Goodbye Shuttle Discovery

quagmire

quagmire

macrumors 604
Here are my pictures of Discovery leaving Kennedy Space Center.

Peak a boo....

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Taxing down the runway to departure end of the runway.

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Stopped for a photo shoot.

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Continuing on....

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Takeoff roll( trees and the crowd blocked me from taking pictures of the moment of liftoff and climb)

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Fly by heading up to DC.

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Goodbye Discovery

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Click image for full size
 
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Here's one of it "buzzing" my office building in Arlington, VA. It was so close we could feel the vibration as it flew over.
 

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MacNut said:
Is that a permanent cover on the engines or is that just for flight?
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Just for the flight. It's to help protect the engines( well when Discovery had real RS-25D's as all she has now are replica's) and improve on aerodynamics. It will be transferred to Enterprise when she goes to NYC.
 
its amazing how small it looks compared to the 747. I am glad that the shuttle program is ending as it seemed to me that it didn't enough, its just a shame that there are no immediate replacements at this time.
 
PlaceofDis said:
its amazing how small it looks compared to the 747. I am glad that the shuttle program is ending as it seemed to me that it didn't enough, its just a shame that there are no immediate replacements at this time.
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Didn't enough what?

I am sad the Shuttle's were not extended to help close the gap between the Shuttle and SLS. Especially since the end of the Shuttle means no getting Hubble and bring it back to Earth to put it in a museum( was going to be one of if not the last mission for Columbia to go retrieve Hubble and bring it back down to Earth).
 
How were they able to maintain air speed and be able to fly so low, I thought the carrier had to be at full power with the shuttle on top.
 
MacNut said:
How were they able to maintain air speed and be able to fly so low, I thought the carrier had to be at full power with the shuttle on top.
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Maybe at its maximum cruising altitude of 15,000 feet with an orbiter on its back. But, at 1,500 feet I doubt it would need full power to maintain a level altitude.
 
quagmire said:
Didn't enough what?

I am sad the Shuttle's were not extended to help close the gap between the Shuttle and SLS. Especially since the end of the Shuttle means no getting Hubble and bring it back to Earth to put it in a museum( was going to be one of if not the last mission for Columbia to go retrieve Hubble and bring it back down to Earth).
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brain fart on my part i meant to write more there. i feel that the shuttle didn't do enough to expand space exploration over the time period it was active. it was a good tool and worked well for the ISS missions but other than that i really feel that it didn't help us push the boundaries of exploration, and if anything it almost prevented us from doing more. i wish we weren't abandoning the shuttle before SLS and other missions come to fruition too. i didn't know that about the Hubble and i think that would've been great to do too before it was retired.
 
PlaceofDis said:
brain fart on my part i meant to write more there. i feel that the shuttle didn't do enough to expand space exploration over the time period it was active. it was a good tool and worked well for the ISS missions but other than that i really feel that it didn't help us push the boundaries of exploration, and if anything it almost prevented us from doing more. i wish we weren't abandoning the shuttle before SLS and other missions come to fruition too. i didn't know that about the Hubble and i think that would've been great to do too before it was retired.
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IMHO it did by the equipment it launched( again Hubble comes to mind.... not only did the Shuttle launch Hubble, but repaired it due to defect. While an expendable rocket may have been able to get Hubble into orbit, no other vehicle could have gone up and repair it. And Hubble has brought us many amazing images of the universe).

It may have been too big( its size was due to its intended purpose and be able to launch Air Force equipment before Challenger and higher than expected costs caused them to bail and use expendable rockets), but the Shuttle was still an amazing feat.

And if what I read was correct, NASA wanted to keep the Saturn family of rockets in operation in conjunction with Shuttle, but again costs nixed that plan.
 
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Nice pictures! I missed a shuttle launch from KSC in 2007 by one day. Had I known ahead of time, I would have been there to see it.

It's too bad they're cutting the program and NASA funding like they are. I think it's needed to help keep the USA on top and leading in this area and for the advancement of science and technology.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
Nice pictures! I missed a shuttle launch from KSC in 2007 by one day. Had I known ahead of time, I would have been there to see it.

It's too bad they're cutting the program and NASA funding like they are. I think it's needed to help keep the USA on top and leading in this area and for the advancement of science and technology.
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Actually, NASA's budget has increased to $19 billion( from $17-18 billion).
 
PlaceofDis said:
brain fart on my part i meant to write more there. i feel that the shuttle didn't do enough to expand space exploration over the time period it was active. it was a good tool and worked well for the ISS missions but other than that i really feel that it didn't help us push the boundaries of exploration, and if anything it almost prevented us from doing more. i wish we weren't abandoning the shuttle before SLS and other missions come to fruition too. i didn't know that about the Hubble and i think that would've been great to do too before it was retired.
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I think the complaint about the shuttle was it held us to near earth orbit and hampered our deep space travel.

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quagmire said:
Actually, NASA's budget has increased to $19 billion( from $17-18 billion).
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How much was the Orian project?
 
MacNut said:
Constellation was the future system with Orian as the vehicle? Was that the original plan?
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Yeah Constellation was the original plan and got axed( was over budget with just the Ares I rocket without development of the Ares V even beginning yet). But, the Orion capsule is still in development and will sit on top of the SLS.
 
For those wanting to know, the whole entire flyby was covered on the LiveATC.net stream for KIAD (Dulles Int'l) as well as its landing. At the time, they had nearly 1700 people listening to that stream. FlightAware is still pulling the numbers for the people tracking that flight.

I would expect the same as well for when Enterprise flies up to NYC (that one should be covered by both the JFK and LGA streams), as well as Endeavour when it flies out to LAX (that will be covered). So head out and see them while you can, if not listen to the streams. They are all over at liveatc.net.

BL.
 
nice pics.

It always fascinates me seeing things like that. Just think about the engineering and physics that went into creating both of those vehicles, and then putting one on the other and flying it somewhere else.
 
Enterprise is going to be fun. Apparently, it will be flying in to NYC, though now that I think about it, it will probably fly into EWR (otherwise it's a long drive from JFK), as it has to travel up the Hudson to the Intrepid. If they went to LGA, they'd have to go down and around Manhattan and back up, where they are immediately on the bay at EWR.

Either way, that one will be bittersweet, as with controlling when they can go through (tides and all to make it under the bridge), they'll pass right by if not directly over the LAT/LON of AWE1549.

BL.
 
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