Clearing skys on Wednesday gives Atlantis the green light

September 6, 2006, 10:11 am

Posted by Administrator in Space Shuttle
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Space shuttle Atlantis is on target for a Wednesday launch, with clear skies in the forecast and the nearest tropical depression still far out in the Atlantic.

There was only a 20 percent chance that weather would prohibit the shuttle from blasting off at 12:28 p.m. (1628 GMT) Wednesday, said Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer. Unlike last week's planned launch attempts, the window Wednesday opens before Florida's afternoon summer thunderstorms normally blow through.

"I feel better that we're launching around noontime (1600 GMT) than around 4:30 in the afternoon (2030 GMT), as we first started off trying to do,'' said launch director Mike Leinbach. If Atlantis doesn't lift off Wednesday, NASA will try again Thursday and also Friday if necessary. Atlantis originally was scheduled to launch Aug. 27 on a mission to resume construction of the international space station, but that launch was delayed after a lightning strike at the launch pad and then Tropical Storm Ernesto.

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Comments

Posted by www
on January 21, 2010, 2:37 pm

A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant.

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Posted by www
on January 21, 2010, 2:38 pm

The action of the exhaust against the inside of combustion chambers and expansion nozzles is able to accelerate the gas to hypersonic speed, and this exerts a large reactive thrust on the rocket (an equal and opposite reaction in accordance with Newton's third law).

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Posted by www
on January 21, 2010, 2:39 pm

Rockets are used for fireworks, weaponry, ejection seats, launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight and exploration of other planets. While comparatively inefficient for low speed use, they are very lightweight and powerful, capable of generating large accelerations and of attaining extremely high speeds with reasonable efficiency.

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