Discovery is Go For Launch


Shuttle preparations are on schedule: USA Today

Call me oldschool, but I love space. I think it’s one of those subjects that once you start to learn about and get excited about, you never get tired of. Weather your a kid or an adult, it’s just a fun thing to be into. I remember growing up I was all about NASA. I had this hat I got when I visited Mission Control in Houston and wore it for so many years. I think it turned from royal blue to faded blue and brown. Now that I have HDTV, watching the shuttle launch and some of the select coverage they have on HDNET is just amazing. I have to say there are a lot of programs that drop my jaw in High Def., but the first time I watched the shuttle launch with surround sound at 50″, it really was an amazing thing.

Shuttle DiscoveryCAPE CANAVERAL — Preparations are on schedule for NASA’s first nighttime space shuttle launch in four years as the space agency readies Discovery for a mission to the International Space Station, managers said Wednesday.

NASA plans to launch Discovery at 9:35 p.m. on Dec. 7 for the third shuttle flight of the year and the fourth since the Columbia disaster killed seven astronauts in 2003.

…

The space agency needs to start launching shuttles at night to take advantage of more launch opportunities and finish space station construction by 2010, when the shuttle program ends. The external tanks had acceptable levels of foam loss during the last two liftoffs, officials said.

During the launch, NASA managers believe radar will be sufficient to spot any pieces falling from Discovery’s tank and that two in-flight inspections would detect any damage.

NASA engineers feel they have learned so much about the foam that the space agency has reduced the risk of the external tank from “catastrophic probable” to a “strong hazard,” said Wayne Hale, shuttle program manager.

Reminds me, if you have HDTV, don’t miss the Live ISS broadcast that they’re airing on Discovery Channel. The official first High Def Live broadcast from the Space Station. Really hot.


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