Discovery Launch

CaptainEd · Post by **CaptainEd** » 04 Jul 2006, 21:20

Captain Kelly, USMMA Kings Point, Class of 1986, Pilot of THE DISCOVERY.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shutt ... kelly.html

"It was astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to fly in space, who inspired Kelly's space dreams. Kelly was watching footage of Shepard landing on an aircraft carrier when he first began to realize how his dreams could become a reality.

"I remember thinking, 'Well, that looks like a great combination. You go fly airplanes in the Navy off a ship first, and then later you become an astronaut,'" he said. "I never thought it would really happen, but that was my goal."

Raised in West Orange, N.J., Kelly went on to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, graduating in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in marine engineering. He later received his master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1994.

He was designated a Naval Aviator in December 1987. He has more than 4,000 flight hours in more than 50 different aircraft, and has over 375 carrier landings.

In April 1996, Kelly was selected by NASA to become a part of its Astronaut Corps. He will serve as the pilot of STS-121 on the shuttle’s journey to space, and the intravehicular activity crewmember, guiding spacewalkers in completing tasks in space. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Lift your heads, hold them high, Kings Point's passing by."

Ed Toner, Class of 1953. 8)

Advisor · Post by **Advisor** » 05 Jul 2006, 16:51

I guess they wanted to make the 4th of July something great.....

I even hear that the fault in the fuselage would be inspected and if need be repaired in space....IS THIS TRUE

TexasGuy · Post by **TexasGuy** » 05 Jul 2006, 18:15

Advisor wrote:
I even hear that the fault in the fuselage would be inspected and if need be repaired in space....IS THIS TRUE

Yes that is true

Im looking forward to the replacement for the current Space Shuttle. I used to have some artist drawings of the replace ment, i will search for them and post them here

Stepha380 · Post by **Stepha380** » 05 Jul 2006, 18:33

There is a link to the video of the launch in this article and lots of details concerning the foam issue
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/07/0 ... index.html

Article on the handling of the inspection
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/07/0 ... index.html

Tile replacement on Discovery summer 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/08/0 ... index.html

fftopic: North Korea wanted something something special too for July 4th.

TexasGuy · Post by **TexasGuy** » 05 Jul 2006, 19:15

here are some pics. this vehicle will also be used for the moon and for mars with different boosing rockets for each mission.

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TexasGuy · Post by **TexasGuy** » 05 Jul 2006, 19:17

The current Space Shuttles will be retired by the year 2010, but with all the problems, they could be gone as soon as 2008. The replacement vehicles have been put on the fast track...final design will be decided on this fall 2006 with production process beginning shortly after.

Philip1069 · Post by **Philip1069** » 05 Jul 2006, 19:28

Advisor wrote:I guess they wanted to make the 4th of July something great.....

I even hear that the fault in the fuselage would be inspected and if need be repaired in space....IS THIS TRUE

Yes indeed, a telescopic arm enables them to inspect themselves the front and the wings of the shuttle. It appears some pieces of foam have detached during launch, but NASA says they are too smaller to cause any worry

CaptainEd · Post by **CaptainEd** » 05 Jul 2006, 20:07

Re-Entry will be the test.

Philip1069 · Post by **Philip1069** » 05 Jul 2006, 20:15

CaptainEd wrote:Re-Entry will be the test.

Indeed it will...

DFW · Post by **DFW** » 05 Jul 2006, 20:59

TexasGuy wrote:The current Space Shuttles will be retired by the year 2010, but with all the problems, they could be gone as soon as 2008. The replacement vehicles have been put on the fast track...final design will be decided on this fall 2006 with production process beginning shortly after.

Unfortunately, we've heard that one before. No one at NASA does anything fast track. It'll be a whole lot cheaper and faster to subscontract the Russians for an upgraded Soyuz.

jan_olieslagers · Post by **jan_olieslagers** » 05 Jul 2006, 23:36

TexasGuy wrote:this vehicle will also be used for the moon and for mars with different boosing rockets for each mission.

which just goes to show how much truth can go in a typo

Stepha380 · Post by **Stepha380** » 06 Jul 2006, 01:23

Looks like the vessel that fails in Mission to Mars !!!