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Space Shuttle Endeavour Heads To Space Station
RobGoldsmith writes "The STS-127 crew began its journey to the International Space Station at 6:03 p.m. EDT Wednesday when space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The shuttle crew will complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and deliver a new crew member, astronaut Tim Kopra, to the orbital outpost."
chinga tu madre
In other news, 40 years ago, in 30 minutes Apollo 11 lifted off for the first moon walk. I remember it like it was yesterday ... okay, maybe a month ago.
Salut,
Jacques
Incidentally, this is the first time in history that there will be two Canadian astronauts working aboard the ISS simultaneously.
Aikon-
p.s. Better work quick if they've only got 'til 2016 =P
This article says about 9 pieces fell off of the fuel tank and struck the shuttle.
So I am to understand that a large part of this mission is to put "Kibo" in orbit...
James Parry must be doubled over with laughter right about now.
... DO NOT POST a "God Speed" message.
This is one colloquialism that deserves to die.
I do not agree that the Space Shuttle's heading to the space station qualifies to be on Slashdot's front page and here's why:
This news is so much like yesterday...move on.
We've had decades of shuttle launches, that this is now routine.
When Russians send their Soyuz craft to space, there's hardly any mention of it in the Russian or American media. To the Russians, it's second nature similar to taking a flight. It should be the same for us when it comes to the Shuttle.
What have we gotten from all the experiments done in space since the sixties anyway? Do these expenses justify the cost?
Why not cover "real news" like How the smartphone rivals are building their communities, referring to Android and iPhone platforms?
The irony of your wondering ``What have we gotten from all the experiments done in space since the sixties anyway? Do these expenses justify the cost?'' and then posting a story about smart (cell) phones has pegged my bogometer, actually bending the needle.
Here's a clue --- all interesting smartphone capabilities are intricately tied into satellites --- which are the result of space exploration and experimentation.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Each one is dedicated to finishing the space station -- now 81 percent complete -- and hauling up supplies and big spare parts that are too big to fly on any other rocketship.
Apparently the author of your linked MSN article has been reading a bit too much 1950's Sci Fi lately.
I think the shuttle is awsome but where else is it going to go?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Wrong. The transistor was all about communications and making reliable repeaters for undersea cables WAY before the space age. The space age came about from extensions of WWII technology. You've got the cause and effect totally backwards, pegging MY bogometer.
Who cares about a few high achievers flying in a badly designed firecracker? Doing the same shit decade after decade? Can you link to a signle scientific paper from all these space missions? Can you show me a single invention you use that came from the space race? No, none, because the technologies existed BEFORE so you could use them for the space race, not the other way around.
At about 11.22 local time here in Ireland, I got to see the Shuttle pass overhead just after the EFT seperation. Seeing both objects at 1700mph and a nice low altitude of 60 miles meant that the speed across the sky was really fast, and that the brightness of the shuttle was on the high side of magitude -5 or so. The orange of the EFT was clearly seen also.
The icing on the cake was seeing the ISS as well about 20 minutes later at about the same real speed but much slower across the sky given its distance.
I'm looking forwards to seeing the Shuttle play catch-up over the next few nights!
- This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
Now some Slashdot reader must have a powerful enough LASER beam around in order to shoot at the moon.
Get it right: it's frikkin' "lasers".
ow8 lube, beverage,
are about 7000/5 Driven out by the
When are they going to abandon this new Eco friendly foam and go back to the stuff that did not blow holes into the ship?!?!?!
NASA was granted a waiver by the EPA on the old foam but continued its implementation of this new foam.
It has now been found to be a mistake.....STOP ALREADY.... Go back to the old stuff.
mutated Testiclle of as one of the keep, and I won't your replies rather any doubt: FreeBSD
Here:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml
or here:
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html
Also, how does the GPS in a smartphone work w/o a satellite?
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Does James "Kibo" Perry know about this? Has he not commented? I think that maybe Kibo is just getting slack in his old age.
Recruitment, but it just 0wnz.', maagot, vomit, shit geeting together to
What do GPS satellites have to do with manned space exploration? Nothing, that's what. GPS can be traced back to LORAN, a WWII-era technology, and various systems like Transit (see Connections series for a demo). None of these have the slightest thing to do with the Shuttle, either.
Face it, for the amount of money we've pumped into manned space exploration, we get nothing in return. Your links are not scientific papers. It's easy to say NASA developped this and that, clearly I get the feeling papers on the growth of wheat germ in free-fall would be laughable at best.
Look, I just don't understand the knee-jerk worship of the Shuttle and space exploration. A slight interest in the history of technology will show that the Space Race innovated nothing; space exploration relied on advances in all fields in order to happen. The fields were mostly advanced because of telecom, war or super nerds. The manned space stuff came after, not before.
Satellites were already working before the first American went into orbit, so there's that too.
Look, I just don't get the fuss over the Shuttle launches. There's no science, no discoveries, just the same rehashed pseudo-science for decades, an expensive roller coaster ride for overachievers. Big deal.
And as for smartphines with GPS, if that's all that came out of decades worth of space "science" and billions of dollars, I'd say that's a terrible return. Sure, if people were getting lost all the time, maybe it was worth it. But the say I see it, smartphones are toys.
PS: You can easily figure out your location by triangulating known locations of cell towers. See? Another example of something that can be easily solved by mundane technologies but no, you want GPS satellites launched by Shuttle so you can find your way to WalMart because you can't be arsed to look at a paper map? Ridiculous.