http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB11&Number=1016238&page=0&fpart=all a friend sent me this link. these are amazing pics of the shuttle and its build up / launch prep. the engine shots are really cool!
Amazing pictures! Had to put a caption on this one, couldn't help myself Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very, very cool pictures... I have an actual, original NASA photograph taken by one astronaut of two others on a spacewalk in the payload bay... Very cool... Got it a while ago but if I recall before it went in the frame I saw NASA stamped on it (i think)... it's on Kodak paper, which I thought was kind of cool... Thanks again for the pics
Incredible the amount of engineering invested in all of this - the craziest part is that it actually all works. Imagine all the thought and time that went into designing, fabricating and assembling everything, from the shuttle, the rocket boosters, the crawler to the launchpad. Mind boggling! Man can do some great things. RMX
Exactly right - going the way of the F117 very soon. I have a suspicion that we have done little to nothing to replace it and may well be depending on the Russians. BTW, for a great introspective look at the post-O-rings investigation, physicist Richard Feynman's last book "What do YOU care what other people think" is a blast. He tells the story of getting 5 actual engineers together WITHOUT THEIR MANAGERS, and asking them to write down the 1 in X odds they believed were the true statistics on a fatal accident. They clustered around 1 in 100, which was not a bad mirror of the truth. The MANAGERS all had their story straight - it was one in ten thousand. Feynman was incredulous - he asked them three times if that was what they really meant. Yes, it was. Feynman pointed out that this was essentially saying that you could launch one EVERY DAY for over TWENTY SEVEN YEARS without a fatality. Clearly, it was preposterous. Feynman went digging further, and found that the 10^5 number was the accepted holy grail so that you did not have to have a self-destruct mechanism to be triggered by the range officer if the launch went out of control. Nobody wanted to be the range officer, hence they "helped each other out" with the number 10,000.
In the mid '90's. I worked for an animation company producing 3d computer generated animation. We were contracted to do a 3d animation for the visitors center that portrayed the fueling of the external tank prior to lift-off. We were given unprecedented access to the launch facility, still photos of the shuttle on the pad and during launch, video of the launch from inside one of the data pylons as well as any plans NASA had in their archives. We were able to get plans of everything to do with the launch facility, the VAB, the Crawler, the launch tower, fuel storage tanks, everything but the shuttle itself. The gentleman who took us around and gave us access to the facility was a retired engineer who had worked at the Cape since Mercury. Whe you get that close to something as awe inspiring as the space program you learn a new found respect for the people who actually do the work.
This is one of the most impressive shots I have ever seen... the sheer size of the 'doors' Image Unavailable, Please Login
wow, thank your for the replies. the credit needs to go to the topic starter in the BMW forum. i was sent the link via email as a buddy of mine knows what i do for a living, (Aerospace) and thought i would enjoy the pics. i *almost* did not post / share this here in Off Topic, as i was unsure anyone would care. i am glad i did, as i too think its amazing. Michael
that's just insane! i've never been a great student when it comes to science, but i've always been intrigued by the space program. there's still so much more to learn. those pictures are amazing!
Michael, Awesome and inspiring pictures! This is the first time I've been able to comprehend just how much rebuilding has to go into each mission. Sure, the Space Shuttle is a "reusable" space craft, but, it's the airframe that's being reused, so-to-speak. But, that machine has to be almost totally inspected (inside and out) and rebuilt between each mission. Very very cool. Thanks for posting Dave
