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Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station
Velcroman1 writes "The space shuttle Discovery has docked with the International Space Station for the final time at 2:15 p.m. EST, where it will make a last delivery to the orbiting space lab — before parking ultimately at a museum. With Discovery's presence, the ISS becomes a truly 'international' space station. This is the first time spacecraft from the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan have all docked simultaneously, NASA said. The station also hosts the Leonardo Multipurpose Module built by the Italian Space Agency and recently gained Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency's robotic handyman."
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
yeah! we'll make you drive sub-compact sized space shuttles and swap your V8 rockets for 1.1litre ones! we'll make you leave your guns at home! You'll have to eat proper cheese for breakfast and noodles for lunch every day, and drink vodka instead of water! All the movies will be art-house in strange languages and you'll have to read the subtitles (but the upside is there will be naked good looking people in them, if less explosions and machine guns)! The controls will all be in Russian and Japanese and French, and the measurements will all be in metric! It'll be crazy, you'll love it!
If your threshold for amazement is violating the known laws of the universe, I fear you are destined to live a very, VERY boring life.
People seem to forget that in the last ~100 years we've gone from thinking nothing heavier than air could ever fly, to landing robots on other freaking planets.
The fact that a manned craft going to outer space elicits nothing more than a yawn from most people is both frightening and humbling.
C'est la vie.
The crew could take a Soyuz down.
It seems like the shuttle would make meaningful addition to the usable to the ISS with its arm, cargo bay and pressurized quarters. What a shame to deorbit all that useful stuff and mothball it in a museum.
Really? That's like going to Hooters for the food.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
btw, could someone tell us a bit about the other spacecrafts docking at the ISS. With all the talk about the shuttles, I know nothing about what the Russians, Japanese and Europeans use.
Anyone?
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
in the last ~100 years we've gone from thinking nothing heavier than air could ever fly
I'm pretty sure people knew before 1911 that birds weren't filled with helium.
(I agree with the overall point of your post, but it bugs me when people assume our ancestors were stupid.)
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Had to check if there was a female on the ISS now. Lucky, there are two now STS113 has docked.
better idea is that we don't have the funds to send any more stuff to them and we can't pay the Russians more then cost to get 1 person home.
Be sure to check out Space Weather's Flybys page or Heavens Above to see if the ISS and Discovery are viewable overhead in your neighborhood. I tried a few zip codes and it looks like the NYC area will get to see a very bright ISS and Discovery pair on March 5th. This will be the day that Discovery undocks so you may get to see two bright dots moving across the sky from that area. I had the opportunity to see the ISS with Atlantis recently undocked on STS-129 and it was an impressive sight.
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...or Bob & Doug McKenzie's Mutants of 2051 A.D..
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Wasn't there a Sci-Fi TV series (or at least a pilot) about something like this?
I understand this is a US-centric site but to say something isn't truly international without the US is just dumb.
btw, could someone tell us a bit about the other spacecrafts docking at the ISS
Here you go:
http://markosun.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/space-traffic-jam-up-at-international-space-station-iss/
From TFA:
With all this action the following spacecraft will all be docked at the ISS at the same time: the Space Shuttle Discovery, The European Space Agency Kepler ATV, Russian Progress supply vehicle, Russian Soyuz-TMA capsule and Japan H-II Transfer Vehicle.
You must be thinking of Odyssey 5. It wasn't bad, a pity they only filmed one season.
Besides the Shuttle and 2 Soyuz there are 3 uncrewed supply vessels: 1 Russian Progress, 1 Japanese H-II, 1 ESA ATV "Johannes Keppler" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_spaceflights_to_the_ISS (scroll down to fights 47-49)
Thanks, it was an interesting read. As I understand it, only 2 of those are manned: the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz-TMA. Which soon will leaves only the Soyuz.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
My thoughts exactly. When it said
I thought, "Yeah, when it was just Russia, Europe and Japan, that wasn't international at all. They were just different states within the large country of non-USA. </sarcasm>
This is in contrast to when I visited the USA when I was younger, when I'd hear that some sports team or engineering design team was "truly international" meaning that there was a Canadian or two on the otherwise American team.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Look, this is the first time that all partners have had crafts up there. Historically, only 2 nations have had crafts up there at the same time. But when you have all participants up there, then the write gets excited. Personally, I would argue that you are making a mountain out of a molehill.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
the Leonardo Multipurpose Module built by the Italian Space Agency
The Italian Space Agency built most of the 'US' segments. I know they built Node 1 (Unity), Node 2 (Harmony), and Node 3 (Tranquility); I believe they built the US Lab (Destiny) as well. So while they did build the MPLM modules (including Leonardo), it's hardly their largest product on the station ;)
(Italy built the US segments due to US budget cuts; in return for eating some of the cost, they gained infrastructure and expertise. One way that paid off was with Columbus, the European lab - the same number of storage/science racks as the Nodes, but smaller and lighter, so it cost the European Space Agency less of its bartered 'upmass' to send it to orbit, allowing them to send it with several of its racks pre-installed, unlike most other segments of the station which arrived empty)
Sure, US took down their manned-reusable space vehicle, but before deciding what its replacement should be. Looks like they're going to have to depend upon the Russians (Soyuz).
Fox News? For a story about something other than Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Whatever? Please...
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Correct - Once the Shuttles are grounded, the only nations with manned space programs will be Russia and China.
I knew these astronauts were badass pilots, but this is just ridiculous.
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It is pretty safe to say that not a single one of the all veteran and highly experienced shuttle crew would want to freely associate with you.