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I hope the crack holds up so they can return safely. Last thing NASA need is another disaster. I wish them the best.

Oh wow, that should make the rest of the trip more exciting. Nothing like wondering if you're going to end up getting sucked through a pea sized hole in the window.

When are they due back? Man thats gonna be a tense re-entry with that damage staring you in the face all the way down.

"Yeah, gettuing hit by a ten ton rock would be obvious, wouldn't it ?"
I meant some debris from the meteor man....Sheesh!!

But , with do respect for the astronauts of the shuttles reentry, "I hope they return safely back down to earth.
It is going to be a "Very bumpy ride." as they say.

Toolbox 01
Endeavour 00

With the angle of re entry I don't think they should be in trouble , but then again I dont exactly understand the types of pressure the windscreen would be under.



[edit on 24-11-2008 by EyesWideShut]

I always wondered how they can get around up there without this kind of thing being common place. They must have contingency plans for repairs, right? You would think they could have window repair kits of some form or another. Honestly how dangerous is this on a scale from 1-10?

They are in my prayers.

Originally posted by antar
I always wondered how they can get around up there without this kind of thing being common place. They must have contingency plans for repairs, right? You would think they could have window repair kits of some form or another. Honestly how dangerous is this on a scale from 1-10?

They are in my prayers.

They can repair some damage to the shuttle, but I don't think they can replace a window (if it ever came to that -- I'm not saying this damage applies). I know they can fix tiles and even fix the leading edge of the wings. Perhaps they have some sort of window repair kit -- I don't know.

If they have a major problem that they can't repair, the contingency plan is for the crew to take refuge in the Space Station until another shuttle (and/or a Russian Soyuz) can rescue them. However, it would take quite a while (weeks, even months) to get another shuttle or Soyuz ready for a rescue mission.

It's very interesting that next year they will be launching the mission to repair the Hubble Telescope. Due to of the orbit of the Hubble, there is no way for the shuttle to reach the space station in case of an emergency, such as damage to the shuttle.

This is why they almost decided NOT to repair the Hubble -- because they could not reach the station in case the shuttle was irreparably damaged . However, they came up with a plan to have a second shuttle ready on the launchpad to rescue the shuttle in space, if need be. There usually are NOT any shuttles ready on the launch pad to provide for a rescue mission. This contingency plan for the Hubble Mission will be a first, even if the contingency is not needed.

Again, I'm not saying that this window damage is necessarily major, I'm just answering your question as to what kind of plans they have if it was potentially 'catastrophic loss' -type damage.

[edit on 11/25/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Space travel is a high risk activity. Reentry will be tense, once again.

But aren't those little guys intelligently controlled? What happened, too much space juice?

With the amount of junk left behind from various rockets and shuttles and dropped tool bags and such, is it really a surprise there was an impact? It probably happens more often than we hear about.

There are some numbers to crunch to figure out over all pressures on the wind shield, but I am sure they have it all worked out, there are some very good posts here for explanation, so, I thought I would contribute with a play-by-play dialog of the er-entry of the shuttle.

The Fiery Re-entry
It takes only eight minutes for the orbiter to reach its orbital speed of 24,000 km/h. But, it will take a little more than an hour to slow it down to its re-entry speed and its 320 km/h (200 mph) landing speed. It will travel about 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) and a special glide path through the atmosphere to a land strip to do this. Until the orbiter's wheels are on the ground in Florida or California, the only brakes it can use to reduce speed is the drag created by the friction between the atmosphere on its black tiled fuselage.
At the start of re-entry, hot ionized gases surround the shuttle. Throughout the decent the friction between the shuttle and the earth's atmosphere create even more and more heat beneath the orbiter. The black ceramic tiles located on the bottom and along the wing tips and nose of the orbiter protect it from the nearly 1,648 degrees Celsius (3000 degrees F) temperatures. To rid the orbiter of some of this heat, it makes a series of small rolls from left and right throughout its fiery fall.
During the Apollo and earlier missions into space, the build-up of hot gases beneath the spacecraft prevented communication between the astronauts and mission control on earth. Called a "blackout", it lasted for about six minutes. For many controllers, it was the longest six minutes of their lives. Communication with the space shuttle, however, is maintained during its descent. Instead of signals going downward to earth, they are sent upward to a satellite and then relayed to mission control.
Most of the orbiter's descent is controlled not by the pilot or the commander, but by its onboard computers. The computer uses information on air speed and air pressure to make the slight adjustments necessary to maintain the orbiter in a proper glide path through the ever thickening atmosphere. These moves are done by moving the elevons (the combination of elevators and ailerons on ordinary airplanes) along the trailing edge of the wings, the rudder on the tail and the body flap located beneath the main engines at the rear of the orbiter. Although the commander and mission control are carefully monitoring the flight, the commander doesn't take control of the orbiter until it has slowed to Mach 1. This occurs within visual range of the landing strip just 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.

Very interesting and very dangerous job the NASA astronauts have, but would give my left N^T to experience it one time in my life!!

Have there been any updates yet? Hope all is well.

I dont remember exactly, but I think it was the one opposite to the commanders seat, so, that makes it one of the center panels right.