STS-120 Liftoff! Wishing them a successful Mission and a safe return home!

[Admin]

The Space Shuttle Mission 2007(tm) Team wishes the STS-120 Crew a successful mission and a safe return home!

[james]

so, ISS docking thursday?

[marvx]

Good luck Discovery n the best for attaching harmony to iss


been a beautiful launch


greetings
marvx

[Fearless]

And an awesome viewing it was here from "Down Under" Especially viewing through the external camera  

From Australia, wishing the STS-120 Crew every success with the mission and a safe return home.

[james]

This is awesome! According to wikipedia:



"During STS-120, the lightsaber used by actor Mark Hamill in the 1983 film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi will be flown to the station, and then returned to Earth. Stowed on-board Discovery for the length of the mission, the fictional Jedi weapon is being flown in honor of the 30th anniversary of director George Lucas' Star Wars franchise.

The initial shuttle launch time was set at 11:38 (EST), a possible homage to George Lucas, whose first film's name THX 1138 often appears in his later scripts.

On 28 August 2007, Chewbacca from the Star Wars films presented the lightsaber to NASA officials from Space Center Houston, in an official ceremony at Oakland International Airport. The lightsaber was then flown to Houston, where it was greeted by Stormtroopers. After STS-120, the lightsaber will be on display at Space Center Houston."

[simking]

Hey thanks for that info as a member of the 501st Neg ill pass that info on...www.501neg.com.....good luck STS120

[Cornwallus]

We could have a seperate thread for each flight day. That would be helpful to keep things relevent

[Admin]

That's too many threads! NASA does a great job maintaining daily updates :-)

We can definitely live with two...

Best,
/Admin

[Cornwallus]

Ok. Just throwing some ideas out there...  You can check the Shuttle and ISS tracking at this link. Currently out of KU atm.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/

[Firefighterdan]

Good luck Discovery. I hope you all have a great mission and a safe return.

[james]

That's too many threads! NASA does a great job maintaining daily updates :-)

We can definitely live with two...

definately, the real mission board is secondary to the SSM boards. Otherwise every mission would create 10-14 threads! I think that the main reason why the first sts-120 thread grew so quickly was simply because it was about to launch and updates were coming in so frequently. Each day of a mission won't be as 'event-ridden' (haha) as the launch day.

[schaller]

I watched the launch on HDNET in hidef. WOW what an amazing sight.  It never gets old watching a launch.
I ran Shuttle and enterd in ITEM 777 right at 11 seconds and tried to synch the launch.  Got it about 1/2 second off.  It was really fun to hear my PC alert me of SRB sep with a boom as I was watching it happen live on TV.
Best Wishes Discovery with Harmony Deploy and a safe ride home.

Schaller

[Admin]

Press Briefing on the debris/foam at liftoff and after External Tank separation: many interesting pictures and explanations.

The preliminary message is "no damage and no reason for concern". That's great news.

NASA plans to analyze the pics and data during the next days but for now all seems A-OK.

/Admin

[Cornwallus]

I feel there is "over"-concern these days within NASA and the media. Yes, Columbia's accident was a result of Tile damage. A Gaping hole in the leading edge of a wing is a big deal! Many early Shuttle missions lost tons of tiles and were fine. If an actual tile were lost on any current mission the media would have a field day and NASA would waste time with a repair mission. STS-1 didn't even do the kind of inspection they do currently. That's my little rant for the day. I'm sure some don't agree with me and understandably so, I just want more science and less catering to the media.

[Admin]

My 5 y/o son's take of STS-120:

Note the ET is still attached to the Shuttle - he says that that's "extra storage" lol.

This brings me to a question: will a "Kids Shuttle Program drawings gallery" board be popular in the forum?

If yes, we will certainly open one immediately.

/Admin