Discovery!

I watched the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery today. It was breath-taking and my heart was in my throat the entire time.

Those are brave men and women on board making scientific advances that aren't possible here on Earth with the weight of gravity.

Since the Columbia disaster they have installed a camera on board the main fuel tank. After Discover left sight, the rest of the launch was shown from that vantage point. And it was beautiful. You could see different things happening to the shuttle, the wind tunnels and diffent points of light. And you got to see the Shuttle disengage from the fuel tank, it was a awesome sight to see. Discovery kicking in it's own burners and pulling away.

Come back safely astronauts, good news is always welcome.

Hooray! It takes real courage to go back up there! I hope it's a safe & fun voyage.

I didn't see the actual launch except on replay, but I did see the shuttle leave the fuel tank.

Funny thing was, there was a headline at the bottom of the screen that said something like "Return of the Shuttle," and I thought "what? something's already happened and it's coming back?" Ah well. [img]confused.gif[/img]

I really wish I'd seen it live. This is more exciting to me than most everything else going on in the world. I heard that if they hadn't gotten this launch off, the entire shuttle program would be scrapped. Wouldn't that be a bitch for the ISS?

I don't think it would have been scrapped, but they wouldn't have been able to take off again until October. I'm not sure the reasons, but something to do with weather patterns or daylight time I think.

It's called a "window" determind by weather among a load of other factors.

Ok, this is getting annoying. Did you see that AsIs's original post in this thread has a spam link to "fuel tank". How lame. (I'm assuming AsIs didn't do this on her own.)

What has happened to this board?

Gem the only link I see in my post is in my signature to my website?

ETA: Gem, I see it now. It appears that the site is probably selling word links. On my scifi forum, Science Fiction in the description also has a link.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 11, 2005 08:48 AM: Message edited by: AsIs ]</font>

&lt;------ Not comprehending the problem, as usual...

Houston, we have unsolicited advertising. Please advise.