Well just watched the final launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, would you believe the shuttle program has been going for 30 years and they have had 135 launches.
Out of the 135 launches they have only had 2 catastrophic failures which have taken the lives of 14 crew & the total loss of 2 vehicles.
Failure 1 was STS51-L USS Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into flight 28 Jan 86 and STS 107 USS Columbia 1 Feb 03 disintegrated on re-entry into earths atmosphere due to a heat shield failure after damage caused during lift off.
All up the shuttle program delivered the componentry and ability to build the Interantional Space Station (ISS) and delivered the Hubble Telescope in to orbit as well as retrieving and repairing Hubble.
Of all the missions the shuttles have flown there has been many female crew members fly but there has only been 2 female comanders.
Those two are NASA astronauts Eileen Collins, who led the STS-93 flight of the shuttle Columbia in July 1999, and Pamela Melroy, who commanded the STS-120 mission of Discovery in November 2007.
For those interested in catching a glimpse of Atlantis she will be visible in the western skys of SA about 6am to 7am for the next couple of days.
Comsat deployment, first flight of an African American in space, Guion Bluford; test of robot arm on heavy payloads with Payload Flight Test Article, First night landing
Brings back a lot of fond memories for Blue, Grumps. He was at NASA and worked on one of the launches (I can't remember which one it was at the moment) back in the early days.
Was a real experience for him and things have come a long way since then.
BobnBev said
09:28 AM Jul 10, 2011
That was one of my bucket wishes, sould have worked on it a bit sooner.. Loved the thing... will be hard to replace.... sad ..thanks for the insight....Bob
Hey Guys n Gals,
Well just watched the final launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, would you believe the shuttle program has been going for 30 years and they have had 135 launches.
Out of the 135 launches they have only had 2 catastrophic failures which have taken the lives of 14 crew & the total loss of 2 vehicles.
Failure 1 was STS51-L USS Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into flight 28 Jan 86 and STS 107 USS Columbia 1 Feb 03 disintegrated on re-entry into earths atmosphere due to a heat shield failure after damage caused during lift off.
All up the shuttle program delivered the componentry and ability to build the Interantional Space Station (ISS) and delivered the Hubble Telescope in to orbit as well as retrieving and repairing Hubble.
Of all the missions the shuttles have flown there has been many female crew members fly but there has only been 2 female comanders.
Those two are NASA astronauts Eileen Collins, who led the STS-93 flight of the shuttle Columbia in July 1999, and Pamela Melroy, who commanded the STS-120 mission of Discovery in November 2007.
For those interested in catching a glimpse of Atlantis she will be visible in the western skys of SA about 6am to 7am for the next couple of days.
Here is a list of the launches.....
Hoo Roo Haooy Days
Grumpster
Brings back a lot of fond memories for Blue, Grumps. He was at NASA and worked on one of the launches (I can't remember which one it was at the moment) back in the early days.
Was a real experience for him and things have come a long way since then.
sad ..thanks for the insight....Bob