Space Shuttle Endeavour Launches (at last)

mumkin writes: "Hey, STS-108 has finally launched! In addition to bringing a new crew to the International Space Station and performing an EVA, Endeavour will be releasing Starshine 2, another orbiting disco-ball for ground-based observers to track."

Comments

Re:So what exactly does this massive student proje

[ukryule]

From NASA:

The experiments include: STARSHINE-2, the Prototype Synchrotron Radiation Detector, Collisions Into Dust Experiment-2, Capillary Pump Loop, and Space Experiment Module-11.

STARSHINE 2 will be the third satellite of Project Starshine -- the Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic International Networking Experiment -- to be deployed. More than 25,000 students from 26 countries will track STARSHINE 2 as it orbits Earth for eight months. The students will use the information that they collect to calculate the density of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Starshine will fly into space in a Hitchhiker canister in the payload bay of Endeavour and will be deployed 240 miles (387 kilometers) above the Earth.

So 25,000 students will be monitoring it - it wasn't built by 25,000 students :-)

Re:Memorial

[istartedi]

Was the cloud unusually bright? I've heard that sometimes that happens because the "cloud" is way up in the stratosphere where direct sunlight is still visible. I've never witnessed a launch, but I had the privelege to witness a sunset landing where the shuttle became visible as a bright white speck while making an approach turn. Then of course there was the CLAP! CLAP! double-sonic boom and the approach was close enough so that you could clearly see the windows of the shuttle. If you have the opportunity to witness a landing, don't sell it short. It was one of the highlights not only of my visit to KSC, but of my whole FLA vacation. Then again, I wonder if they will be allowing people that close to landings for a while.