPU runs code written to the same specifictions by the shuttle's prime contractor (then Rockwell, now Boeing). The two groups were (and I believe are) only allowed to communicate through formal written specifications and are never allowed to speak directly or to see one another's code. Whenever the software is changed, both versions must independently pass the same functional tests and then the entire cluster of five CPUs must pass the functional tests as a unit.

I haven't seen any detailed write-ups since they upgraded the Shuttle cockpit using what was essentially the Boeing 767 avionics, but I assume similar procedures still apply.

sPh

Actually... no it's been postponed

[redwoodtree]

Bad timing, actually a big thunderstorm rolled through and the platform took several direct hits. Nothing hit the shuttle itself because of the series of wires and towers that they have installed to draw the lightening away, but they are still going to take the day today and tomorrow to inspect everything.

There are some ok photos of the direct hits to the tower.

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/i mg_display.php?pic=060826_sts115_lightning_02.jpg& cap=Remote+cameras+captured+a+lightning+strike+at+ the+launch+pad+on+Friday%2C+Aug.+25%2C+2006.+Photo +credit%3A+NASA.+Click+to+enlarge.