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On Orbit => Real NASA Space Shuttle Missions => Topic started by: Moonwalker on June 02, 2008, 10:51:59 PM
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I think, since the launch is done, it would be a good idea to start a new thread here for everything which is going on during the next two weeks of the great STS-124 mission :)
We are now about 10 minutes away from the rendezvous pitch maneuver. Awesome pictures from NASA TV already at the moment.
Too bad I don't have a receiver to get HD live coverage...
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I think, since the launch is done, it would be a good idea to start a new thread here for everything which is going on during the next two weeks of the great STS-124 mission :)
We are now about 10 minutes away from the rendezvous pitch maneuver. Awesome pictures from NASA TV already at the moment.
Too bad I don't have a receiver to get HD live coverage...
Would not be a bad idea.
There was no TV pictures available for the RPM (I pray it will be downlinked later). Loss of KU through TDRS-East, and only had SSV from the Shuttle (phenomenal shots).
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There was no TV pictures available for the RPM (I pray it will be downlinked later). Loss of KU through TDRS-East, and only had SSV from the Shuttle (phenomenal shots).
Sadly yes. But as a small consolation money, I just noticed that I'm going to see the ISS+Shuttle after about two orbits from now, crossing west Germany. It is just right now already crossing Germany, but sadly it's too bright out there too see it.
Orbital tracking sites I use:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Track_ESA_missions/index.html
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RPM photos being downlinked now. Can't wait to see the high res images soon...
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RPM photos being downlinked now. Can't wait to see the high res images soon...
I would love to see the one that Garrett Reisman (reportedly) took a pohto of Ken Ham with ketchup on his shirt.. :D
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Sadly yes. But as a small consolation money, I just noticed that I'm going to see the ISS+Shuttle after about two orbits from now, crossing west Germany. It is just right now already crossing Germany, but sadly it's too bright out there too see it.
Orbital tracking sites I use:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Track_ESA_missions/index.html
I usually use http://www.heavens-above.com
Let's hope for a clear sky over central Europe tonight! (I am in Switzerland)
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I would love to see the one that Garrett Reisman (reportedly) took a pohto of Ken Ham with ketchup on his shirt.. :D
LOL
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lucky I saw thins thread :)
just saw the docking :)
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Discovery has now weighed anchor at the ISS.
:)
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Discovery has now weighed anchor at the ISS.
:)
So whats new? Been there, done that. ;D
Got the T-shirt etc etc
PS
I so, so love this sim
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Discovery's seven astronauts have now entered the International Space Station.
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Let's hope for a clear sky over central Europe tonight! (I am in Switzerland)
Well, above my home town the sky is a little bit cloudy at the moment. But the ISS is rather bright. I think I'll see it in about 25 minutes from now... :)
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Discovery docked with the ISS at 1:02 CDT on 2 Jun 08. Hatch is open, Safety briefings and crew exchanges are taking place as of posting.
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Well, above my home town the sky is a little bit cloudy at the moment. But the ISS is rather bright. I think I'll see it in about 25 minutes from now... :)
Same here, too clouded too see it.
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Well, above my home town the sky is a little bit cloudy at the moment. But the ISS is rather bright. I think I'll see it in about 25 minutes from now... :)
Same here, too clouded too see it.
Sadly it was too cloudy already when the ISS crossed over my house. But at least I could see it disappear on the eastern horizon for a few seconds. Next try tomorrow... ;D
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They are showing a replay of the docking from the flight deck. Pretty interesting. Especially the fact that they didn't go to low-z thrusters until they got to 75 feet. Plus it shows how much the Commander actually commands the mission. ;D
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What gets me is how close SSM2007 actually is to watching NASA channel. (Been there, Did that, syndrome.) :D
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Never realized there was such a jolt when you docked (and a thud noise as well). They need to put that in SSM. :D
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Im watching docking / hatch opening Replays on NASA channel.. I overheard some STS crewmember comment: "Am I really here?!" Someone else replied, "...I was thinking the same thing....." Crews, especially the firstimers, were certainly on "Cloud 9" as they floated around ISS, God, I almost hated them having all that fun.. Someday, In my lifetime, I hope its feasible for us commonfolk to travel to space. ( saving my pennies now.. :D )
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You can try and apply to become an ESA astronaut :)
All they ask from you is to have a degree in any scientific field.
Too bad I'm still studying, I would've had applied otherwise!
-Toine
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Kibo is going to be installed in about 6 hours from now concerning the flight plan. But there is a slight delay already. Anyway, the first EVA starts rather soon and I can't wait to see that installation of Kibo...
Too bad I'm not a witness of the great Apollo flights, but luckily I'm a witness of this great ISS assembly, which actually is much more technical and advanced as Apollo :)
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Someday, In my lifetime, I hope its feasible for us commonfolk to travel to space. ( saving my pennies now.. :D )
Well, don't call me a gloomster, but a realist.
I believe, strongly, that manned space flight will never be available for common people. The required technology will never be cheap and less elaborate. As NASA director Griffin said "the guys let it look easy, but it's not easy". We'll see something like space ship one or the stay on ISS of Anousheh Ansari and things like that. But space flight will never be commercial in a way to make it cheap for everybody like for civil aviation.
Supersonic airplanes didn't become usual vehicles too. Not even after almost 4 decades of Concorde. There is a new jet in develpment, the Aereon. But it's rather small and basically made for oil sheiks. They may allow people to fly with it, if you have 200.000 USD for one ticket... ;)
If commercial and cheap space flight would be possible, industries would already started with, after almost 50 years of space flight. And another important thing is, where reality goes at the moment: we didn't land on the Moon for 36 years now. And NASA isn't going to land on the Moon until 2021 as planned at the moment. And I bet they even won't before 2030, because there is no funding for the required Ares V rocket at all. If there is no funding for it, there also won't be manned missions to Mars less than ever. The constellation program is nothing else than political propaganda by president Bush, and the hopeless try of NASA to get money to continue manned space flight after the Shuttle.
Apollo wasn't finished and cut. The Shuttle didn't make 600 flights until 2000 (not even over 100) and never was profitable as planned by NASA and the congress in the late 70's. And for Ares I, there are many problems to solve. Also the new vehicle, the Orion, isn't going to make it into orbit as planned initially (weight will be reduced, no landing over land and so on...). Ares I won't be as cheap as planned too. And Ares II just is dreaming without any funding. There will be a big gap between Shuttle and Ares. And if you ask me, I can't see Ares going to the Moon at all. It will be used to carry crew to the ISS and that's it. There is a gap of almost 50 years, 50 years, between the last landing on the Moon until the next planned landing on the Moon in 2021. And there is no funding for this at all. This shows where human space flight really goes. Of course the Shuttle is a great thing. Almost unbeatable and one of the most advanced things humans ever build until today. But behind the stage, the reality shows its cold face. Actually, meanwhile I think that ending the Shuttle era, and not building a new one, is a real real waste. The Shuttle can do almost anything in Earth orbit as we see just right now, but Orion will just be a small "ferry" for the ISS, even without any capability of doing EVA's!
I don't see a great future of manned space flight at all. So, let's enjoy the last final years of the Shuttle. Because after this, there will be a huge, very huge gap until we see a new but boring and faceless small ferry... :-[
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:-[Well thanks for setting my mood for the day MOONWALKER.You make alot of sense but I hope your wrong. I'm a self proclaimed realist myself so I cant deny what you've offered. I was hoping there would be some "rapid technology burst" in the next 20 years to bridge the gap on some of the challenges like you brought up. But in the end I know your probably right.. Getting way off topic here.. ( Admin, the "Ripper" ;) ) So let me guide us back...... ;D
Grapple of JPM with ISS RMS occurred at 3:30 CDT for installation on the Harmony node, ISS.
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:-[Well thanks for setting my mood for the day MOONWALKER.You make alot of sense but I hope your wrong.
Sorry. Believe me, I also hope I'm wrong ;) Because for me it would be one of my greatest dreams to be in orbit myself one day >:(
Grapple of JPM with ISS RMS occurred at 3:30 CDT for installation on the Harmony node, ISS.
Yeah it looks awesome! The guys (and the girl of course) are great and they'll do it just perfectly. Too bad that I have to go to bed soon. Have to get up early...
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For only $4,000, you can get a ride on NASA's Vomit Comet. ;)
JEM-PM almost at berthing position.
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For only $4,000, you can get a ride on NASA's Vomit Comet. ;)
Sorry for drifting (slightly) off topic, but this interests me:
Does NASA actually sell rides on their own zero-G flights to tourists, just like the Russians do? I thought that in the USA the only possibility to book a Zero-G flight would be with a private company, in their own aircraft. Although the company also sells its flights to universitys, scientific research institutions and even to NASA, for conducting medical research and scientific research under microgravity conditions. (For some research the 20 to 25 seconds of weightlessness achieved by flying a parabola is more than enough, especially if it is repeated several times.)
On a side note: For any space enthusiast I could highly recommend to participate in a zero-G flight if you ever have the chance and can afford it! It is the easiest and cheapest way to experience weightlessnes for yourself and the closest most people will ever get to the feeling of going into space. (Just to hear others talk about it or even watch videos of such a flight would never compare to experiencing it for yourself, of course.)
Besides: After having experienced the effect of zero G, watching footage of astronauts floating around in the ISS or the shuttle will be very different and even more enjoyable because you actually KNOW how it feels.
When I am looking at such footage, it gives me like a little kick as I always remember very clearly how undescribably exciting that flight was and how great it felt, and I admire the skills of the astronauts to keep control of their movements in zero G, which is not as easy as it looks.
(I had the great chance to participate in a zero-g flight when I was invited aboard an IL-76MDK of the Russian Cosmonaut Training Center last year. Veteran cosmonaut and ISS expedition 1 crewmember Yuri Gidzenko was also on board that flight, which included 10 parabolas with 25 seconds of weightlessness each time. Needless to say this was THE greatest experience of my life...)
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For only $4,000, you can get a ride on NASA's Vomit Comet. ;)
Sorry for drifting (slightly) off topic, but this interests me:
Does NASA actually sell rides on their own zero-G flights to tourists, just like the Russians do? I thought that in the USA the only possibility to book a Zero-G flight would be with a private company, in their own aircraft. Although the company also sells its flights to universitys, scientific research institutions and even to NASA, for conducting medical research and scientific research under microgravity conditions. (For some research the 20 to 25 seconds of weightlessness achieved by flying a parabola is more than enough, especially if it is repeated several times.)
[..SNIP..]
I don't know if NASA themselves do, but Zero-G (http://www.gozerog.com/) does. I want to get the money for it one day.. but I'm terrified of heights, not sure how it would work.. :P
And in reference to your flight... You're lucky as heck. I would love to try this. What did it feel like, just floating?
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The most easiest and cheapest way to experience zero-g is to have a friend who has a PPL (Private Pilot Licence) ;)
Of course a parabola flight with a Cessna is rather short, but nevertheless it's zero-g ;D
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Tried -4G on a C152 and did not like it that much - LOL! I prefer +G any day (for as long as itis belo 9G of course).
/Admin
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I don't know if NASA themselves do, but Zero-G (http://www.gozerog.com/) does. I want to get the money for it one day.. but I'm terrified of heights, not sure how it would work.. :P
This would not be a problem I think. The zero-g airplanes don't even have passenger windows, which is important to create this perfect illusion of floating through space. So you can't look outside and you don't have any perception of heights. Basically you are in that long big tube-shaped room which is illuminated quite brightly, but with no opportunity to look outside to check your position relative to earth. Maybe this would be more of a problem for people suffering from claustrophobia, but not if you are "just" scared of heights...
If you have been flying before and did not have any problems in that regard, you would be okay on a zero G flight as well.
So: Go ahead and give it a try! At least start saving some money for it... ;)
And in reference to your flight... You're lucky as heck. I would love to try this. What did it feel like, just floating?
I know I was VERY lucky, not only because I got invited, but in the first place because I got the chance to participate in such a flight with the guys who usually train the real cosmonauts. It was one of my biggest dreams that came true.
So, being aware that I was very lucky, I always like to share some of that experience with people who are interested (like you and maybe some other users here):
So what did it feel like:
It is actually very hard, almost impossible, to describe this feeling of weightlessness, as it is completely incomparable to anything I have done in my life (including flying in all kinds of aircraft, fast and slow). Some people say it is like floating underwater, but well... it is NOT. In the water you still have the resistance of the water that helps you control your movements, and you are still in one G, although this is balanced by the buoyancy of your body in the water ("neutral buoyancy").
So, being weightless under real zero G conditions just feels like that: weightless... ;) Everything that is not safely attached to the airplane floats around, people included. A slight push with your hand or your foot against the cabin walls will send you floating across the cabin in the exact opposite direction of your push. (No better way to prove Newton's law that "action equals reaction" ;) )
As the IL-76 was originally built as a cargo plane, its cabin is rather big, about 3 meters high, 4 meters wide and 24 meters long. So, if you are floating in the middle of the cabin, with no possibility to touch the walls, the floor or the ceiling, you would just hang there with no chance to get anywhere. If you can't manage to get hold of one of the railing bars along the cabin walls before the pilot pulls the plane out of its parabolic dive, you would crash to the padded floor with a force of 2 G! Of course there were instructors on board that watched over us and helped us to get a hold each time before a parabola ended. There was also a flight surgeon on board who had the authority to stop the parabolas immediately and end the flight if somebody developed an unforseen medical problem.
The day before the flight we had to attend a thorough briefing and a medical check. Another short medical check was done immediately before the flight as well as a safety briefing.
After the flight I received a certificate (in Russian of course! ;D ), signed by the director of the Cosmonaut Training Center, veteran cosmonaut Vasiliy Tsibliyev.
The Russian crewmembers were all very nice and helpful despite the fact not everybody was speaking English and me not speaking Russian. Anyway we had a good party that evening after the flight... ;D
I also had a nice and very interesting chat with Yuri Gidzenko after the flight. He seemed to be quite surprised that I knew who he was and that I was interested to hear from him about his experiences aboard Mir and ISS. He had a lot of storys to tell, of course.
The most easiest and cheapest way to experience zero-g is to have a friend who has a PPL (Private Pilot Licence) ;)
Of course a parabola flight with a Cessna is rather short, but nevertheless it's zero-g ;D
I have done this before also. It can be exciting, but it can hardly compare to a "real" zero G flight. In a small plane you usually wear your seat belts and therefore are attached to the plane. The cabin is very small and you can not float anywhere, even if you unbuckle. Also, you have those big windows where you can see the outside world and instinctively check your position in relation to earth. This would destroy the illusion of floating weightless in a space, because your eyes see what your body feels: you are falling towards earth. In this case your reference is the outside world, not the cabin.
On a zero G flight you have no windows. So, the only reference you have is the inside of the cabin: Your eyes see that you are not moving but your body feels no gravity, like you were falling. This creats that perfect illusion of weightless floating.
Tried -4G on a C152 and did not like it that much - LOL! I prefer +G any day (for as long as itis belo 9G of course).
/Admin
-4 G? Ouh, that's bad! About the preference: I have had some high G experience before, both with and without G-suit. Believe me, I would prefer 25 seconds of 0 G over 25 seconds of 5 G (or even 3 G) anytime...
(Oops, just noticed this is quite a long post which may be somewhat off topic. So, Admin, may want to split the thread and create a new one, together with the 5 or so preceding posts?)
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Getting back on track :P
Just been watching NASA TV and my goodness ... Have you seen the inside of kibo !!!!
Those guys are having a ball up there ... superb footage and mission ...
Definitely going down as one of my ISS highlights ... way to go 124 :)
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Doesn't really do it justice but what the heck :)
(http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/5051/wmplayer200806042308386qp3.th.jpg) (http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wmplayer200806042308386qp3.jpg)
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And one for the road :)
(http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/8092/runningik6.th.jpg) (http://img363.imageshack.us/my.php?image=runningik6.jpg)
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Just been watching NASA TV and my goodness ... Have you seen the inside of kibo !!!!
Those guys are having a ball up there ... superb footage and mission ...
Definitely going down as one of my ISS highlights ... way to go 124
Cool photos Becker.
Thats how we got off on this tangent on weightlessness, Me mentioning how much fun those guys (and girl) were having on hatch opening, they were on cloud nine for sure. Probably having more fun right then than ive seen from any NASA crew on ISS. They looked like kids on a amusement ride.
Kibo looks great. Japan has been developing it for twenty years, is that correct? What a marvel. STS-124 is definately one of my favorites missions so far and I cant wait to get a chance to simulate it here. Even better will be when the "Front porch" is installed with STS-126(?).
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So you all know, Discovery is now just a few minutes away from Entry Interface. Watch the landing coverage live on NASA TV!
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Aye... been covering it for just over 3 hours now.. looking good.
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Wheel stop. Perfect landing by Mark Kelly.
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touch down for discovery!
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Aye... been covering it for just over 3 hours now.. looking good.
same here!! ;)
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Great landing, ending Discovery's STS-124 mission.
Congratulations to all involved. Feels like just yesterday she launched.
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Yep! Nice touchdown!
And with this we conclude this thread, looking forward to STS-125!
/Admin