Congrats Nasa! And if you don't have mpeg or not near a sat dish you can either watch or listen to Nasa here:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?skipIntro=1 Duane At 12:27 PM 7/26/2005, Dishnut wrote: NASA sends shuttle back into space after long pause By Irene Klotz and Michael Christie CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA successfully launched space shuttle Discovery on Tuesday after a 2-1/2 year struggle to rebuild the shuttle program following the fatal Columbia disaster. The shuttle, carrying seven crew members, soared into slightly hazy skies, leaving behind a trail of smoke and flames, while the roar of its booster rockets rattled windows and shook the ground across Cape Canaveral in Florida. "I want to ask you all to take note of what you saw here today," said NASA's new administrator Michael Griffin, basking in a palpable sense of relief that swept through the launch management team after Discovery safely reached orbit. "The power and the majesty of the launch, of course, but also the competence and the professionalism, the sheer gall, the pluckiness, the grittiness of this team that pulled this program out of the depths of despair two years ago and made it fly." Discovery's main mission on the 12-day space flight under veteran astronaut Eileen Collins is to test new safety measures and heat shield repair techniques introduced since sister ship Columbia disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. Columbia's wing had been damaged by falling foam insulation on liftoff, and superheated atmospheric gases tore into the breach when the shuttle came back to land 16 days later. Seven astronauts died. NASA has spent more than $1 billion on safety upgrades since then, and worked to correct what investigators called a "broken safety culture" that was too dismissive of risk. "We know that the folks back on the planet Earth are just feeling great right now and our thanks to everybody for all the super work that's been done over the past 2 1/2 years to get us flying again," Collins told mission control in Houston just short of three hours after the picture-perfect launch. Discovery's other main mission is to deliver several tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station, whose construction has been on hold since the remaining three-shuttle fleet was grounded in the aftermath of Columbia. ELUSIVE PROBLEM The shuttle's launch was delayed for two weeks while engineers searched for the cause of an elusive problem with one of the ship's hydrogen fuel-level sensors. The sensor glitch canceled Discovery's first launch attempt on July 13 and briefly overshadowed the fear of falling debris that had preoccupied NASA engineers for more than two years. During Tuesday's countdown, however, all the sensors worked perfectly. Even Florida's normally fickle summer weather cooperated and Discovery blasted off smoothly, its two solid rocket boosters pouring out 6.5 million pounds (3 million kg) of thrust and enough energy to light 87,000 homes for a day. Crowds of onlookers, including first lady Laura Bush and President Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, held their breath during the critical first two minutes of flight, then cheered when launch commentators announced that the shuttle had safely separated from the boosters. The shuttle arced over the Atlantic Ocean, and settled into its planned preliminary orbit just under 9 minutes later after reaching a speed of up to 17,400 mph (28,205 kph). The launch was scrutinized by 112 cameras, and an array of radars, sensors and other imaging equipment so that NASA can assess how well the newly modified external fuel tank worked. It was foam from the tank that damaged Columbia. The cameras captured something falling off as the shuttle climbed, but NASA managers said it would be a while before they could determine whether it was significant or not. The object could simply have been a paper cover that is meant to fall off, said Wayne Hale, deputy shuttle program manager. The shuttle crew's first task will be to use a new 50-foot (15-meter) extension to the spaceship's robot arm to survey its nose and the leading edges of its wings for damage. Discovery's launch was also monitored by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and U.S. astronaut John Phillips on the International Space Station. The shuttle, carrying Collins, pilot Jim Kelly, Japan's Soichi Noguchi and astronauts Charles Camarda, Steve Robinson, Andy Thomas and Wendy Lawrence, was scheduled to reach the orbital outpost on Thursday for a week-long stay. The shuttle's return to flight after a long hiatus also marks the beginning of the end for the aging spacecraft. President Bush has instructed NASA to retire the shuttle fleet in 2010, after completion of the space station, and to design a new generation of space craft capable of returning humans to the moon and of taking them to Mars and beyond. -- Dishnut-P ================================================================ Operator of RadioFree Dishnuts - Producer of The Dishnut News heard Saturdays at 10pm EST. on RFD, W0KIE Satellite Radio Network AMC-7 Transponder 5 / 7.50Mhz (4DTV W-7 973), WTND-LP 106.3, and many micro LPFM stations. http://dishnuts.net RFD Listen Links: http://dishnuts.net/#Listen Show Archives: (Partly Up) http://dishnuts.net/archive/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- Duane Whittingham (N9SSN) - Producer Tom and Darryl Radio Shows & Saturday Morning Confusion Heard on C-Band Analog Satellite (W0KIE) - GE7-CH5-7.5 mHz WTND-LP Macomb 106.3, WQNA FM, WBCQ 7415 kHz & the Internet. 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