Why don’t spacecraft need heat shielding on the way up? Aren’t they traveling at a speed similar to what they’re at on the way down?

This was awesome, thank you for sharing.

How do those parachutes work? There was 3 stages of deployment it looked like. Or was it due to a pressure change?

And I agree it’s fantastic what humans can do when they apply science and engineering knowledge.

I still think we are unnecessarily endangering crew members, as the scientific value of what they are personally doing is so insignificant compared to the known risks they face in the spacecraft we have available today.

Virtually every single thing humans are doing in space today could be done far more inexpensively (and certainly with far less risk to human life) by machines that those same clever engineers and scientists could create.

That said, my position does not take away any of my respect and admiration for the Space Shuttle and ISS crews; I will follow their adventures closely. But as a taxpayer of this country, I can’t help but feel partially responsible every time they face a unnecessary risk or are involved in an easily avoidable tragedy. Every time they enter a high-risk phase of a mission, my anxiety builds as I know so well the frighteningly high likelyhood that a catastrophic failure may resuilt.

Let’s work on engineering solutions that have much lower risks of failure, and perhaps even much higher scientific returns, before we ask Astronauts to put their lives on the line for us.

Sorry, I fell back onto my soapbox again.

Have a safe return trip, Endeavor!

Nic

I gotta get a t-shirt with that logo and wear it on my birthday!

By the way, dre, congratulations. You may well be the first person in the two million year history of mankind (or 6000 year history if you’re a creationist) to call Jethro Tull “chee-zee.”

Thanks for that!

In all that time I have never had one of your posts literally and actually take my breath away as this one did. The site of the shuttle moving away from the solid rocket boosters on its own rocket was like a vindication of all the science fiction I had read as a child and gave me that same sense of awe and wonder, only multiplied a hundred times because I was watching reality.

Thanks for the fantastic post and keep up the good work.

There’s a beautiful song Phil and others might like called “Orion” on the Stormwatch album. Yes, it’s actually about the constellation!

Ian manages to convey what sounds to me like the sound of starlight at the end. The whole song, music and lyrics, is very imaginative and evocative.

Now for us old-generation nerds, a ‘cleaner’ version of the STS-123 SRB videos has thankfully been put on YouTube as well, as I had announced two days ago, together with a list of the best moments.

Oh, and all critics are welcome to comment but please remember I am a Systems Administrator and not a poet. I am used to creating masterworks with cables, servers and code, not words

==============================
They say that I shall never see,
Anything as lovely as a tree.
However I humbly disagree,
There is much beauty in the SRB.

The tree does sit, and does not stir,
Whilst the SRB does growl and purr.
During its life much does occur,
But spaceward bound it must not err.

While it seems it has one task,
It does of it what we ask.
But it did its job with such grace,
That it put many a dancer to disgrace.

The sights it shows are beyond compare,
As it soars majestically through the air.
The things that I would never see,
If it wasn’t for the SRB.

The design, the build, the launch, the return,
The lessons it teaches and what we learn.
There is beauty in each of the above,
It is things like this that I do love.

So enjoy your trees if you must,
And look at me with utter disgust.
It worries me not, for in my eyes,
There is much more beauty in the skies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iurxEhL4UM

I hate to cause a stir, but that music is chee-zee. Sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK4j7Ypod4s

didn’t know they use parachutes.

It was fantastic. I have got to go see a launch one of these days, now I’m close by. Hell, I shoulda gone outside the other morning and looked north.