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Space Shuttle 747 Was Modified to Defend Itself from Heat-Seeking Missiles (2022)

22 points by dredmorbius 3y ago

dredmorbius 3y ago
NB: title shortened from "Space Shuttle Carrying 747 Was Secretly Modified To Defend Itself From Heat-Seeking Missiles" due to length.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
js2 3y ago
All it really needed was George Kennedy and Alain Delon as pilots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHzxdrFC72c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHzxdrFC72c (I recently watched all four Airport movies in reverse chronological order which is definitely the right way to watch them since they improve in that direction.)
hindsightbias 3y ago
When I saw it on return, it was explained the pods overwhelm the engine heat signature and are pulsed in a sequence left or right to throw off the gimballed IR seeker.
clnq 3y ago
Looking at these old videos, it is fascinating how fast we've gone from heavier than air flight to space exploration. The first heavier than air flight was in 1903. The first Moon landing was in 1969. The Shuttle videos are from early 80s. In the year 2000, we started permanently living in space on the ISS. One human lifetime from this [0] to this [1]. But we also lost a lot of the tech since the 70s. Quite many steps back technologically. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_1
- extraduder_ire 3y ago
  I don't think the tech is so much lost, as it's not worth it to use anymore. A complete replica of an apollo mission could be stood up pretty easily nowadays, but would probably be too expensive/unsafe to be palatable.
  - clnq 3y ago
    A lot of the institutional memory is lost if the tech isn’t used. Imagine you’re a new starter at NASA on a new mission to build a new space shuttle. A lot of the people you’d ask for guidance are gone. You would need to figure a lot of it out yourself, except for what’s documented. NASA is not exempt from this, same as any other company that does engineering.

22 points by dredmorbius 3y ago

NB: title shortened from "Space Shuttle Carrying 747 Was Secretly Modified To Defend Itself From Heat-Seeking Missiles" due to length.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

js2 3y ago

All it really needed was George Kennedy and Alain Delon as pilots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHzxdrFC72c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHzxdrFC72c (I recently watched all four Airport movies in reverse chronological order which is definitely the right way to watch them since they improve in that direction.)

hindsightbias 3y ago

When I saw it on return, it was explained the pods overwhelm the engine heat signature and are pulsed in a sequence left or right to throw off the gimballed IR seeker.

clnq 3y ago

Looking at these old videos, it is fascinating how fast we've gone from heavier than air flight to space exploration. The first heavier than air flight was in 1903. The first Moon landing was in 1969. The Shuttle videos are from early 80s. In the year 2000, we started permanently living in space on the ISS. One human lifetime from this [0] to this [1]. But we also lost a lot of the tech since the 70s. Quite many steps back technologically. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_1

extraduder_ire 3y ago
I don't think the tech is so much lost, as it's not worth it to use anymore. A complete replica of an apollo mission could be stood up pretty easily nowadays, but would probably be too expensive/unsafe to be palatable.
- clnq 3y ago
  A lot of the institutional memory is lost if the tech isn’t used. Imagine you’re a new starter at NASA on a new mission to build a new space shuttle. A lot of the people you’d ask for guidance are gone. You would need to figure a lot of it out yourself, except for what’s documented. NASA is not exempt from this, same as any other company that does engineering.