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A beautiful aircraft,



B-1 bomber crash report blasts crew mistakes, culture of ‘complacency'​




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Agreed. Deceiving size as well. You wouldn’t think of it as a bomber seeing as it looks not much bigger than a large business jet.

A regular visitor to the UK, there are multiple videos on YouTube of her taking off with afterburners. Far more impressive a sight than any fighter jet imo. I reckon if it was taking off light it’d shoot up like a firework.
 
If they were to recommission her and bring it back into service, she’d probably be ready and get those astronauts stuck on the ISS back to Earth before Boeing manages to fix their Starliner vehicle.

An amazing thing, often called the most complex machine ever made. Missed the chance to see one lift off, was there but it was delayed and I needed to get back. It was on the pad and I was by the big building they used to assemble it, about 3 miles away yet you still couldn't smoke, just really cautious...
 
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An amazing thing, often called the most complex machine ever made. Missed the chance to see one lift off, was there but it was delayed and I needed to get back. It was on the pad and I was by the big building the used to assemble it, about 3 miles away yet you still couldn't smoke, just really cautious...
It would certainly have been weighing on the minds of the occupants that despite it being an incredibly advanced craft designed to do amazing missions whilst in orbit, when it came to returning to the ground it was a glorified glider that needed piloting throughout, as opposed to a Soyuz capsule that only needed its parachutes to deploy to if it’d survived entry through the atmosphere.
 
Whilst a glider as unpowered, it was basically a brick with wings, one shot at landing it, but the runways at Edwards and later Canaveral were fooking massive.

Also loved the planning that went in to it, e.g. List of Space Shuttle landing sites - Wikipedia Zaragoza being the primary one in case it had to come down before reaching orbit, around 25 minutes after take off from Florida, landing in fucking Spain!
 
Three members of my old rowing club died on Columbia, 21 years ago, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark. I’m not sure they will be resurrecting old shuttles
Wow. Were you also at NASA at the time or did they just happen to be in your local community?

Either way, a particularly awful event to experience if one knew any of the crew. I was about 13 when Challenger happened and even as a kid the enormity of the situation was fully evident. Also watched Columbia live, which was arguably even more cruel to relatives given that rather than a conclusive explosion, they were experiencing a countdown to the shuttle appearing though the clouds that never happened and were left hanging with no official feedback for ages.
 
Either way, a particularly awful event to experience if one knew any of the crew. I was about 13 when Challenger happened and even as a kid the enormity of the situation was fully evident.

i remember it pretty well and i was stunned into my bones, as i assume was any other right-thinking person.
 
Wow. Were you also at NASA at the time or did they just happen to be in your local community?

Either way, a particularly awful event to experience if one knew any of the crew. I was about 13 when Challenger happened and even as a kid the enormity of the situation was fully evident. Also watched Columbia live, which was arguably even more cruel to relatives given that rather than a conclusive explosion, they were experiencing a countdown to the shuttle appearing though the clouds that never happened and were left hanging with no official feedback for ages.
I ain’t no rocket scientist ;) Proximity, I guess

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I ain’t no rocket scientist ;) Proximity, I guess

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That incident was obviously tragic, but otherwise I would love to live near a launch site. Even from fairly far away, the few videos I’ve watched of launches look (and sound) amazing. And even further away, I gather that night time launches or perhaps descents produce amazing trails in the sky.
 
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