Space Shuttle Hubble

And they still use reel-to-reel instrumentation tape... Quantegy 799 on the Shuttles. Well they did anyway. I know they stocked up in 2005 when Quantegy shut down the first time.

:)
 
You would need a pretty powerful cell phone in order to have all the computing power of the space shuttle.

Maybe a ********** could do it.

-MD
 
I'm thoroughly fascinated with the upgrades they're doing to the Hubble telescope. It fascinates me that they can even manage to fly such a massive vehicle in such a way that it meets up with the orbit path of the satellite. Then they will work on delicate electronics in zero gravity, in the open space, dealing with microscopic screws and wires, wearing really heavy gloves and 200 pound suits. Just fascinating to me.

I always wanted to be an astronaut. Damn that 6-foot height limit rule-- I'm too tall!
 
My uncle used to work at the cape and pressed the button to launch the first unmanned moon shot. He also had to hit the destruct button when it went off course. I was visiting at the time (about 9 years old or so) and recall his returning home that night in mourning. He really took it badly. That was the first rocket launch I witnessed. Many years later I was in Orlando for a convention that coincided with the second shuttle launch and I decided to witness it. I spent the night in a hotel in Cocoa Beach and got up early to "get a good spot" to watch it. On the way out I picked up a piece of paper that was laying on the floor (to "properly" dispose of it). I looked at it first and noticed it said "VIP Pass" in bold black letters on a bright red background. I stuck this thing on my dash board and was waved in through the gates to the press area. I got to witness (and HEAR) the launch from about 4 miles away in the press area where the big countdown clock is. An amazing experience. I feel sorry for the fellow who lost his pass, but, he shouldn't have been littering. ;)

Living about 60 miles south of the cape now I normally catch every launch (sometimes I drive up there for them), but missed yesterday's. :(

You can check out some of the pix that I have taken of past launches here if interested. http://www.pbase.com/rking401 The launch galleries are on page 2 and 3.
 
I live in Deland and we normally just watch it from our backyard but we drove down yesterday for the first time to watch it up closer.
It was pretty amazing.
The coolest thing was how long it took the sound to reach us. The shuttle had pretty much disappeared before the rumbling got to us and then just built and built until it was pretty damned loud for how far we were from it and just kept on for quita a while.
It was sort of weird realizing that what we were hearing had actually occured a minute or so before.
We were listening to the past.
 
I've been told that if you have a mic that can hear around 1 Hz or so you can catch the sound purt near anywhere on the planet several times.
 
I was watching them this morning. Took them about an hour to get a bolt unstuck. They are very careful.
 
They spent 5 minutes relaying instructions for how much torque was needed to unscrew a single screw, and how many turns were needed to unscrew it Then they spent 2 minutes unscrewing that screw. Amazing how meticulous the job is!
 
Muckelroy said:
They spent 5 minutes relaying instructions for how much torque was needed to unscrew a single screw, and how many turns were needed to unscrew it Then they spent 2 minutes unscrewing that screw.
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Sounds like the last time I serviced / aligned my tape deck. Seriously.:eek::D
 
Together with yesterday's successful launch of the Herschel we should be up to our necks in cool space footage for a long time to come. Yeah!

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=16

"THE MISSION:
The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory (formerly called Far Infrared and Sub-millimetre Telescope or FIRST) has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope. At 3.5-metres in diameter the mirror will collect long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. In addition, Herschel will be the only space observatory to cover a spectral range from the far infrared to sub-millimetre.

Successful launch on 14 May 2009 at 13:12:02 UTC"
 
Lt. Bob said:
wow that's cool!!

:)
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It certainly is, and even cooler when you realize that the shuttle passed in front of the sun for only 0.8 seconds. Talk about needing some planning and timing!! It was shot about 60 miles south of the cape, which would put it about 5 miles north of me. I would love to have tripped across this fellow while he was shooting. :)
 
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