tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) (11/16/88)
Well, as of today 'sci.space.shuttle' is officially about two nations' space programs! I was most impressed with what I saw of Buran's launch and landing, on CNN. A few observations and questions: * Was the cameraman who filmed the takeoff on a boat, or what? I've never seen an obviously hand-held telephoto cover a launch before. You would think they would have had plenty of time to set up a stable camera platform. * Was that one bunch of stone-faced spectators in the VIP stands or what? Americans would have been whooping and hollering a little. I also noticed a distinct lack of people waving ridiculous little party-favor (Party-favor?) red flags at the launch and landing. Guess we still lead the Soviets in at least one area. :-) * Where is the darned HATCH? In most cases Buran follows our tile coloring scheme, but the ring of black tiles around our hatch seems completely missing on Buran (I checked both sides). Is the hatch still there in all-white, or does the crew enter and egress somewhere else entirely? * Significant greyish-tan discoloration seemed to be visible on the rear of the orbiter fuselage at landing. A thin streak of color started just behind and above the wing's leading edge, and ran up and back, widening as it went, until the entire fuselage aft of the wing trailing edge appeared discolored. I did not notice this coloring in the pre-launch shots. Am I seeing things, or was this an effect of re-entry heating? Is it normal? * Does anyone know if they opened the payload bay doors on this flight? One would think they'd want to, but I haven't heard any explicit reference to that having been done. * Noted with pleasure: those three drogue chutes at landing. Will they be used every time or was it just an extra margin of safety for the checkout flight? There's a weight penalty. You have to wonder how many places STS could land if it carried drogues. * We have run this into the ground in sci.space, but let me reiterate just this once in honor of the launch: With Energiya and Buran and Soyuz and Mir all operational, the Soviets are BEATING US TO A PULP in space. It must be tough on Russian pride to have to do it as quietly as they have. It's the smart approach though, since it keeps us from marshaling public support for a massive counter-effort. -- Tom Neff UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff "None of your toys CIS: 76556,2536 MCI: TNEFF will function..." GEnie: TOMNEFF BIX: t.neff (no kidding)