Discovery in Orbit!!!

[beaky]

Just over 10 minutes ago, Discovery and her crew of seven lifted off in good but hot weather and just achieved orbit. According to the official TV network feed, everything's nominal.
They had a camera onboard the external fuel tank this time, with a view of the underside of the Shuttle and the front attach point... very cool viewpoint for watching that ride. Good to see that tank separate   perfectly, after very clean SRB jettison... whew. Another new procedure: Pilot Eilleen Collins rolled Discovery just after the tank sep so that they can look for signs of insulation damage on the tank (results will not be available until later), and as they approach ISS this time, there will be another maneuver to present Discovery's belly for inspection by the crew of the ISS. I believe there is also a plan to use the payload arm to hang a camera over the side for a closer look before they get ready for deorbit.
 Congrats and good luck to the whole team!! Woohoo!!

[beefhole]

Fantastic.

Glad to see them finally back in the air.

[beaky]

Fantastic.

Glad to see them finally back in the air.

Really good to see the in space, too...

[beefhole]

Really good to see the in space, too...

Just an added plus

[gn85]

<>  

We have lift-off!!  Looked awesome.  That was a spectacular view from the camera on the ET.  Fantastic!

[jrpilot]

Amazing how fast they were going.  :o

[ozzy72]

Excellent stuff. Now they just have to give the old bird the eyeball and make sure she is safe to come back down again!
Looks like NASA got it right

[beaky]

Well, they say bad things come in threes... after the tragedies of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia,  maybe NASA's due for a long run of safe manned flights...
At any rate, despite the occasional loss of manned or unmanned spacecraft, NASA usually does get it right.

[gn85]

They were saying it loses half of it's weight in the first few minutes of launch from the amount of fuel being burned up.  WOW!  

[beefhole]

[quote]Well, they say bad things come in threes... after the tragedies of Apollo 11, Challenger, and Columbia,

[hatter]

Very happy that they have the program back on track.

Don't think Apollo 11 was that much of a tragedy; but we know what you mean (Apollo 1).

It really depresses me to realize that the only people to have walked on the moon have already reached retirement. It should be the other way around.

[exnihilo]

Gotta say I was glad to see the launch go off too, and especially that this is so far a safe mission.

That being said, I have to add that due to the choice of  not repairing Hubble, its basically a waste of money to fly the shuttle.  There is very little science being done on the space station; the science return from Hubble far eclipses anything that has been done, or will ever be done, at the space station.  This could all be redeemed by performing a final Hubble repair and upgrade.

[beaky]

Woops; my bad. I meant Apollo One, not Eleven. Eleven was a triumph!!
As for ISS: think "stepping stone". The first crew in the first permanent Moon base will most likely be too busy surviving to do a whole lot of science, but learning how to live and work in space is science, when you think about it.

[DJ_Zephyr]

Jeez, the 30-year-old girl made it up again.  Glad they chose Discovery, always was my fave.  Hope her in-flight checkup goes well, and that they bring her down in one piece!

When are we gonna get our next-gen shuttle?  It's time for a   new launch vehicle, methinks.

[exnihilo]

I used to work at White Sands missile range back in the early 80's.  The big runway there, Northrup Strip, was an alternate landing site for the shuttle, so as an alternate site, we supported the early shuttle missions.  Eventually, the Challenger did land once at White Sands, in 1984 (2 years before it exploded on launch).

Working in Range Safety, I cleared the launching of weather sounding rockets which probed the upper atmosphere winds.    This was to support any potential landing there at White Sands.  Shocking to think that was 20 years ago, and the shuttle is still flying.