Author Topic: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive  (Read 150090 times)

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #440 on: 06/22/2012 07:43 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #441 on: 06/22/2012 07:46 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #442 on: 06/22/2012 07:49 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #443 on: 06/22/2012 08:00 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #444 on: 06/22/2012 08:07 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #445 on: 06/22/2012 08:14 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #446 on: 06/22/2012 08:17 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #447 on: 06/22/2012 08:19 pm »
November 20: IN OTHER NEWS
The Soviets report they are bulding three more shuttles in addition to Buran. Each shuttle is said to be able to carry up to ten cosmonauts and can stay in space for up to four weeks. The second orbiter is said to be complete – it  will be named Ptichka (“Birdie”) +++ The Soviets have given up hope of reviving the Phobos 1 Mars probe disabled earlier this year, Tass reports. (Countdown, February 1989)

November 22: SOVIET RESEARCHER SAYS SHUTTLE NOT WORTH PRICE
The recently resigned head of Soviet space research says his country's maiden Space Shuttle launch had "absolutely no scientific value," and the U.S. and Soviet shuttle programs are in "deep trouble" economically. Roald Z. Sagdeyev, who headed the Soviet Space Research Institute for 15 years, said last week's inaugural Soviet shuttle flight - like the 1981 flight of the first U.S. shuttle - was an "outstanding technological achievement."The shuttle, however, "is technology of the 21st century.
Why should we pay 20th-century money for it?"

"My personal view is that American experience with the shuttle indicates that from the point of view of cost efficiency, the shuttle is in deep trouble," said Sagdeyev, who has followed closely the U.S. decision-making process on the shuttle and is a key science and arms control adviser to President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. "It is much simpler and cheaper to fly a payload with any kind of expendable vehicle." Sagdeyev, like many American scientists, fears the costly shuttles are drawing away much needed funds from basic science, and that manned flight is unnecessary for most research.

"It went up. It came down. But it had absolutely no scientific value," was Sagdeyev's blunt assessment of the 31/2-hour, unmanned orbital flight a week ago Tuesday of the Soviet shuttle that ended the U.S. monopoly on reusable spacecraft. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, the 55-year-old physicist confirmed he
voluntarily left the top post at the agency that handles space exploration and astronomy because he felt no one person should dominate an institute for such a long time. Sagdeyev, a longtime member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, said he would concentrate on his own research and the think tank he heads that advises Gorbachev on arms control. (Deseret News, Nov. 22, 1988)

January 2, 1989: FOOD, CLOTHING SHORTAGES TRIGGER CLASH IN USSR OVER SPACE SHUTTLE COSTS
It was hard to tell the Soviets from the Americans without a scorecard this week as squabbling grew louder over spending huge amounts on a Soviet Space Shuttle project while other needs go begging. The Communist Party newspaper Pravda said Monday, without giving details of the debate, that some scientists involved in the project joined consumers upset by food and clothing shortages in questioning the value of the program.In the years before scientists here revealed their own shuttle program, they assailed the U.S. project as too costly and of questionable use. Many Soviet scientists said they could gain the same goals with more standard, single-use rockets.

Pravda said in a full-page article devoted to the development and testing of the Soviet shuttle that a "major rethinking and a fierce clash of ideas, concepts and proposals are under way" even within the Space Shuttle program. The Soviets successfully launched the Space Shuttle Buran (Snowstorm) on Nov. 15 on an unmanned three-hour, 20-minute test flight. "Tons, speed, heights, automation and etc.," wrote A. Rudenko, a Pravda reader from the Moldavian capital of Kishinev, on Buran. "But where are the expenditures, the billions of rubles of the national means?
"Where is the mutual connection with the people's well-being? How many years has Buran delayed fulfillment of the food program, the output of good-quality shoes, clothes and the improvement of medical care for Soviet citizens?" he asked.

Pravda said that only a small part of the Soviet shuttle's program has been fulfilled, and the Buran has yet to prove that it can perform useful work in orbit. The newspaper said that the reaction of Soviet citizens to the 1961 launch of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was much more positive than the reaction to the Space Shuttle program, even though people were poorer then. (Deseret News, Jan. 3, 1989)

February 1, 1989: SOVIET SHUTTLE TO BRING SPACE STATION HOME
The Soviet Union will use its recently launched Buran Space Shuttle to retrieve the mothballed Salyut 7 space station and return it to Earth for possible repair and relaunch, Radio Moscow said Wednesday. The Salyut 7, launched in April 1982, was shut down three years ago when the new generation Mir space station was launched. A total of 21 cosmonauts worked on Salyut 7 during its four years in service. The station had been hounded by bad luck almost since its launch. In 1985, the station's solar batteries malfunctioned, shutting down all power and rendering the complex useless. A Soviet space repair crew managed to revive the station in what still rates as one of the most daring and complex repair operations in the history of space exploration. During a previous mission, cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin became seriously ill while on board Salyut 7, forcing an earlier termination of the flight.

"The experts of the Soviet space program intend to bring back to Earth the orbiting Salyut 7 space station with the help of the re-useable Space Shuttle Buran," Radio Moscow said. The Buran, which means snowstorm in Russian, was successfully tested in an unmanned mode last November. Its cargo hold can easily carry the entire Salyut station. Radio Moscow did not say when the retrieval mission might take place. (Deseret News, Feb. 1, 1989)

                                           +       +       +

As it turned out, no Soviet shuttle would ever leave Earth again. Funding for Energiya and Buran was stopped in 1992. And yet there would be Russian shuttle cosmonauts – the end of the Cold War and the realization of economic realities on both sides led to the U.S./Russian cooperation in space in the 1990s, which – despite difficulties, as well as unforeseen events and political decisions – exists to this day. And we all know there would never have been an International Space Station without this cooperation of the former rivals.

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #448 on: 06/22/2012 08:24 pm »
Well, after telling you the long story of America’s successful return to space following the loss of Challenger, this concludes my RTF/STS-26 project. I hope you have once again enjoyed the results of my “hunter-gatherer” efforts, dating back to the 1980s.

But this was only the start of the new beginning, so of course I will continue my shuttle history series in the coming months.

And as you can see from this Countdown flight schedule, there were interesting missions ahead. I’ll continue chronologically with STS-27, but I’m also already preparing text material and photos for all the 1989 flights (including a pimped up version of the already existing STS-34 thread).

So, be prepared for the following threads, which I’ll try to bring to you during the remainder of this year:

Atlantis STS-27 – Battered and Bruised

Discovery STS-29 – Got a Perfect View

Atlantis STS-30 – One Touch of Venus

Columbia STS-28 – Called Back to Duty

Atlantis STS-34 – Eppur si muove!

Discovery STS-33 – Falcon in the Sky


High-resolution photos of Discovery STS-26 are available at L2:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=13780.0

For all you Buran fans, there’s a spectacular movie at L2:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=10878.0

and of course there is the Buran thread at:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=636.0

:)

Offline Beemer

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #449 on: 06/23/2012 01:22 am »
Once again Ares67 you have done an outstanding job! Thank you!  :)
Ride, Sally Ride! In memory of Sally Ride [1951-2012] America's first woman astronaut

Offline Zero-G

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #450 on: 06/23/2012 03:29 am »
Yes, great job! Thank you!

I just don't understand why the report about Buran was also added to this thread. I think it deserves its own thread.
BTW, there are some factual errors: For example, the strap-ons used kerosene and LOX, not LH2 and LOX. Also, the Buran orbiter was not equipped with jet engines. Only the atmospheric test vehicle BTS-002, also known as "Buran Analog", was equipped with four jet engines, two of them afterburning, but was never intended to fly into orbit. It was used for approach and landing tests to develop and test the automatic landing. This is the vehicle that now resides in the Technikmuseum in Speyer, Germany.
« Last Edit: 06/23/2012 08:22 am by Zero-G »
"I still don't understand who I am: the first human or the last dog in space." - Yuri Gagarin

Offline Lewis007

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #451 on: 06/23/2012 10:02 am »
For those interested, attached is the STS-26 mission report

Offline shuttlefan

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #452 on: 06/23/2012 01:02 pm »
Thanks for another great set of pictures and screengrabs Ares. You are great!! :)

Offline Ares67

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #453 on: 06/23/2012 03:10 pm »
Thank you all for the kind words.  – And thanks for the corrections, Zero-G. But please keep in mind that most of the texts I use are news stories representing the state of knowledge at the time. It’s part of my concept for these threads, although sometimes I take a wider view by giving away my knowledge of the “future”  ;)  So remember, 1988 was a time when western journalists still had to do a lot of tea leaf reading concerning events in the Soviet Union. Most of the reliable details about Buran became available much later.

Offline Paper Kosmonaut

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Re: Discovery STS-26 – The Dream is Alive
« Reply #454 on: 06/24/2012 08:39 am »
Quote
"The official Tass news agency said as it prepared to re-enter the atmosphere, the shuttle turned its tail forward and switched on a retrofire engine. At an altitude of 24 miles, the craft turned again and began its approach like an airplane."
Wait, what? just 24 miles altitude before resuming nose-forward flight? So that means a tail first re-entry and braking manoeuvres? What in the name of science were those journalists thinking in the 80's? It sometimes really annoys me, watching documentaries on TV or reading in magazines how little journalists actually knew (and still know) about spaceflight at all.
Sometimes things might perhaps get lost in translation but come on, With people knowing the moves of the U.S. shuttle so well, no intelligent western journalist should come up with the idea Buran would re-enter tail end first.
It doesn't even make me laugh. Just frown with disbelief.

On another note: Thanks for the thorough report on shuttle filghts. You do a great job!
PK - dei t dut mout t waiten!

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