Spaceflight news and info

[Jeph]

For anyone interested, this is a specific post pointing out that at the moment, http://www.spacevidcast.com/ is covering the space shuttle Discovery's tanking test live in HD. It started about 75 minutes ago, will take 3 hours total to fill the tank.

Don't freak out if your computer can't handle HD, the site auto-adjusts to what your computer can handle, trust me. My 6 year old emachines can handle it and it looks great for me.

Reason they're doing the tanking test is because of some cracked stringers in the External Tank noticed early last month while prepping for Discovery's final flight. That launch has been moved to February, and she'll be rolling back in the barn in a few days after the tank has had time to vent and be purged of the residual hydrogen and oxygen.

I'll be in there for a good part of the day. I plug this website because it's NASA TV's feed, but rather than just being presented what NASA wants to talk about, there's a live chat that also has folks like me who are knowledgeable about the program.

It's what got me addicted to aviation in the first place, back when Challenger was lost.

[patchz]

My computer handles the HD fine. It's my slow DSL connection that hinders things. But it's better than I expected and even better than many videos I've watched. This only paused for about a second, two or three times.

[Jeph]

I'm not the host, but I am one of the "henchmen"

[patchz]

[quote]I'm not the host, but I am one of the "henchmen"

[Jeph]

Absolutely, with at least two live hosts, interviews from the cape, a few of us "arm chair astronauts" in chat fielding the flood of questions we'll see.

[patchz]

Absolutely, with at least two live hosts, interviews from the cape, a few of us "arm chair astronauts" in chat fielding the flood of questions we'll see.

Great. Thanks for the heads up.