Debris falling off the shuttle Discovery.

news.yahoo.com...

Mission Control replied by promising to bring the astronauts home safely.

Video showed what appeared to be a large piece of debris flying off the external fuel tank two minutes into the flight. The object did not seem to hit the orbiter. Footage also showed what might have been at least two light-colored objects flying off Discovery as the shuttle cleared the launch pad.

Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale raised the possibility that the light-colored objects were harmless pieces of paper that protect Discovery's thrusters before launch. But he insisted it was too soon to say what the cameras may have picked up, and he gave assurances the multitude of images will be examined frame by frame in the coming hours and days.

"No telling what might be there or what's not there — we hope nothing," he said.

The fuel gauge that thwarted a launch attempt two weeks ago worked properly before and during the liftoff, and the countdown was remarkably smooth. If the sensors had acted up before liftoff, the space agency had been prepared to bend its safety rules to get the shuttle flying.

A TV camera mounted on Discovery's giant orange external fuel tank provided an unprecedented view of the shuttle's entire climb to orbit in spectacular orange and blue, and showed the shuttle banking away and the empty tank being jettisoned back toward Earth to burn up in the atmosphere.

hope its nothing serious, i have seen in launches like Apollo where before the U.S. had shuttles where debris be falling off while launching.

Ice build up and the paper mentioned in the quote are commonly seen falling from the shuttle on lift--off. It'll probably be fine.

Press conference right now, they (NASA) thinks a tile could have fallen off

that doesn't sound good for re-entry

Ive moaned and whined for months about the shuttles and ive been moaning about this very thing!
The tile protection system is just not good enough anymore and this may prove it once again!

BUT.....at least NASA have a half decent rescue plan sorted this time if the worst was to happen!

LINK
If any serious damage is found, NASA will have to choose between attempting repairs or, more likely, moving the shuttle crew into the space station for at least a month to await rescue by space shuttle Atlantis, which is already being readied for liftoff. Both scenarios are extremely risky.

Why is Atlantis being readied for lift off? Is it just in prep for the next launch or as a precation for Discovery?


Mic

I just watched a Nasa conference and they showed all the stuff, a peice of something (i forget) broke off of the external tank area...could be foam, but the new cameras mounted on the external tank showed it flew away from the orbiter...so no damage.

and a wierd note is that a few seconds after launch the tip of the ET struck a bird. but it was still going slow so I doubt any damage.

"Nasa just said: As far as we know, no tile has come off"

I'm optimistic that everything will be A-OK, and if not we will find out in the days to come with the extra boom on the arm of the shuttle, which has lasers and cameras on it.

Heres a few good boom pics:

Hi Murc....Long time no argue mate....LOL

Originally posted by Murcielago
I just watched a Nasa conference and they showed all the stuff, a peice of something (i forget) broke off of the external tank area...could be foam, but the new cameras mounted on the external tank showed it flew away from the orbiter...so no damage.

Very very good news!

I'm optimistic that everything will be A-OK, and if not we will find out in the days to come with the extra boom on the arm of the shuttle, which has lasers and cameras on it.

Like you i feel everything will be fine, like you said they have the boom now aswell as the capability to repair the shuttle, which they didnt have before!

And even if that goes wrong, like i said before Atlantis is being readied for launch! So if the worst were to happen at least the crew could be saved!

Mic

Did anyone else see that bird hit the fuel tank during lift off?

To me the Shuttle looks old now with its rockets, how come you don't use the back engineered Flying Saucers you are supposed to have?

Originally posted by Bulldog 52
To me the Shuttle looks old now with its rockets, how come you don't use the back engineered Flying Saucers you are supposed to have?

I think the back engineered craft are triangular actually..

Originally posted by Bulldog 52
To me the Shuttle looks old now with its rockets, how come you don't use the back engineered Flying Saucers you are supposed to have?

We're waiting until the market gets good enough, then we're going to sell them to the Japanese.

This may be a bit of a stupid question, but no chance they happened to recover whatever debris that was, is there? I know most likely it got burnt by the rockets, but...

Nasa should get a new space flight system. The shuttle was made over 40 years ago. They are recklessly endangering the lives of astronauts by sendthem into space with such outdated craft.

Actually the tiles that fell off were about 1 1/2 inches. There have been something like 15000 tiles fall off shuttles during the life of the fleet, and only one lost on reentry. The big piece of debris came off the tank and missed the orbiter.

Originally posted by puppet
Did anyone else see that bird hit the fuel tank during lift off?

Yes, seen a photo on Global News but cannot find it on the Net. Hit it almost square on the nose.

Originally posted by puppet
Did anyone else see that bird hit the fuel tank during lift off?

HE HE HE HILARIOUS!!!

Originally posted by Supraliminal
Nasa should get a new space flight system. The shuttle was made over 40 years ago. They are recklessly endangering the lives of astronauts by sendthem into space with such outdated craft.

ITS ALL RELATIVE PEOPLE!

How often you change something is based on how much that something costs.

Example: If you buy an mp3 you can replace it in a few years because of its low cost, you will replace your tv not as often, and (normally) you would keep your car longer then you would keep that tv, and you would keep your private jet longer then you would keep your car, and (if you had one) you would replace your spacecraft less often then you would replace you jet.

You have to view things that cost a lot of money in relative terms!

MickeyDee
Hi Murc....Long time no argue mate....LOL

lol...sorry.

I've being having some pc probs over the past few weeks, so thats why I havn't been on here as much...but its fixed now, so the argueing can resume.

What's the significance of this flight? What are they up to while they are out in space?

I haven't been following it at all but i've seen news reports that they were having some troubles before launch and then because of that the launch was live on TV around the world and the news are sticking with it, just saw a report saying they saw stuff come off and Nasa are a bit concerned.

Is it just me, or does this feel like the media want another explosion?

Maybe having another failure could change the space industry and lead into the new technology they suppose to have? More funding, new technology, bit of excitement and the space industry is reborn?

Theyre testing procedures and equipment to repair the heat shield in space. They added a 3D camera to the robot arm, and have two or three procedures to try to replace tiles.

I remember when the Shuttle program was announced in the 70's...It was to be the dawn of a new age in cheap spaceflight ,with a shuttle being launched "every week". How wrong could you be?.
The Apollo program launched 10 manned Saturn 5's from 1968 to 1972 with no loss of life...Even Apollo 13 was NASA's "finest hour"...The Apollo programs success is astounding!...
Although the Shuttle has done some great work -it is time to retire "the old bird"...
We need something new and radical to get back on track with "manned Space Exploration"...

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Theyre testing procedures and equipment to repair the heat shield in space. They added a 3D camera to the robot arm, and have two or three procedures to try to replace tiles.

...and how much is this "test" costing us? While I dig watching the Shuttle and would love to see NASA/JPL probe deeper into space, these missions don't hold much value any longer. The equipment is outdated, regardless of the "upgrades" and amount of money that is sunk into the orbiter to make it "safe" and ready to fly.