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Space Shuttle Endeavour's On-Board Souvenir Stash

Posted by michael on from the got-junk dept.

Robert Pearlman writes: "Seven astronauts, four payloads, and over 11,000 souvenirs are on their way to the International Space Station, among them a U.S. flag recovered from the World Trade Center, a cylinder record which belonged to inventor Thomas Edison, and golf course markers from Scotland and Ireland. Read the entire manifest here."

14 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Rare by Karma+50 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    a cylinder record which belonged to inventor Thomas Edison

    Isn't something like this rare and interesting(*)? Why risk sending it into space just for the novelty value of saying it has done so?

    * I tried looking at the official Edision national historic site at http://www.nps.gov/edis/home.htm to see how rare this is, but of course this site was shutdown yesterday!

    --
    http://www.thehungersite.com
  2. stupid question by Ledge · · Score: 2, Funny

    Item 7a.

    1. 5 Each Small Meatball Lapel Pins

    What the hell is a small meatball lapel pin??

    --
    If it ain't a Model M, it's a piece of crap.
    1. Re:stupid question by Leif_Bloomquist · · Score: 2, Informative


      The "Meatball" is NASA's internal slang term for the version of their logo with the blue ball.

      http://www.nasa.gov/images/hotnasa.gif

  3. Isn't this a little expensive? by Gord.ca · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Last I heard, sending stuff into space costs thousands per kilogram. A few 4"x6" flags aren't going to make a big difference; a few thousand will. I couldn't find a total weight of all this junk on the linked site, but I'd think it'd be a few kilos at least.

    Why is cash-strapped NASA doing this? Just for the fun of it? Or are the $thousands insignificant in its $billions budget? Or are they getting extra $ from elsewhere?

    --
    The opinons expressed are those of the voices in the author's head and are not necessarily those of the author.
    1. Re:Isn't this a little expensive? by collectspace · · Score: 3, Informative
      If the Space Shuttle was only launching to carry the 11,000 souvenirs, than yes -- this would be (literally) pound wise and penny foolish.

      But the prime cargo are the larger items in the payload bay, followed by the astronauts. So, you might as well stuff every nook and cranny aboard that orbiter -- as its going to launch regardless (a.k.a. there are no savings for lighter cargo)

    2. Re:Isn't this a little expensive? by Kvasir · · Score: 2
      expensive to do, but think of the profit you could make:


      1) getting museums/restaurants/clubs/schools to PAY you to send their logo covered 'souvenirs' into space;


      2) selling your own products when they come back down "Authentic meatball lapel pin has spent >24h in actual, real, genuine space"....


      NASA may make some weird decisions about which projects to fund and which to ditch overboard, but sometimes they have good business sense (either that or they are learning from the nouveau riche capitalists in Russia who are pumping their space program for all it is worth...

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    3. Re:Isn't this a little expensive? by Detritus · · Score: 2

      Fuel is cheap. It's the hardware that burns the fuel, and the people who support the launch, that cost the big bucks. If your launch vehicle can carry 20,000 pounds to LEO, you aren't saving much, if any, money if you put less than 20,000 pounds of payload on it.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  4. Wow...flags... by tregoweth · · Score: 2, Funny

    Under the "Flags for Heroes and Families" program, 6,000 small U.S. flags are also on-board, to be distributed to the victims' families and emergency response teams.

    "We're so sorry about the loss of your loved one...but here's a flag that's been in space! Well, in a hermetically sealed package in a storage compartment in a spacecraft in space, but still...oooh!"

    1. Re:Wow...flags... by Suidae · · Score: 3, Funny

      easy, two words: Orbital Fireworks. Definately. Throw big balls of chemically doped junk into the atmosphere to make colorful artifical meteors. Bright, long lasting ones.

  5. If I was on the space station... by itwerx · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...I'd be pissed!
    We don' need no steenkin' "meatball lapel pins". We haven't seen a woman in six months! Where's the pr0n?!?

  6. Re:Close to home.... by "Zow" · · Score: 2

    You know, that's not the only one - there are a lot of items on there that would seem to be of primarily personal value to one or a small group of people. And what's up with the suveneers (sp?) for resturants and country clubs? I mean, I think the flags for those struck by the tragedy of September 11 is great, and I see the use of many of the items for agency presentations or diplomatic relations, but I really wonder what the selection criteria is for the rest of the items? I'm sure every elementary school would like to send their school flag or picture into space (okay, at least that was the case when I was a kid 15-20 years ago), so what made those that were selected so special? (Maybe they've been waiting 15 years for a slot?) I imagine there have got to be some good stories there.

    -"Zow"

  7. Re:6,000 miniature flags by freeweed · · Score: 3, Funny
    Actually, it reminds me of the simpsons episode:


    Alien: Abortions for everyone
    Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOO!!!

    Alien: OK, Abortions for no one
    Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOO!!!

    Alien: OK, Abortions for some, miniature american flags for all
    Crowd: YAAAAAAYYYY!!!

    --
    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  8. Re:6,000 miniature flags by Lars+T. · · Score: 2

    So why 6,000 flags? The official death toll is less than 4,000 (article), hundreds of them weren't even Americans.

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  9. Re:Close to home.... by "Zow" · · Score: 2

    That one, I'm guessing, had more to do with the strong NASA element in Texas than any connection with dub'ya.

    -"Zow"