Finial Flight Day; Discovery heads home.

[Kyle]

Alright, I am starting a live thread, keep it on topic, post photo's, say your prays and cheers, as Discovery's going to be here. Crew wakeup is at around 4 this morning, and they will Enter there last few Orbits, and come home, too what should end as a Happy and cheer full mission. Godspeed Discovery!!

 

[Andy44]

I'm curently watching NASA TV and they are briefing on the junk seen floating behind the ship earlier today and the thingie poking out from the rudder.

Turns out the object is a spring-loaded clip from the trailing edge of the rudder. I'd like to see a mission without junk floating away for once.

 

[Kyle]

I'm curently watching NASA TV and they are briefing on the junk seen floating behind the ship earlier today and the thingie poking out from the rudder.

Turns out the object is a spring-loaded clip from the trailing edge of the rudder. I'd like to see a mission without junk floating away for once.

News tended enough to make it one of their top stories today.

 

[thomasantony]

Godspeed Discovery!

 

[dbeachy1]

From watching the landing highlights today I noticed that as Discovery came in over the Gulf Of Mexico it was about 100 miles west of the expected track. The landing went smoothly because the flight computers compensated (of course). Is it normal for the shuttle to be so far off-track like that??? What would cause that? I have watched a fair number of shuttle entries and I haven't seen that before.

 

[Andy44]

The landing was beautiful, as usual. Watching the orbiter roll onto final and flare for landing never gets old. One thing I will certainly miss when STS is retired; this is a dignified way for a spaceship to land.

After touchdown and right around the time they were parking the SSMEs and starting the APU shut-down there were 3 guys walking around the nose with some sort of instrument on a long wand, and they looked like they were poking it in and around the RCS thrusters. Are these guys checking for hypergolic propellant leaks? Isn't the APU exhaust also toxic?

In the post-flight brief it was interesting listening to Hoshide speak, and to see the interest from Japanese press, and it got me to thinking: how come there are so few Japanese Orbinauts? Japan is a serious player in the space game, with a successful unmanned commercial and civil program, including lunar exploration, and now they even have a big chunk of the ISS in operation. Seems like Orbiter would be popular in such a high-tech society.

 

[dbeachy1]

In the post-flight brief it was interesting listening to Hoshide speak, and to see the interest from Japanese press, and it got me to thinking: how come there are so few Japanese Orbinauts? Japan is a serious player in the space game, with a successful unmanned commercial and civil program, including lunar exploration, and now they even have a big chunk of the ISS in operation. Seems like Orbiter would be popular in such a high-tech society.

That's a good question -- I've wondered the same thing. It would be nice to meet some Japanese Orbitnauts! I've been learning Japanese as a hobby (although I'm still a novice at it), and it would be fun to have someone to whom I could ask Japanase grammar questions.

When I watched Discovery's launch two weeks ago I remember grinning at how bad the (American) launch announcer's accent was when he said, "Gambatte, kudasai!" at liftoff, which roughly translated means, "Good luck and please do your best!" I did think it was a cool thing to say, though.

Orbiter wa honto ni sugoi desu ne!