Discovery Launched!!

[LD]

watched the live broadcast on the NASA website
way too cool
6,700 MPH!!!!!!
insane
way over 2 million gallons of fuel
that was really neat

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8562942/

[LD]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8515881/

there's some vids for those that missed it

[kinetic]

you know what would be even more neat?

if it were a spacecraft launched from a gauss rail, way up in the mountains, instead of having to burn that much fuel ;)

would travel with even greater velocity, but would probably have to implement nuclear power to generate that much electricity, and liquid helium to cool the coils...the technology exists.

[Mighty Thor]

I was listening to the news while driving. Cool, glad they got that going.

[HokieBird]

I think I have seen some animations of that kind of launch on TV before. Seemed like a neat concept, but would take a lot of money and initiative to get it off the ground.

[kinetic]

yes, HokieBird, it would take a lot of money.... but magnetic power is a very promising technology. I just can't wait until its application in self-sustaining generators becomes more feasible.

but you're right; since gravity itself is a magnetic force, attaining escape velocity by magnetic means would be costly, but it would also have less mechanical complications in the spacecraft (structural integrity issues aside)


when traditional physicists (and the even more traditional overseers which fund them) get their heads out of their asses, and realize the accuracy of hyperspace theory, perhaps more research will be done with fusion and magnetic forces, instead of combustion reactions.

[ July 26, 2005, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: kinetic ]

[98Camaro3.8]

Saw it from 4,500 feet over Daytona. Quite an amazing view when you're in the air only 30 miles away or so. :D

[LD]

Originally posted by 98Camaro3.8:
Saw it from 4,500 feet over Daytona. Quite an amazing view when you're in the air only 30 miles away or so. :D

lucky!

[asdf1234]

Originally posted by 98Camaro3.8:
Saw it from 4,500 feet over Daytona. Quite an amazing view when you're in the air only 30 miles away or so. :D

Oh yeah?! Well, I saw it from the UCF campus!

[shenanigans]

Got you all beat, drove to Port Canaveral(Just south of Cape Canaveral)

I was maybe 6-7 miles from it. Thing roared [img]smile.gif[/img] I could see the VAB building, and the tip of the launch pad.

Was bad ***... got stuck in ****ty traffic on way there and back though.

[Predator Bird]

i was in class so i missed it launch. i planned on walking outside to watch it from campus, but forgot. i'll have to pay attention when it returns b/c the theres a loud boom when it returns into the atmosphere. kinda scary when you forget its returning.

[andrew.brandon]

Originally posted by HokieBird:
, but would take a lot of money and initiative to get it off the ground.

ding ding ding we have a winner. many company’s have the money to do it but no one wants to take the initiative to do it first. they want to see someone else do it first to make sure its safe/feasible.

[mjparme]

6,700 MPH!!!!!!

Actually I believe once it is in orbit it is doing around 17-18,000 mph.

As a related piece of trivia the fastest humans are the Apollo astronauts who reached speeds of 24,500 mph (6 miles per second!) right after the initial trans lunar injection burn (the burn that broke them away from earth's orbit and headed toward the moon).

Trans Lunar Injection

[Fbody3400]

^^Yeah, they had to reach at least 18000 mph to leave the atmosphere.

[99V6Camaro]

Originally posted by Fbody3400:
^^Yeah, they had to reach at least 18000 mph to leave the atmosphere.

Psh in that case i can just use my 'maro to go to the moon...