[TriLUG] OT: shuttle launch & need C-Band digital satellite downlink

[David McDowell]

Speaking of John Glenn, my only watched launch was STS-95, his return
to space on Discovery... I had a NASA Causeway pass... :) :) :)  I
video-taped it, something I have yet to capture to a usable computer
format, but I tell ya, I did a crappy job filming since I really
wanted to see it with my own eyes (directly and not through the lens).
 I hear the night launches are spectacular!  :)

<brag> http://www.turnpike420.net/gallery2/v/Vacations/1998-10_Dis-Uni-NASA/fl11.jpg.html
 </brag>

:p  laters,
David


On 6/29/06, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/29/06, Reginald Reed <reginald.reed at gmail.com> wrote:
> > This is something I miss from attending the University of Central Florida in
> > Orlando.  You could see the shuttle in the middle of the day without
> > assist.  It was cool to be walking between classes, look up and see the
> > shuttle.  Too cool.
>
> My only shuttle launch was STS-91 which happened to coincide with a
> hobby convention I was attending that week in Orlando.  It took a few
> trips out to the causeway because of several weather scrubs, but I got
> to see a night launch. It was a big week which also included the 30th
> anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, and the recovery of the Liberty
> Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft.
>
> They were lucky that that particular mission didn't end Columbia's
> career two flights early, five seconds after launch an engine shut
> down and there was also a hydrogen fuel leak which nearly caused an
> abort to orbit.  None of us watching from the NASA causeway were aware
> of any of this.
>
> Manned orbital spaceflight is still as dangerous as it was in 1961, in
> the case of the Shuttle maybe even more so, due to the exposure of the
> orbiter to damage from foam/ice/birdstrikes etc during ascent.  I was
> pondering this as I watched the NASA press conference today.  The
> decision to launch over the objections of the safety office are
> nothing new, there has always been calculated risk, and many of the
> near-fatal incidents are unknown or forgotten by the general public.
> Most know of Apollo 13, some might have heard of John Glenn's
> "separated" heatshield during the first US manned orbital flight.  How
> many remember Gemini 8 which nearly ended in catastrophe, or Apollo 12
> when the crew was given the go for translunar injection, despite the
> fact that after a lightning strike during launch it was unknown
> whether or not the parachutes would work. Of course they would have
> been just as dead without going the moon if they hadn't worked.
>
> The risks are worth it if they produce knowledge.
>
> My hat is off to anyone willing to put their body into a machine which
> can hurl them to orbital velocities, whether it's today or in 1961.
>
> --
> Rick DeNatale
>
> IPMS/USA Region 12 Coordinator
> http://ipmsr12.denhaven2.com/
>
> Visit the Project Mercury Wiki Site
> http://www.mercuryspacecraft.com/
> --
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