Space Shuttle launch tonight...

[Russ35]

The news channels usually show the final few minutes before landing

[_ian_]

Awesome. "Endeavour continuing to slow down, now at Mach 23"!!

[anonymous-user]

_ian_ said:

Awesome. "Endeavour continuing to slow down, now at Mach 23"!!

Big numbers...16000MPH!!!!!

[Eric Mc]

Best sticking to NASA TV if you can. No dopey superfluous comments to put up with.

[Eric Mc]

garyhun said:

_ian_ said:

Awesome. "Endeavour continuing to slow down, now at Mach 23"!!

Big numbers...16000MPH!!!!!

Impressive - but not really relevant when the Shuttle is still above 90% of the atmopshere.

[Bernie-the-bolt]

1200 miles to go and 15 minutes or so to touchdown

[Eric Mc]

As ever, listen out for tyhe twin sonic booms as it passes overhead Edwards before turning finals for landing.

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

garyhun said:

_ian_ said:

Awesome. "Endeavour continuing to slow down, now at Mach 23"!!

Big numbers...16000MPH!!!!!

Impressive - but not really relevant when the Shuttle is still above 90% of the atmopshere.

Hitting the atmosphere at those sort of speeds is impressive though

[knight]

Eric Mc said:

As ever, listen out for tyhe twin sonic booms as it passes overhead Edwards before turning finals for landing.

Just a quicky off topic, but I heard my first ever sonic boom at Edwards about 10 years ago. Chuck Yeager in an F15 opened the annual airshow doing it

[Eric Mc]

No choice - orbital speed is always 17,500 mph.

It was interesting to hear the CapCom telling them to "take GPS" - in other words, they could now start to use GPS data to help establish their precise location. In trhe early days of Shuttle missions, the message use to be "Take TACAN", which was the USAF tactical navigation system - essentially the old British Decca system (which itself was based on Bomber Command's WW2 "Gee" system).

(I like all these useless facts ")

[Eric Mc]

That was the bangs.

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

That was the bangs.

Really?

[jmorgan]

Just passed its lift home. In the background for a few seconds.

Out of shot now.

Edited by jmorgan on Sunday 30th November 21:27

Edited by jmorgan on Sunday 30th November 21:27

[dickymint]

[anonymous-user]

Never ceases to amaze me what man is capable of! Fantastic!!!

[Eric Mc]

Never ceases to impress.

[Blib]

Tremendously enjoyable to watch Endeavour all the way down!

Is the tracking camera computer controlled?

[Eric Mc]

I doubt it, but it might be radar controlled.

[Blib]

I asked because the ship was held in focus in the centre of the shot from very first contact.

[Eric Mc]

Tracking of aircraft by cameras with high powered lenses has been perfected since the 1930s. Radar assistance of such cameras has been around since the 1940s. Don't forget, by the end of WW2, anti-aircraft batteries were able to use radar assistance to aim their fire.
The same technology was easily transferred to to camera tracking.