Thank You, Discovery

fatchowmein

I saw the first shuttle launch in grade school. The administrators rounded up the rugrats and marched us into the library where the "Big TV" was. We watched in awe and curiosity. Ditto for the landing. Today, Space Shuttle Discovery landed and goes into retirement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_space_shuttle

Space shuttle Discovery lands, ends flying career
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? Discovery ended its career as the world's most flown spaceship Wednesday, returning from orbit for the last time and taking off in a new direction as a museum piece.

After a flawless trip to the International Space Station, NASA's oldest shuttle swooped through a few wispy clouds on its way to its final touchdown.

"To the ship that has led the way time and time again, we say, 'Farewell Discovery,'" declared Mission Control commentator Josh Byerly.

Florida's spaceport was packed with shuttle program workers, journalists and even some schoolchildren eager to see history in the making.

The six astronauts on board went through their landing checklists with the bittersweet realization no one would ever ride Discovery again. They said during their 13-day space station delivery mission that they expected that to hit them hard when the shuttle came to a stop on the runway.

At three minutes before noon Eastern Time ? Discovery landed and ceased being a reusable rocketship.

"For the final time: wheels stop," Discovery's commander Steven Lindsey called out when the shuttle rolled to a stop. He was the last member of the crew to climb out of the shuttle.

Even after shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis make their final voyages in the coming months, Discovery will still hold the all-time record with 39 missions, 148 million miles, 5,830 orbits of Earth, and 365 days spent in space. All that was achieved in under 27 years.

Discovery now leads the way to retirement as NASA winds down the 30-year shuttle program in favor of interplanetary travel.

NASA estimates it will take several months of work ? removing the three main engines and draining all hazardous fuels ? before Discovery is ready to head to the Smithsonian Institution. It will make the 750-mile journey strapped to the top of a jumbo jet.

Throughout the flight, Lindsey and his crew marveled at how well Discovery was performing. They noted that the spacecraft was going into retirement still "at the top of her game."

"A dream machine," observed Lindsey's co-pilot, Eric Boe, on the eve of landing.

Discovery's last mission unfolded smoothly despite a four-month grounding for fuel tank repairs and a liftoff in the last two seconds of the countdown.

Perhaps more than any other shuttle, Discovery consistently delivered.

It made its debut in 1984 following shuttles Columbia and Challenger, dispatched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, flew the first shuttle rendezvous to Russia's Mir space station and carried the first female shuttle pilot in 1995, and gave another ride into space to John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1998.

It got NASA flying again, in 1988 and 2005, following the Challenger and Columbia disasters. And it flew 13 times to the space station, more than any other craft. On its last trip, it delivered a new storage compartment packed with supplies and a humanoid robot.

"You're sad to see her be retired, but at the same time, it's really a pride thing. We got her back OK. It was a beautiful mission," said Ken Smith, a Boeing propulsion manager who monitored the shuttle's systems from the landing strip.

But he added: "We've got two more to fly."

NASA's boss, Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander, led the welcoming party. He'll announce the final homes for Endeavour and Atlantis on April 12 ? 30 years to the day that Columbia soared on the first shuttle flight.

NASA planned to move Endeavour out to the launch pad Wednesday night for its April 19 liftoff, but delayed the move until Thursday because bad weather was expected. The mission will be commanded by the husband of wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly. His identical twin brother Scott is currently the skipper of the space station; he returns to Earth next week on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Atlantis is slated to make its last trip at the end of June.

NASA is under presidential direction to spread its wings beyond low-Earth orbit. The goal is to send astronauts to an asteroid and then Mars in the decades ahead. There is not enough money for NASA to achieve that and maintain the shuttle program at the same time. As a result, the shuttles will stop flying this summer after 30 years.

American astronauts will keep hitching rides to the space station on Russian capsules, until private companies are able to provide taxi service to and from orbit. NASA expects to get another nine years out of the space station.

F1nut

For me, the awe factor never left.

nooshinjohn

F1nut wrote: »

For me, the awe factor never left.

For me either. I am fortunate to have known some of the men responsible for everything from Mercury and Gemini, to Apollo and the Shuttle. My hat's off to everyone than makes them fly, including the guy pushing the broom in the Assembly Building. You are ALL Heroes in my book.

disneyjoe7

It was kind of sad today to hear the BOOM BOOM for the last time.

Fireman32

F1nut wrote: »

For me, the awe factor never left.

Same here I am amazed at what we can do. Its amazing to think that the computing power of the Apollo missions were the equivilent of whats in our standard pocket calculator.

ViperZ

I had an honour to work on flight support for a few of Discovery's flights, and work inside Discovery at the Cape . Awesome spacecraft! One more mission for each - Endeavour and Atlantis!

mrbigbluelight

When you think of just some of the factors that had to be overcome for this shuttle to fly 39 missions ....... :eek:

Just the pure mechanical/thermal stresses of a launch are staggering :

"The main engines burn liquid hydrogen -- the second coldest liquid on Earth at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit and liquid oxygen."

"Combustion is completed in the main combustion chamber. Temperatures in the main engine combustion chamber can reach as high as 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit "

"the engines consume liquid fuel at a rate that would drain an average family swimming pool in under 25 seconds generating over 37 million horsepower. "


Those figures aren't, of course, off the top of my head. But the punishment that these shuttles took per launch makes you wonder how any of these machines could survive more than one launch.

Thumbs up, Discovery.