Monday, July 17, 2006
COMING HOME
Taking a sip of that first cup of coffee, I tuned in to NASA TV to hear the "go" for Discovery's de-orbit burn. It's all downhill from there.
UPDATE: Good de-orbit burn. Total delta-v is only about 205 mph. That just goes to show you what a razor-thin margin there is between being in orbit and not. 205 mph out of about 17,000 mph.
UPDATE: I've got NASA TV on one screen while I'm working through emails from the office on another. The orbiter status screen on the big board at JSC is showing Discovery payload bay doors as being open. I know that's not right (I heard the closing confirmed on the radio when I first woke up), but it's kind of spooky: It would be a Very Bad Thing if Discovery came back with those doors open.
UPDATE: Discovery's in the atmosphere -- surfing into the sunrise at Mach 25! (And the damned orbiter status screen at JSC is still showing the doors open.)
UPDATE: This is a little more exciting than one would like: Capcom just called up the development of a thunderhead at the south end of the main runway.
UPDATE: Well -- that's real drama. They've just redesignated the runway because of that thunderhead.
UPDATE: Wow! Beautiful video showing real-time video of the view from cockipt through the HUD. Discovery's down safe and the bird looks great. Coffee break's over -- back on your heads.
GB
posted by Greg 7:00 AM
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