I'm surprised no one has postd anything yet. Any of you West Coasters able to see it? They were talking to Buzz Aldrin and a former shuttle captain earlier on Fox News, and they were talking about what it's like to fly past a commercial air liner at 17,000 MPH. They were even showing clips from a mission a few years ago where they shoot the camera out the back and over the top and catch all of the plasma and light coming off the front and bottom of the shuttle during re-entry. It looked really cool. I want to be an astronaut again.

 

Here in Ventura it was overcast this morning so I couldn't see it but it flew right over us and we got the sonic boom. Ya gotta be impressed!

 

Yeah...I'm 24 and I don't think I've ever heard a sonic boom. I know nothing around here goes that fast, and the Concord, when it did fly, flew out of NY and couldn't go super-sonic until it was out over the ocean anyway. I'd love to see the shuttle take off one day, and the pictures of the approach and re-entry were amazing.

 

It was amazing just watching on the television this morning.

I saw the coverage on a few different channels this morning (was in the hospital) and I really got to watching Miles O'Brien on CNN. He had on Senator John Glenn and a couple of Astronauts. It was really interesting to hear them discuss not only this mission but the shuttles future. One thing that I never thought about until I was listening, they consider every flight of the space shuttle a test flight. They do not like to say that their aircraft are "grounded" because they have to prove them airborne (spaceborne) before every flight anyway. It's not like having a fleet of 747's where they can just decide to take a flight any old day.

Have to really admire the people at NASA and give them great thanks for everything they have allowed us to have today (ie: cell phones, internet, tv with hundreds of channels, velcro, tang, bet they even did something for beer)

 

You could always join the services. There's nothing quite like watching a Tomcat go SS on a flyby of the flight deck...

You don't hear them coming - its a dot at first way aft, then you see a cloud of condensation move over them from front to back...

I always had to remind myself that I was watching something about as long as a semi-truck moving that fast.

Get a load of this:

http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/fs14ss.mpg

 

GW: saw something similar on San Nicholas Island a few years back. I work for a public agency and the Navy contracted us to do some work on the island. While waiting for the flight back to the mainland, an F14 took off. A few minutes later, I saw it approaching the end of the runway at high speed, condensation around the wings. It flew past about 50' off the deck and then went vertical. Then the sound hit. Quite impressive.

 

Glad they made it back down safely. Now they have to fix the problems with the insulation.

Unfortunately, as stated by a NASA official, it's not a question if, but when another tragedy will occur. Just make the odds a lot less.

On the subject of F14's; during our fleet week activities here, an F14 did a some what of a slow, low level flyby and then throttled up. You heard nothing, and then a rumble.

Every one was quiet with amazement. That was cool.

A year or two earlier, fleetweek, solo #6? (Blue Angels) did a low level high speed pass above the water.

All you saw was the nose of the F18.

He flew about 25' above the water at .9 mach and buzzed a coast guard ship, damaging the super structure of the ship and blowing the ear drums of one of the coasties.

Again, I'm glad to see the shuttle crew make it back.

 

Per FAA regs they can't go SS until they are at a certain alt and/or 50 miles off shore. Those Concords were pretty cool.

Too bad the shuttle had to land in CA. I guess it takes too long to set it up for the return flight to FL and it effects the next launch. Something about having to have a standby ready to go before the launch...

 

Better to land safely in Ca. then take a chance landing in a hostile weather environment.

It is going to cost about a million to transport it back to Florida, though.

 

Missed the landing on TV, but did listen to the radio. You would think for a night landing coverage on radio, the only thing radio could provide listeners would be hearing the sonic boom, but the announcers were too busy yapping to hear anything.

Saw the shuttle being transported on the back of a 747 few years ago. Kind of an odd sight - could not help but think the combination was probably not allowed to land in 5 southern states and Utah.

 

I recorded it on the NASA channel last night. Really was pretty awesome when it was banking for approach. Little white dot streaking along, becomes a white blob, starts taking shape, banks again, and before you know it, it's on the ground.

If you get NASA TV on your cable or satellite, keep an eye on it today. I'm sure they'll be looping the landing coverage and press conference afterward.

 

F-14's? Psh. How about that Aruora Spy Plane?

 

I hope the media wasn't disappointed, all they have to talk about is the poor girl lost in Aruba...still.
It is good that the Shuttle is safely on the ground, and NASA can cautiously keep moving forward.
Aside, from sonic booms, going up and down quickly, what else did the shuttle do this week? I heard they brought the recycled cans and papers home. I hope the money spent, our money, is being wisely spent up there. Anotherwards, they better find a cure for some diseases, or come up with some great innovations in the science and technology fields.

 

Sonic boom? Back in the late sixties when I was about 3-4 years old, we lived right in the takeoff path of Republic airport in Farmindale, NY on Long Island.

I remember many times you'd hear WHOOSH, and then about a minute (or less) later you'd hear BOOOOMMMMM....

I remember the same thing living out East in Mastic, Grummans would be running all sorts of weird things out of Calverton... again, you'd see a jet flying overhead playing around, and then, you'd see the afterburners come on, and about 30 seconds later BOOOOMMMM...

I saw a delta-wing aircraft that had to come out of Grumman's, no idea what the heck it was to this day, I have never seen a plane that looks even close. Still trying to figure that one out.

 

One of the main points of this mission was to mess around with repairing tiles in space. I remember hearing that NASA had even broken a few tiles on the ground to see what would happen after launching. Our tax dollars were well spent on this mission, the information they will receive from studying this might one day save the lives of Astronauts on the Shuttles as they grow even older in age.

- Chris