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Shuttle Reentry Over the Continental US
TheOtherChimeraTwin notes that the shuttle Discovery will land at Kennedy Space Center on Monday morning at 8:48 EDT. The craft will make a rare "descending node" overflight of the continental US en route to landing in Florida. Here are maps of the shuttle's path if is lands on orbit 222 as planned, or on the next orbit. Spaceweather.com says: "...it takes the shuttle about 35 minutes to traverse the path shown... Observers in the northwestern USA will see the shuttle shortly after 5 am PDT blazing like a meteoric fireball through the dawn sky. As Discovery makes its way east, it will enter daylight and fade into the bright blue background. If you can't see the shuttle, however, you might be able to hear it. The shuttle produces a sonic double-boom that reaches the ground about a minute and a half after passing overhead."
At first I thought those were March X and was going to congratulate NASA on conquering time travel.
You know what? That's a great idea. Likewise, I always thought that I need to reduce the friction that the brake pads constantly apply on my car's wheels. I've heard that any kind of oily substance might help, but synthetic motor oils are preferred because they withstand higher temperatures. Imagine the fuel economy (after that subtle modification, I'll only need to refuel the vehicle only once during its lifetime).
I speak England very best
You know what else has really bad aerodynamics and catches all kinds of drag in the atmosphere? Meteorites.
And your mama.
I was part of the historic toilet software rewrite of '95. Before, shit was flying all over the shuttle. After, it hurtles off into space just like Frank Poole.
A big Yo! to all my homies: WTF, BAMF, KKK, LIM III, TJ (RIP), and the rest of the virtual commodonauts. Flush on!
Big deal. I just killed Zeus in God of War III.
You are welcome on my lawn.
but what about your momma?
Depends on her surface area to mass ration ;-)
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Your mama
a) is dumber
b) has a significantly higher volume and mass than our reentry vehicles, and essentially wears quite small amounts of drag
c) enters the atmosphere extremely fat
All in all, often still carrying lots of weight because she's so dense. Where she loses a large part of her mass to ablation, often shatters. We don't want to do that with your momma.
Pinned to its a tail, a sign reading "Please Donate! NASA"