Welcome Home Discovery

[Mike Weaver]

Discovery has safely landed.

Thank God and welcome back!
-Mike

[Jeff Sudmeier]

That is great news! Now I just hope they solve the Foam issue quickly so that flights can resume (Again).

[Mike Weaver]

That is great news! Now I just hope they solve the Foam issue quickly so that flights can resume (Again).

Jeff,
I have mixed feeling about that...it may be chaper to develop a new vehicle than fix a 30+ year old design.

Perhaps launch the cargo in a basic rocket & have a separate manned capsule on a rocket follow it for the manpower to work on stuff?

Anyway - yes, i'm sure NASA was quite relieved that they're home safe. The analysis of Discovery's condition should be interesting as well.

Cheers,
-Mike

[Vaughn McMillan]

I was awakened this morning by the sonic boom when it landed at Edwards. Actually, it wasn't the boom that woke me up...it was LOML saying "did you hear the sonic boom?" Glad to see they made it back safe, and I'm also hoping they can get things sorted out quickly and resume the program. The idea of a new delivery system does seem to be worth looking into, since the 30-year-old design looks to be towards the end of its life cycle.

- Vaughn

[Don Baer]

I agree with Mike. It might be easier to build a new one. Maybe NASA should contract with Burt Rattan to build them one that doesn't heat up on re entry.

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/gallery/X-Prize_2?page=1

[Pete Simmons]

OK any NASA types out there?

If the shuttle (or another type of craft) had unlimited fuel to use as braking thrust energy could it slow down enough to re-enter as Burt's fiberglass craft did from 65 miles up?

I am a BIG fan of Burt Rutan as I have built and flown a Long-EZ, one of his designs. Flew it all over the country and the only problems I had were two flat tires.

To bad they did not land in Florida as they do the last circle to land right over my house. I live about 25 miles from the Space Center.

Did anyone pay attention to the speeds and distances the last 10 minutes or so? Something like 3000 miles away Mach 20 and 10 minutes later is is on the ground. What a way to travel.

[Lee DeRaud]

OK any NASA types out there?

If the shuttle (or another type of craft) had unlimited fuel to use as braking thrust energy could it slow down enough to re-enter as Burt's fiberglass craft did from 65 miles up?Uh, you know that whale-sized fuel tank the shuttle has at launch? Essentially all the solid boosters do is lift the assembly: the main engines get it up to speed. You want to slow it down the same amount with straight thrust, it'll take the same amount of fuel...which you'll need to take with you from the ground. Air friction is free: that's why they use it. More to the point, they don't have to hump it up to orbit with them.


I am a BIG fan of Burt Rutan as I have built and flown a Long-EZ, one of his designs. Flew it all over the country and the only problems I had were two flat tires.I have enormous respect for the man myself, but his design does not scale up to shuttle-sized payloads or orbital speeds. His reentry system is very elegant, but it's only dealing with a fraction of the delta-V the shuttle has to handle.

[Jim Becker]

Did anyone pay attention to the speeds and distances the last 10 minutes or so? Something like 3000 miles away Mach 20 and 10 minutes later is is on the ground. What a way to travel.

Yea, I was watching on ABC and the numbers were incredible for the sink rate and deceleration. That was good driving, too, considering that last 180º turn back to the west to line up with the runway with zero tolerance for error.

[Joe Mioux]

California forgot to turn on the lights for this morning's landing:rolleyes:

[Norman Hitt]

Yea, I was watching on ABC and the numbers were incredible for the sink rate and deceleration. That was good driving, too, considering that last 180º turn back to the west to line up with the runway with zero tolerance for error.

The Flight Director/Management System in that thing is pretty phenominal, but it still takes literally Hundreds of hours of Practice in the Simulator in Houston to get that good. The Simulator itself is pretty impressive, (I've been in it a few times, courtesy of one of my old High School Class Mates that was in charge of that program for several years), but Hey......They Done Good. :cool:

I did notice thet the whole Crew hurried out to make a walk around inspection as soon as they got on the Ground. Maybe they just wanted to see how their practice "Patching" experiment held up. :D