Discovery Shuttle Launch: We have Liftoff!!!

Clara5

Clara5

Project QL Intern
Nov 6, 2003
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Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Hey everyone,

I know I'm a day late for this but I just wanted to share my enthusiasm and joy at the successfull launch of Discovery. I hope they will find nothing wrong with the shuttle and that it will land safely on Earth in 12 days. I for one might even be so obsessed with the thing that I will be watching the NASA web TV for the whole length of the mission (well, almost... I won't wake up at 3 in the morning to wake up at the same time as the astronauts, lol)

I've always been fascinated by Space, and I am happy about what this successful launch means for the advancement of Space exploration.

Feel free to share your thoughts here, but beware that if ever you start being pessimistic about things, I will be waiting here, ready to refute any arguments you might have, because I'm a positivist and, of course, I've done my research. Don't say I didn't warn you!!! (now, where's that evil grin smilie??? :D)

See you later!!!

Clara

P.S. Not being an anglophone, I am having trouble with a single word... What is a boom? to me it's a sound, but it seems to be a part of the shuttle... Anyone can shed some light on this for me? What part exactly is that? Thanks a million times.
 
A boom is a deep bass sound.
A sonic boom is the deep explosion sound when a jet plane surpasses the speed of sound (Mach 1).
A boom is also a crane-like arm.
A boom microphone is a microphone mounted on a pole which can be held just above an actor's head and out of camera range to get the best possible sound quality.
 
Ahhh, I think I get it now... it's just that they said "The camera is attached to boom attached the Shuttle's robot arm." *taken from the NASA website...
I guess that's what got me confused.

EDIT: So the boom is actually the robotic arm, commonly called the Canadarm, right?

Thanks again,

Clara
 
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Clara, I'm with you. I am a bit of a space enthusiest myself and I am really excited that we are back in space. I deffinately think that we need to be there.. I am anxiously awaiting the days when we can travel outside our solar system but we need to walk before we crawl. (No, wait, reverse that). But we need to take babysteps. These shuttle flights and the Space Station are steps in the right direction.
 
The new vehicle will be shaped differently than the shuttle, but I don't know where things stand as far as talks go. Quite a few years back I saw promotional materials that had a prototype on it.
 
I don't know if this is a sore spot for NASA enthusiasts, but I hope they learn from the X-Prize-winning Scaled Composites plane (Burt Ratan's White Knight & SpaceShipOne).
 
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They had a great prototype for the new shuttle, but cancelled it due to all the Bush cutbacks at NASA... now with the loss of TWO shuttles, they're realizing that they can't keep using these ancient things, and they HAVE to go with far reaching technologies, such as the space glider model!
 
Both Bushes increased NASA's budget.

"Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, who was president prior to Clinton, increased NASA expenditures by more than $3.437 billion during his single term from 1989 until January 1993."

from http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/4/123904.shtml

(Please note that despite the title of the article, I am not getting political. I'm correcting a misstatement. This article is what came up on a Google search of Bush and NASA budget.)
 
feldon29 said:
Politics is never a good idea. I think mstalanon meant Bush the First.
Click to expand...
I'm confused by this as well...how was anything that Matt or Jennie said political in nature? I don't really follow the space program or any of this stuff too much, but it seemed like Jennie was simply providing a link with some information, that's all...
 
I know G.Dub raised the budget

Hmmm...here is an excerpt from the summary to VS Season 10 episode called "Guinea Pig"....

In 2004, the U.S. Military needs to shut down all Level 1 Top Secret projects that are not weapons related. The cost of maintaining an operation in Iraq after 9/11 plus the rekindling of the Space Program by President Bush have forced costs to be cut. In short, PQL will be dismantled, Ziggy terminated, and the PQL staff reassigned to other projects.

If it's in QL, it must be true... :b

so if Daddy Bush raised the budget for NASA too, then Clinton must have cut it...but I don't have any QL references to back that up... :nut

As far as the future of NASA, i think all the Mars stuff is jumping the gun...we should be putting bases and colonies on the moon first...there's still a black rectangular monolith for us to discover....
 
Comments Deleted It is not my place to make judgements or suggestions about the content of Brian's forum. He has selected people he trusts to run the forum. I'm here in purely a technical capacity.
 
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