Salute: The Last Flight...

[mikey23545]

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/392/spaceshuttletodulles.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/spaceshuttletodulles.jpg/)


:deevee:

[TimeForWasp]

It's amazing that 747 can fly with the shuttle attached.

[Donger]

Bittersweet, really. The orbiters never should have been built.

[TimeForWasp]

I'm curious . Do you think they have the hydraulics hooked to both aircraft so the pilot also manuvers the shuttle flight controls ?

[mikey23545]

Bittersweet, really. The orbiters never should have been built.

I don't know if I'd go that far...But they shouldn't have been built the way they were built.

[mikey23545]

I'm curious . Do you think they have the hydraulics hooked to both aircraft so the pilot also manuvers the shuttle flight controls ?

I don't think so. I watched a lot of Discovery being mated to the 747 on NASA TV and I never saw any cables being attached, just the MDDs (mate-demate devices - fancy name for the anchors that hold the shuttle and 747 together) being secured.

Obviously they didn't show the entire process from start to finish, so I guess it is possible.

[Steron]

You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?

[Donger]

I'm curious . Do you think they have the hydraulics hooked to both aircraft so the pilot also manuvers the shuttle flight controls ?

No.

[Hammock Parties]

So what's going to replace them?

[Donger]

I don't know if I'd go that far...But they shouldn't have been built the way they were built.

Ice shedding? Yeah, that was (obviously) a major flaw. IIRC, some of the earlier concepts had the orbiter much further up.

But, I do think that the entire program was a step backward.

[Donger]

So what's going to replace them?

Private industry and we hitch rides (at $60 million per head) from the Russians. In fact, Space X has a test flight to the ISS this week, I believe, but it is a cargo flight.

[-King-]

Ice shedding? Yeah, that was (obviously) a major flaw. IIRC, some of the earlier concepts had the orbiter much further up.

But, I do think that the entire program was a step backward.

Why?

[Donger]

Why?

Because the shuttles were only capable of LEO.

[RealSNR]

So what's going to replace them?
:rockon:
http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/26oinc8fisvvb/4hoz4h/phoenixspace.jpg