chris@canopus.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mr. Right) (11/01/88)
So, what happened? for those of us without CNN, did it go or not? Chris Krieg ---------------------------------------------------------------- | PENGUIN- Feathered but flightless, these clowns-of-the-ice | | frolic in the South Atlantic, feeding on herring, | | small cod, and Hostess 'Ding-Dongs"... |
riley@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Christian Riley) (11/01/88)
In case you didn't here, the Soviet Shuttle didn't go. According to Monday's Wall Street Journal: "Soviet space officials dismissed a last-minute halt to the maiden flight of the space shuttle Buran as a minor hitch and said the next attempt to put the spacecraft aloft will take place after the Revolution Day holiday Nov 7. The liftoff was aborted when an equipment platform failed to swing clear of the Energia booster rocket." CNN has reported the launch halted at 51secs. They then were going to try and launch 4 hours later, however for some reason (anyone know it?) it was again canceled. Perhaps it was just still problems with the platform. "Free scientific inquiry? The first adjective is redundant." Chris Riley riley@cs.ucsd.edu
knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen) (11/02/88)
Hmmm, now we're getting confusing info here about why Buran
didn't fire. Yesterday someone posted that the launch was postponed
first due to an onboard computer problem (didn't some other country"s
first shuttle launch have the same trouble ;-) ?).
They fixed that but next the "igniter system" showed problems.
They had to drain ("scrub") the fuel tanks to work on that one,
so the day was cancelled.
Today we hear that part of the gantry wouldn't swing back.
I know parts of ours don't swing away until about t-2 minutes.
Our Apollo rockets had gantry supports that swung away at liftoff;
I always wondered what would happen if one of them stuck --
nothing very humorous I suspect.
Anyway, I have Nov 7 penciled in on my pocket calendar.
--
Mike Knudsen Bell Labs(AT&T) att!ihlpl!knudsen
"Lawyers are like nuclear bombs and PClones. Nobody likes them,
but the other guy's got one, so I better get one too."