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Interesting idea to store the shuttle outdoors, building the museum around it. But the article is frustrating. > The cranes that will lift the spacecraft are
by dotancohen 3y ago
Interesting idea to store the shuttle outdoors, building the museum around it. But the article is frustrating.
> The cranes that will lift the spacecraft are quite tall — the tallest of which will be about the height of City Hall.
And how tall is City Hall? I get that this is a local publication, but do all LA residents even know how tall City Hall is?
> At liftoff, the white rocket boosters were set underneath the shuttle’s wings and produced more than 80% of the lift.
The boosters provided thrust, not lift.
- badcppdev 3y agoThat article is hilariously waffly. And I almost posted the exact City Hall quote. The pedant in me wants to point out that the external tank is not "Endeavour's" because the external tanks were not recovered after flights so that one has never been on a mission and could have been a tank for any shuttle mission.
- dotancohen 3y agoI suppose that the external tanks may have been commissioned for specific missions, like Atlas IV and Delta V rockets were. Maybe this tank was commissioned for a mission that never flew, like the current museum Saturn Vs. I remember, possibly incorrectly, that there was a contingency rescue mission stacked but not flown, though I think that the stack did fly on a NASA designated mission (as opposed to the usual Congress designated missions). Though I think that was Atlantis.
- rzzzt 3y agoThe external tank destined for display at the California Science Center is ET-94, the last flight-qualified external tank in existence. This lightweight tank (LWT) — donated to the Science Center by NASA — was ordered to support science missions for space shuttle Columbia. From https://californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/endeavour-experience/external-tank https://californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/endeavour-exper...
- dotancohen 3y agoColumbia, really? So there were about a dozen later launches that this tank could have flown on but didn't. I know that the ETs were updated after Columbia was lost, but I did not realize that a complete tank was built before the changes, yet not flown.
- dylan604 3y agoThere are lots of "stories" like this from space programs. The ESA "lost" the fuel tanks for their last Vega launch because they were just sitting around for so long they got crushed down into scrap metal because they were not entered into their asset management software.[0] [0] https://europeanspaceflight.com/the-case-of-the-missing-vega-avum-propellant-tanks/ https://europeanspaceflight.com/the-case-of-the-missing-vega...
- rzzzt 3y agoThe write-up continues a bit after my quote, they say that this one had pieces of foam removed as part of the post-accident investigations.
- badcppdev 3y agoI feel a bit sad about that. Thanks for sharing the link though.
- nmstoker 3y agoYes, it struck me that the article missed all comment on interesting, relevant points about the tanks, such as how they were not recovered after launch, and therefore the actual existence of this last one should have warranted comment.
- ceejayoz 3y ago> The pedant in me wants to point out that the external tank is not "Endeavour's" because the external tanks were not recovered after flights so that one has never been on a mission and could have been a tank for any shuttle mission. It sure is Endeavour’s now, for hopefully many decades longer than any other tank.
- rzzzt 3y agoThe LA City Hall's height is about 1.5 football fields.
- squarefoot 3y agoOr about 4445 attoparsec, just to use a more universal unit.
- cheschire 3y agoImperial or metric football?
- lb1lf 3y agoWould those be European or African football fields?
- gosub100 3y agoI know this is a worn out trope (that has a name which I cannot recall now) but I feel like repeating: when you find misleading explanations and factual deficiencies in an article whose subject matter you're familiar with, you can reasonably extrapolate that everything else you read about is likely fraught with the same level of veracity.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- riffic 3y agoLos Angeles city hall is an icon and this is a local paper.
- organsnyder 3y ago> And how tall is City Hall? Around 2.75 Libraries of Congress.