Ignoring for the moment my many concerns about the future of American and overall Terran manned spaceflight...
It's a big thing that Discovery made it to retirement. Spaceflight is still far from routine - did you catch that a research satellite launching from Vandenberg last week failed to reach orbit? - and I still hold my breath a little on every launch and every landing. So to see her on the ground and safe and still together, it leaves me glad that we got it right, and hopeful that we will keep doing so.
But the big question is, will the crew of the Discovery steal her out of mothballs and go on some harebrained mission a la Star Trek III? :)
We saw her in the sky last night, on her way down. cflute found out via NASA's web page when she'd be visible from our area, and in what part of the sky, and we bundled the kids up and took them outside and saw not only the shuttle, but the space station too (it told us where to find that also). The kids were beyond thrilled, especially Joseph, who wants to be "a space traveler" when he grows up. He always pretends that the car is a rocket ship and his school is the moon, when we drive him there in the morning. I admit I was pretty psyched myself to see the shuttle in the sky one final time before there aren't any more.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 05:53 pm (UTC)http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/09/touchdown/
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 09:35 pm (UTC)It's a big thing that Discovery made it to retirement. Spaceflight is still far from routine - did you catch that a research satellite launching from Vandenberg last week failed to reach orbit? - and I still hold my breath a little on every launch and every landing. So to see her on the ground and safe and still together, it leaves me glad that we got it right, and hopeful that we will keep doing so.
But the big question is, will the crew of the Discovery steal her out of mothballs and go on some harebrained mission a la Star Trek III? :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 10:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 10:12 pm (UTC)