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Touched down this morning at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, just around 8:15... picture perfect landing in the dark desert night. Good to have them home.

That landing was fukin fantastic!!!

Way to go Discovery!!! Welcome Home!

Here is a landing shot in California about 8 minutes ago



Here is the Shuttle sitting, stopped on the runway in darkness

Well, NASA didn't make marshmellows out of this lot, so that's good.

I notice that their R+D budget for new space vehicles isn't that great. It's a little hard to get to Mars if your orbiter sucks ass.

PHEW.

ANTHONYD,Aug 9 2005, 08:43 AM Wrote:PHEW.
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Got that right. Bout time they get their asses back.

NOS2Go4Me,Aug 9 2005, 07:34 AM Wrote:Well, NASA didn't make marshmellows out of this lot, so that's good.

I notice that their R+D budget for new space vehicles isn't that great. It's a little hard to get to Mars if your orbiter sucks ass.
[right][snapback]129777[/snapback][/right]

The Russians are taking the lead again with Space Flights... bear in mind they have run Soyuez for 40 years almost completely incident free...

This is the most real future of space flight at the moment.. and it's Russian.. they call it the Cliper



Info on the Cliper space craft

ANTHONYD,Aug 9 2005, 08:43 AM Wrote:PHEW.
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exactly

:D :D :D :D

the future of spaceflight is making the astronauts sit still for the entire duration of the flight? you're kidding right?

you people complain about the shuttle being outdated (when it's not), and then suggest that the soyuz is the future of spaceflight.

i don't know what the big fuss was about this spaceflight.. it was about as routine as they get...

Raine,Aug 9 2005, 08:46 AM Wrote:

NOS2Go4Me,Aug 9 2005, 07:34 AM Wrote:Well, NASA didn't make marshmellows out of this lot, so that's good.

I notice that their R+D budget for new space vehicles isn't that great. It's a little hard to get to Mars if your orbiter sucks ass.
[right][snapback]129777[/snapback][/right]

The Russians are taking the lead again with Space Flights... bear in mind they have run Soyuez for 40 years almost completely incident free...

This is the most real future of space flight at the moment.. and it's Russian.. they call it the Cliper



Info on the Cliper space craft
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That looks like a nice way to die.

indeed.

darkpuppet,Aug 9 2005, 10:26 AM Wrote:the future of spaceflight is making the astronauts sit still for the entire duration of the flight?  you're kidding right?

you people complain about the shuttle being outdated (when it's not), and then suggest that the soyuz is the future of spaceflight.

i don't know what the big fuss was about this spaceflight.. it was about as routine as they get...
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the reaSon they made such a big fuss about this mission was because they wanted to gain the confidence of the public again, and also to get people excited about space flight once more...so they plastered it all over the place...tv, radio...net...

darkpuppet,Aug 9 2005, 10:26 AM Wrote:the future of spaceflight is making the astronauts sit still for the entire duration of the flight?  you're kidding right?

Read the article. That's just the forward, reusable section of the proposed craft. There's also a secondary section that would be one or two time use that would leave the cosmonauts plenty of room to float around. It would also be as versitile as any existing cargo craft that we currently have with the various modules that could be attached to it.

darkpuppet,Aug 9 2005, 10:26 AM Wrote:you people complain about the shuttle being outdated (when it's not), and then suggest that the soyuz is the future of spaceflight.
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To quote you, you're kidding right? The shuttle is as severely outdated as the ocean liner. It is a product of the 60's & 70's... taking it into space is like taking an F4 Phantom into battle... although it still works, there's plenty of much more advanced equipment out there that's much less likely to get you killed. Just to toot the Russian horn a little more, even in the 80's when the shuttle was having problems (Challanger disaster), the USSR had a much more powerful, more capable orbiter built and tested - the Buran. By comparison, the Buran was better than the shuttle in every respect - more cargo capacity, more modern equipment, more atmospheric maneuverability... had the USSR not collapsed when it did it's very likely that the ISS would be complete by now, having it's components carried up by Energiya's Buran instead of NASA's problem-ridden orbiters. The fleet of shuttles is slated for retirement in 5 years... NASA has not given any indication of having a new orbiter in development, and yet they say they'll have a permanent facility on the moon by 2025...


Pic. of the Buran as taken from MIR

too bad no human has ever flown on the Buran....

and until someone comes up with something that is better than the shuttle that actually flies, it's still the cutting edge of space flight.

The buran was just a stolen shuttle design with parts swapped out for whatever the ruskies couldn't figure out... can't figure out liquid fuel rockets? strap on a couple more solid boosters.

And while the Buran did have an initial carrying capacity greater than the shuttle, I don't believe that record held with the shuttle updates.... and many of the things people didn't like about the shuttle (the tiles) were still used on the buran.

about the only plus side of the Buran was the powered flight upon re-entry (no liquid fueled thrusters = room for jet engine) and an advanced (for it's time autopilot system).

We all know that the shuttles need to be updated, but as of this moment, they're the only game in town.. and sure, the russians are building more capsules, but they still don't have all the flexibiity that the shuttle has demonstrated througout the years.

so what are the choices that are better than the shuttle? russian space capsules with limited cargo capacity/reusability? the decaying corpse of a russian shuttle rippoff that hasn't seen an update since the assembly building roof fell on it?

face it, while the technology of the shuttle originated in the 70's, and, like any airframe, there is a life expectancy, the shuttle isn't as outdated as everyone seems to think it is. Do you honestly think they pilot the thing using 8088 CPUs?

about the only thing still 1970's on the shuttle is the airframe design itself.

it's like with a lot of things in aerospace, there's not a lot of new technology coming out that's much better than what was already there. There's no replacement for the concorde, and the f117 stealth fighter is a product of the 70's and 80's.... it doesn't make them any less impressive.

I don't see the big deal star trek been in space since like the 70's WTF jsut get captain kirk to show you how its done