Possible last Shuttle landing....
 

This might be the last Space Shuttle landing.... Yes, I agree, the foam cladding on the external tank will probably be fixed.

Tomorrow's landing will probably be at Edwards. Wish I was gonna be home, I'd be out there.

The arrival corridor was changed to be over water at Max Q (most stressed airframe loads) instead of over continental USA. So that the debris path will not be available to amateur videos and souvenir collectors should there be serious trouble again.

Arriving from over Yucatan peninsula instead of central California.

Best of luck to them.

Godspeed, and good luck guys.....bring her home!!!

SvK

That's an awful sick feeling, knowing that your controllers on the ground have picked your path in such a way to keep people from finding your debris. :( :( :( Best o luck to 'em.

Sing - why would you say it will be the last landing? That would imply that there would be no more launches. Do you think they are going to scrap the Shuttles?

The Shuttle is an amazing piece of engineering, but let's face it- there is a failure rate w/ it that is just unacceptable. 2 have blown up out of (how many missions)?

I'm praying for the people on this one, and I know that NASA is too. Actually, I think that they are schitting bricks down in Houston. Another tragedy would probably bury the space program for a while.

After this last scare, and after thinking they had fixed EVERYTHING, there was still LOTS of foam shedding from the tank.

I would have LOVED to be at the flight review brief on this one... "OH we didn't think you wanted us to rework the ramp foam, it has never shed before!" Meaning no one has ever SEEN it shed before. What you have to remember is that this tank burns up on rentry, no damage assessment (evidence) remains after each shot.

I would say with the rework necessary, and the big camera (public press) aimed at this one, it may be years before (if at all) the tank is 'fixed'.

My bet is that the military shuttle may fly again, but is 50-50 on civilian bird going up again.

Alternetives?

The discovery channel was airing their pie-in-the-sky version of what the next shuttle will be like. Looked cool, but it was the type of program that makes me hate the discovery channel. I can always hear Mr. Big Voice, "200 years from now, we'll all be living aborad giant ships... or in thousand story skyscrapers... or on Mars..."

Actually the failure rate has been less than what was predicted analytically when the shuttle program started. The original analyses predicted 1 failure in approximately every 50 flights. And that was considered acceptable at the time.

Mike

As I remember, this was mission 120-something? So two in 100+ makes it right on projection, sadly.

The Space Shuttle has ALWAYS been plagued with problems regarding the tiles..they have always had a tendency to shed...this info came from one of the McDonald Douglas heirs...

The multi-national space station is dependent on the continuing fight of shuttles. It will fly, wth great detail given to safety, until the next generation of crafts are deployed.

And keep in mind, the shuttle program is a product from over 30 years ago. It's been a great success IMHO.