Tandem46

Tandem46

Well Known Member
5:33 p.m. - Wheel stop. Welcome home, Discovery! "Congratulations on what was probably the most complex mission to date," Mission Control said to Commander Mark Polansky for the entire crew.

5:32 p.m. - Main gear is down and locked. ...Main gear touchdown. ...Chute deployed. ...Nose gear touchdown. Discovery is rolling out at sunset on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center after a 5.3 million mile mission to the International Space Station.

5:31 p.m. - Altitude 6,000 feet.

5:30 p.m. - Discovery reports that the landing field is in site. Altitutude 11,300 feet.

5:29 p.m. - The shuttle's trademark twin sonic booms just echoed across Kennedy Space Center as we await the return of Discovery on this 13 day mission to the International Space Station.

5:28 p.m. - Commander Mark Polansky is flying Discovery, taking the orbiter out over the water and setting up for the final approach to Runway 15.

5:26 p.m. - Discovery is 86 miles from home.

5:24 p.m. - The crew of the International Space Station is tracking the return of Discovery from a signal sent up from Houston.

5:23 p.m. - There are no issues with weather. So far it's a smooth entry for Discovery, which is now at 104,000 feet. Range to Kennedy Space Center is 120 miles.

5:22 p.m. - Discovery is 125 statute miles from Kennedy and only a little more than nine minutes until touchdown.

5:20 p.m. - During reentry and landing, the orbiter is not powered by engines but instead flies like a high-tech glider, relying first on its steering jets and aerosurfaces to control the airflow around it.

5:19 p.m. - The MILA Tracking station at Kennedy Space Center acquires Discovery about 13 minutes before landing and begins supplying controllers in Houston with voice, data and telemetry communications starting about one minute later. At 11 minutes before touchdown, the orbiter begins receiving navigation signals from the TACAN, the homing beacon and navigation signal at the Shuttle Landing Facility. As Discovery intercepts the heading alignment circle, the first video should become available from the pilot's point-of-view video camera and the orbiter will begin following the curved approach path of the microwave scanning beam landing system. As Discovery crosses directly overhead of the landing facility and out over the Atlantic Ocean, it makes a gradual right turn toward a 7-mile final approach to Runway 15.

5:18 p.m. - Having served its purpose, Discovery's reaction control system has been turned off.

5:17 p.m. - Discovery is now 190,000 feet above Louisiana. Range to Kennedy Space Center is 800 miles.
 
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Amazing!
This mission was very popular here in sweden. Due to Christer, the first Swede in space. :)
People talked about it every day, top news and regular extra broadcasts about every step they took in space, shool kids talked live whith Christer in tv etc etc.

I have a question to someone who knows. (Ironflight?)
What happens if the engines wont start when the are going to leave the orbit? Are they cau(hmm, missed the word for it. When you are unable to go anywhere...) up ther in the orbit or is there other ways to brake the shuttle?


Thanks.
 
Go Discovery!!!

Iron just emailed me that he heard the shock wave as the orbiter passed over Houston on its way to KSC.

How awesome!

Great mission NASA!!!

b,
d
 
It was nice to have a "Flight Off"...

Yeah, like just because I didn't have a team on this flight, I wasn't going to pay attention? :rolleyes:

It actually was nice to be able to watch from the back row for a change - every once in awhile, it gives you a better perspective, and it's fun to watch the young crowd doing their thing and doing it well. One other benefit is that you can walk outside to look for the bird as it passes over (no joy), and feel the shock wave hit about four minutes later. Think about that - a shock wave from 250,000' above you (from Mach 15 - or thereabouts!)....

Definitely a great flight, and one that accomplished a great deal. Back to the ISS with another set of solar arrays in March now!

Skyhawk - that's a good question, but one I don't actually worry about. An Orbiter has 2 OMS engines, and four aft-facing RCS thrusters. Two sets of OMS fuel and Oxidizer tanks, and two sets of aft RCS tanks. Plus, a forward set of thrusters and their fuel tanks. And all of the aft stuff can be cross-fed. The bottom ,line is I've got a whole lot of ways to get de-orbit thrust, and loosing it all is highly improbable (simulation cases not-withstanding!). :cool:

Tobin - did you feel the shock?

And now....I can leave town!

Paul
 
Excellent job NASA. "If only" the public knew all the preparation and work that went into that spectacular show.

On a side note, I start training to be a flight controller just like Paul! Only our vehicles take up the busy airways. Starting training for dispatch at Delta on Jan 16! First 6 weeks of training are to pass the written which is basically same as the ATP written.
 
Paul,

I blew it!! I was sitting at home tracking the shuttle live on the internet and saw that it was going to pass right over me. I was going to go outside, then thought that it would be too high to hear anything so I ended up not going outside. In the meantime I did hear a loud noise, but I thought it was my neighbor above me dropping something on his floor, my ceiling. (I live in an apartment). Not sure what I heard. Last time a I heard a shuttle boom was in 1992 when I watched the Endeavour(sp?) land at Edwards.
 
missed it from Austin

man i am pissed! :mad: I have seen it burn in for 2 night landings while passing over austin and a third time in late afternoon from N. louisiana. (coolest thing ever) I checked the paths a couple nights ago and was dissapointed to see first 3 or 4 options take it away from cental texas.. then i saw that one chance it might pass over houston area.. I hoped... hoped .. then today on radio heard if missed it's first chance so i hoped some more... then i forgot! :(

I doubt we will ever seen night landings again, but I will still hope.

I was ouside flying my RC from 445 - 5:30ish pm (ok some flying and some repairing) but did not know or hear a thing.. That 530 touchdown, is that Eastern or Central?

Thanks for the late updates!!

jeff h
 
The boom

I was soldering my dimmer pot connections in my garage when the shuttle passed overhead, creating the loudest sonic booms I have ever heard it make. It seems like things rattled in my shop.

I live in Orlando, about 30 miles from KSC. We always know when the shuttle is arriving home because of the two sonic booms. The ones tonight were monsters.

I get a thrill out of hearing them each time.
 
I was at the airport near Pensacola, and heard one LOUD boom. It was so loud that I actually grabbed the fire extinguisher and drove down the taxiway to see if something had exploded :rolleyes:

Rusty
 
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Loud Booms....

Hope we didn't break any windows! ;)

Don't worry about missing the view from Austin - I couldn't see it from Houston - the hot part of Entry was over, and it was just a very, very fast and high airplane - you need dawn or dusk to really see the great glowing contrail. And most of our entry ground tracks now are over the Gulf, rather than over the continental US, so sightings will be rare...sorry!

Paul
 
ironflight

are those groundtracks moved on purpose for the "safety" of people on the ground? I thought it was due to the season or tilt of earth.
jh
 
Partially

lsu-rv said:
are those groundtracks moved on purpose for the "safety" of people on the ground? I thought it was due to the season or tilt of earth.
jh
Click to expand...

It isn't really seasonal - depends on a ot of trajectory elements, but all other things being equal, we will minimize population overflight if possible (and it usually is possible).

Paul
 
Yesterday was cool! My family and I got to see this little black streak in a left hand turn from overhead to runway 15 at Kennedy. We were at the visitor's center, and it was really impressive to "feel" the energy in everyone there. The sonic booms weren't at all loud compared to some I remember from growing up on AFB's, but still cool.
 
Sonic Booms

Okay, I'm not too proud to risk showing a little ignorance....why are there two sonic booms?
 
Generally... there is one from the nose and one from the tail. I think it is a little more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea. The two booms are maybe 1/20 of second apart.
 
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