TheMadCap

He has a plan dude....

It's from the Holy Grail Tom...

Five questions sir! (ala Sir Launcelot to King Arthur)

Forgive me, I don't ususally read the news, but didn't this latest flare-up originate with Lebanon types kidnapping some Isreali types?

I cut my own grass, I don't give a rats @ss about lettuce, if it's too expensive, I won't buy it...

don't you people know anything? It's all the methane from fart that is heating the environment. Please people stop all that bustin ass, save the planet!!!!!

The jerseys with that colostomy bag logo should all be buried in the same mound with Atari's ET cartridges...

That is just terrible. Simply fukin terrible.

Absolutely. Steelers jerseys and all...

I have had the honor of meeting Ken, no party is complete without the Mr. Flowers, but I have never met Tom. Can't remember if Bib came to the last two tailgates... BTW, Tom you coming this year???

Damn, Tommy you's that big burly feller? Note: Bib is in front, yes?

IF that is truly the logo (I think it isn't) then the Sabres won't get a fuggin dime of my money until that abortion of a logo is destroyed. Remember before the Bills unvieled thier new schitty uniforms, there was that one source that had what looked like legitimate logos? The while helmets with the blue buffalo, sans the red stripe? I think it's like that...

Atlantis is scheduled to launch on STS-115 the end of September. Discovery goes up no earlier than December 12th. Discovery flew the last two missions, but Atlantis was ready to launch for the emergency rescue missions as needed. Discovery is on standby for STS-115. Endeavor is still in her OMDP (orbiter maintenance down period) as will not return to service until January. The new CEV and CaLV (Ares I and V) are in developement. They very much resemble a cross between Saturn and shuttle. The first stage of Ares V is very much like the first stage Saturn V, with SRBs and disposable engines. The Ares I is to be used for crew launch and looks like an Apollo capsule riding on top of a SRB...

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=4635 Now we can finally finish that useless piece of orbiting junk, retire the flying metal turkeys and get the hell out of LEO. As long as NASA doesn't kill anymore astronauts in the next four years...

Can't wait for one of those...

So you will agree with him exactly one year from now????

People should have the right to do what they want so long as it does not adversly affect the majority, and they follow the law. Abortion is legal, therefore, no matter what I personally believe, I have to deal with it. I am actually ok with abortions, but what pisses me off is retards who use it as birth control. If you have had more than one abortion in your lifetime, then generally, there is something seriously wrong with your lifestyle...

Now that, I can agree with. I would say that most wars, bloodshed, and misery occured over the course of human history due to religion...

So sad. I knew it was eventual, but still heartbreaking. I think I may have been his biggest fan...

OHHHH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! THE MADCAP WILL LIVE FOREVER IN HISTORY!!!!!!

Oh ok, you must be refering to the Orbital Manuvering Module, which evolved from the "space tug" concept. It used LOX/LH2, was transported to the space station via the shuttle, and was used to launch satelites into higher orbit trajectories. The concept evolved around the time of Space Station Freedom, and was the first budgetary elimination of the project (in FY91-ish). The idea was that Freedom could use the OMV to deploy and retrieve spacecraft from LEO. The shuttle, or SDV, would return with fuel as needed to keep the OMV running. There was also an interesting proposal to use a shuttle stack without a payload unit called the "low-value cargo vehicle", proposed in 1989. The idea here was to attach two beat-up SSME to the ET, and use normal SRBs to deliever propellents to orbit, for use in other space craft. Since the vehicle was much lighter than the traditional shuttle stack, the SSMEs would not use much propellent, and approximately 163,000 pounds of fuel could be sent to the space station. However, this concept didn't really gather much steam because NASA was trying to get Shuttle-C flying, and focused most of thier efforts there...

hmmm...interesting. I'll check on this and get back to you guys. BTW, if you care to know technical details of the shuttle check out Dennis Jenkins' book. It is extremely thorough and complex, should be a good read for you...

They had the special about him on this morning on APL...

Actually, they ended up using the Centaur as the upper stage on the Titan IV up until last year's final flight. After Challenger, the new saftey rules prohibited a risky launch of a LOX/LH rocket from the shuttle...

The HST is nearly twice as high as the ISS, so it is either one or the other. There is no way to lift a shuttle from the ISS to the HST anyways, what would be the point? It is easier to go all at once, or just don't go at all. Tom, I believe you refer to the Centaur upper stage rocket. In the beginnings of the shuttle program, it was decided to use the shuttle as a carrier for launching deep space missions (ie, Galileo) and DoD missions by raising the rocket in the payload bay before liftoff. There was a huge amount of debate about the dangers of such a mission, it is just not a good idea to have cryogenic propellents in the shuttle's payload bay. Discovery and Challenger were modified to carry the Centaur, and they were ready to begin launching at the time the Challenger was lost. They would have flown out of Vandenburg for polar orbit missions. That is another problem, in order to reach polar orbit, the shuttle has to launch from Cali, and fly over land. So it something goes wrong, we get what happened over Texas in February 2003. When Challenger went down, the DoD pulled out of the project, the Centaur was scrapped, as was the nearly complete shuttle facility at Vandenburg. It took nearly two years to launch Galileo, and they used the lower powered upper stage type launcher from Atlantis on STS-34...