NASA Astronomers To Observe Hayabusa's Fiery Homecoming

coondoggie writes "NASA said that a group of its astronomers will have a front row seat in Australia to watch the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa's high-speed, fiery return to Earth. It is bringing with it a hunk of the asteroid Itokawa. The spacecraft is expected to land in an unpopulated area of Australia at approximately midnight locally, or 7 am PDT, on Sunday, June 13. Some 30 NASA astronomers will be flying onboard a specially equipped DC-8 with instruments that can monitor Hayabusa's reentry."

Comments

Hayab USA!

[msauve]

Please, someone tell me that no tax dollars are being spent to send 30 people of a sightseeing tour of Australia. From the article:

The team's primary goal during the airborne mission is to study the Hayabusa capsule's re-entry to gain technological insight into the heat shield that designers and engineers can use while developing future exploration vehicles.

Anyone want to count the number of re-entries which the US has had in the 50+ years of spaceflight? This must be the worst rationalization, EVAR! NASA can't even be honest and say that they're sending people and resources on a boondoggle.

Go on, mod me down, but I'm a taxpayer and this isn't what government should be spending my money on.

Re:Hayab USA!

[Anonymous Coward]

onsidering they lost one of the shuttles and it's ENTIRE FUCKING CREW due to A HEAT SHIELD FAILURE, it seems that taking advantage of any available research opportunity into heat shielding is A GOOD IDEA!

So, your argument is that NASA should throw good money after bad. It's much cheaper to avoid losing crews by simply not sending crews.

Re:Hayab USA!

[msauve]

Are you really an idiot, or just playing on on slashdot?