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Space Shuttle Atlantis Returns Home
Digitus1337 writes to mention the news that Space Shuttle Atlantis has returned to Earth after a successful twelve-day mission. Everything involving the mission went smoothly, resulting in high praise from NASA officials. The only drama came from 'mysterious' debris floating alongside the shuttle; this turned out to likely be trash from the cargo bay accidentally released into space. From the article: "The unplanned drama threatened to overshadow what had been a nearly flawless mission filled with strenuous spacewalks and rigorous robotics work that placed the space station back on a path to completion after its long hiatus. The crew of five men and one woman were the longest-trained in NASA history, because they were originally supposed to fly to the space station in 2003. But the Columbia accident kept them grounded."
Among the debris: 6 McDonalds fries containers, a comb with gum stuck on it, a toll receipt for the GW bridge dated 1995, that missing glove from the EVA 10 years ago, an empty chapstick, two Miller Lite beer cans, and directions to the party that you don't want to remember now.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Don't forget about the "butterfingers" loss of a couple of space station bolts into space and the oxygen machine's 'toxic' irritant spill...
Yesterday the Bad Astronomy site posted a great photo of Atlantis and the ISS silhouetted against the sun. The photo was taken last Sunday... from the ground! The post over there also links to photographer Thierry Legault's website, with a bunch more space photos.
New NASA Rule: No burritos in the hanger - period. For Christ's sake, if you make a Taco Bell run, it's not like people aren't going to be able to tell from the smell, so quit throwing your wrappers in the cargo bay.
there was a boom that rattled the windows of the house. my wife said, "what was that?". i wasn't sure - still half asleep and then she said, "oh, the shuttle is back". went back to sleep happy that they made it back safe.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
It's also today's APOD picture:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060921.html
For those who were "too lazy; didn't read" the comments on the badastronomy page, the transit only lasted one second. So not only was it great camera work, it was great timing, too.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
It was trash from the cargo bay. This being Atlantis, it was Ancient trash.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
I see that McKay managed to find three ZPMs...
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
When I heard the theory that at least one of the UFOsmay have been a plastic bag my instant thought was "I know that carrier bags can blow high in the air, but *that* high?" B^>
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
I've been fiddeling around with Orbiter lately. Sadly, I haven't managed to get a shuttle to orbit yet. Really good to get an impression of the scale and principles of spaceflight.
That the sole purpose of governments is to conceal the existance of the UFOs, of course.
Ignore this signature. By order.
That goes along with a couple of other weird name/profession matches that I have heard about: My dad's dentist when he was a kid was "Mr. Molar", and the school where my wife was an after-school program mentor for a while had a shop teacher, "Mr. Wood". This is all 100% for real. Again, too funny.
At least it wasn't more of that Ori trash. ;)
There was an osteopath in Redondo Beach named Ira Bonecutter.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear