Slashdot Mirror
Lucky Thirteen On the ISS
Hugh Pickens writes "Things may get a little tight in space as seven shuttle astronauts blast off from Florida on June 13 to join up with six colleagues already on the International Space Station bringing the ISS contingent to thirteen, the largest number of individuals on the platform ever at one time. The 13 space-farers represent seven from the US, two each from Russia and Canada, and one each from Europe and Japan. '"I don't know what it's going to be like," says Endeavour commander Mark Polansky, a veteran of two prior spaceflights. "We know it's going to be challenging with 13 people aboard."' During five spacewalks, an external platform will be added to the lab which will enable those experiments to be performed that require materials to be exposed to the harsh environment of space and astronauts also have to fit equipment to the exterior of the platform such as batteries and a spare space-to-ground antenna."
already delayed becuase of a hydrogen leak.
a Canadian astronaut was also inconvenienced.
I though 13 was an unlucky number. Didn't Apollo 13 end in a bad way?
The ending was okay. The middle bit was a bit stressful.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Shit! You're right! As a matter of fact, the sum of the letters in the names of the three Shuttles still operational is 26 which is 2 times 13. If you take that two and multiply it by the difference in the number of letters between the Endeavour (9) and the number of people who will be on the ISS now (13) you get 8 which is the number of letters in the name 'Columbia'. We're all doomed.
They represent the European Space Agency, which is why they were just labeled as European. Please direct any further complaints to the ESA main office, or the EU headquarters.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
Many a stupid piece of political correctness, came from people deciding what would, or wouldn't be offensive to other people.
Those two people don't represent the other 700 million, who probably don't care, and are off to the pub.
I quite like being labelled a 'European'. It makes me feel like we're united.
Why not? Justify your statement.
Not that I'm disagreeing with you, there just aren't many definitions of 'country' that include the USA and exclude the EU. Common currency? Common language? How many Americans speak Spanish as a first language now? Common culture? You mean like Massachusetts and Louisiana right? Common government? Most of our law comes from the EU now. Constitution? Britain doesn't have a written constitution, but not many will deny that it is a country. If you view a constitution as a body of law then European law is pretty formidable.
Would the majority of Europeans describe themselves as European first? No. But neither would the majority of English, Irish*, Scots or Texans.
I don't disagree per se. But a country is one of those things you point at and say; "that's a country" without really knowing why.
*Though this one is more complex.
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
Why not? Justify your statement.
Not that I'm disagreeing with you, there just aren't many definitions of 'country' that include the USA and exclude the EU. Common currency?
Eleven countries of the European Union currently do not use the euro. They are: Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania.
(16 states do use it.)
Common language? How many Americans speak Spanish as a first language now?
The European Union has 23 official and working languages. They are: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
Also, their use is very closely aligned with national boundaries.
Additionally, there are minority languages official only in some regions, like Welsh in Wales or Faroe in the Faroes.
Constitution? Britain doesn't have a written constitution, but not many will deny that it is a country.
The UK does have a constitution, but it isn't written in one document.
(Also, the GP said "Europe" was a country. Europe is a continent.)