Orion Launch Today
Discussion
Gandahar said:
This is nothing, when the first space shuttle went up I seem to recall it was delay after delay.
The first Shuttle was delayed three years from its original date in 1978. However, the ACTUAL launch of Columbia on 12 April 1981 was carried out only two days after the initial planned launch on 10 April 1981 was cancelled due to problems with the on board computers. So there was technically only one scrubbed launch for STS-1So, there wasn't scrub after scrub.
Of course, later Shuttle launches had far more scrubs than the very first one.
Stupid question alert - why is there a launch window for this mission?
I can understand having one if you need to be at a certain point in space at a certain time in order to transfer/rendezvous, etc. but this mission is just going up, round and down again so what would they be too late for if they launch an hour after the window ends? Is it something so untechnical as needing to recover it in daylight?
I can understand having one if you need to be at a certain point in space at a certain time in order to transfer/rendezvous, etc. but this mission is just going up, round and down again so what would they be too late for if they launch an hour after the window ends? Is it something so untechnical as needing to recover it in daylight?
FunkyNige said:
Stupid question alert - why is there a launch window for this mission?
I can understand having one if you need to be at a certain point in space at a certain time in order to transfer/rendezvous, etc. but this mission is just going up, round and down again so what would they be too late for if they launch an hour after the window ends? Is it something so untechnical as needing to recover it in daylight?
The question was asked a few posts ago and this was my reply - I can understand having one if you need to be at a certain point in space at a certain time in order to transfer/rendezvous, etc. but this mission is just going up, round and down again so what would they be too late for if they launch an hour after the window ends? Is it something so untechnical as needing to recover it in daylight?
"Lighting conditions - both at the Cape and at the planned splashdown point in the Pacific.
The mission is scheduled to last about 4 hours - by which time it will be beginning to get dark in the splashdown area. They want to have decent daylight to observe the Orion as it comes down on its parachutes and to facilitate the recovery operation.
Most missions have much tighter launch windows because the spacecraft is being sent to a particular target in space, such as the Space Station or the moon. The movement of the target will determine when the launch needs to happen".
Eric Mc said:
No point in painting a rocket unless you really have to. Every pound of weight means a few more pounds of propellant - which means more weight - and more propellant etc.
Think that bit is forgotten but it would be cool, go faster stripes, Nurburgring sticker, Kenwood stickers......
Yes, and being aluminium skinned they needed the paint for corrosion protection - unlike the spray-on insulating foam.
The later 1Bs did away with the black tanks as they had issues with the tank skins wrinkling due to differential expansion between the black and white tanks under solar heating conditions
The later 1Bs did away with the black tanks as they had issues with the tank skins wrinkling due to differential expansion between the black and white tanks under solar heating conditions
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