Why do astronauts say "Houston" instead of "NASA" while communicating back to Earth/ Control Center from Space? What is the back story?
The “even-farther-back story” — why is it “Houston” instead of “Canaveral” or “Hoboken”?The race to the moon was rather expensive. It consumed an average of 3% of the Federal Budget for much of the ‘60s.[1] Getting that through Congress was an interesting challenge. Senator/Vice President/President Lyndon Johnson was the front man for getting the budget passed. In order to get congressmen on board, he had to toss a nice plum at their state, often a large contract for a local manufacturer or a new NASA facility.Johnson reserved one of the big plums for his own home state of Texas — the Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed Johnson Spacecraft Center after his death). This was the facility that managed the construction of the hardware, and the flight control center was also part of this facility. It’s located in Houston on land donated by Rice University.Following aviation communication standards, the call-sign of a ground facility is usually the name of the city it’s located in, like “Dallas Approach” or “Seattle Tower” or “Denver Center”. I guess technically the astronauts should call it “Houston Mission Control” but that sounds like too much work when there’s no one else they’d be talking to.Footnotes[1] Nasa budgets: US spending on space travel since 1958 UPDATED
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Houston we have a problem?
Take the chain off and we will
Rocket Question?
Just integrate your function for v(t) as a function of t, though it may help to rewrite the formula as v(t) = -g*t - ve*ln (1 - rt/m) first. The first term is easy enough to integrate. For the logarithmic term, we can make the substitution u = 1 - rt/m. dt will then become -m/r Integrating the log function gives ∫ ln(u) du = u * ln(u) - u = u * (ln(u) - 1) + 1 The final integral will therefore be y(t) = -1/2*g*t^2 + ve*m/r*{(1 - rt/m)*[ln (1 - rt/m) - 1] + 1} = -4.9*60^2 + 3000*30000/160 * {(1-160*60/30000)*[ln(1-160*60/30000) - 1] + 1} = -17640 + 562500*[0.68*(-0.3857-1) + 1] = -17640 + 32484 = 14.8 km
Is it worth going on a tour of NASA?
The summer after high school, I gave tours at NASA Johnson Space Center. I gave upwards of 300 tours and essentially memorized & learned everything you would ever hear during your time at Johnson Space Center - and even though I had given the tour hundreds of times, I really did enjoy it every single time. So I really recommend going on a tour of NASA! Here’s a few reasons why:The technology is actually incredibleIt often goes without saying that NASA and the work they do is often at the forefront of technology (and space exploration). And while I always knew this, I never really realized it until I started giving tours there. Some parts of the tour included watching real people work on ridiculously complicated hardware and it was slightly surreal seeing it happen before your eyes.(a vehicle for astronauts to drive around on, on Mars)There are also incredible technologies on display like Robonaut, a ‘dexterous humanoid robot’.(Robonaut 2.0)The scale of thingsI never really realized how big space crafts and shuttles were either, until I started giving tours at NASA. Of course you know they’re big, but it’s hard to imagine the sheer size without going to look at them in person.(MSS, a robotic hand on board the ISS)(Zarya, a retired module that was the first component launched to the ISS)(Saturn V, one of 13 rockets sent to space. To date, it’s the biggest rocket - not my pictures, I wasn’t able to take pictures here)Mission ControlThe coolest thing about touring Johnson Space Center is hands down Mission Control. Tourists get to see a set of different mission control rooms depending on which day the come (there are 4 active ones and on retired one). Since I gave tours, I got to visit each multiple times and it was always the best part of any tour.(Main Mission Control - this room was directly connected to the ISS. We were located in the viewing room which is often reserved for families of astronauts that come to view their launch to the ISS)(Historic Mission Control - the original mission control room, from where Apollo 11 was launched and we first heard the phrase “Houston, we have lift off”)
What does Peter Pan always say right before he flies?
Up up and away? To never never land...and beyond!!...? Captain Hoooooook!!!!!!....? To Wendy's house...and beyond!!.....? C'mon Tinky...?
Russian cosmonauts after launch report "5 seconds, flight is normal" - what's the NASA equivalent report?
Depends on the craft... For all manned launches Gemini through the Shuttle, they'd announce, "Tower Clear!", which signaled a change of control from Florida's Cape Canaveral to Houston. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo all announced the time of flight a few seconds later, and "... the clock is ticking!" Meaning a normal flight. (The shuttle didn't do these announcements.) Both Apollo and the Shuttle would roll, which does two things - the shuttle rolls to a heads-down position to reduce the amount of stress on the orbiter's connections to the external tank; Apollo rolled to synch the inertial guidance system. Apollo would announce trajectory and engine status at various points, then, "Stand by for staging." And, the 1st stage would detach, followed by the 2nd stage firing - and a review of the status of the 5 2nd stage engines by Houston. The shuttle announces it's fuel-flow status - after lift off and tower clear, they throttle down to about 74% on the mains, and then, about 90 seconds into the flight, they start 'throttling up'. The Shuttle also announces it's 'Return mode' - there's a few of them... if something goes wrong before 90 seconds, they'll try to return to the cape. If something goes wrong between 90 seconds and 3 minutes, they'll try to use the Emergency landing strip in Spain. If something goes wrong between 3 and 5 minutes, they'll try to use the landing strip in Turkey. After 5 minutes, they're "negative return" - and they *should* be able to orbit once and return to California's Mojave strip if something goes wrong. When the astronauts ask ground control, "How are we looking?" If things are good, they'll say "Nominal" or "Nom." (If things *aren't* looking good, they'll say, "Um... we'll get back to you." )