How Spacecraft Fly
  • Home
  • About the author
  • What's it all about?
  • Reviews
  • Picture gallery
  • External links
  • Contact me
  • Author's blog
  • Correction to text

Discovery’s final voyage

2/25/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
I had the opportunity to see the ISS  over Southampton yesterday evening (Thursday 24 February 2011) – brilliant (literally)!  This evening (Friday) there is a similarly good pass over Southern England, but unfortunately the forecast is cloud and rain. This is especially galling as it’s likely that the shuttle Discovery and the Station will be in formation prior to their docking manoeuvre tomorrow (Saturday).  The live online HD coverage of Discovery’s final launch yesterday evening was excellent, courtesy of NASA TV.  At the peak time there were about 42,000 viewers sharing the transmission, which makes the quality of the coverage even more amazing.   The tension as the launch window approached was very well conveyed, particularly as there was a ‘launch hold’ situation with the range safety computer systems about 20 minutes before the normal launch time of 21.50 GMT.   The problem was solved only moments before launch, with Discovery having only 2 minutes of launch window left when it finally left the launch complex.   Couldn’t have scripted it better!  However, I can imagine the pressure on those engineers responsible for solving the problem during those frantic few pre-launch minutes!


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Graham Swinerd - I hope to use this page to highlight current major events in space and spacececraft.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    January 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.