Weary shuttle crew looks forward to Earth

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Space_Shuttle.html | SETH BORENSTEIN

[skeptoid]

HOUSTON -- All their assigned duties were completed and final precautionary tests had turned up no problems Sunday, leaving weather the only question facing the astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery as they looked forward to a return to Earth.

Mission Control on Sunday gave the shuttle crew permission to try for a landing Monday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, clearing all lingering technical questions on the shuttle heat shield and the system that provides hydraulic power for landing.

"We feel very confident that Discovery is safe to come home," landing director Steve Stich said in a news conference Sunday. Re-entry is one of the two most dangerous parts of a shuttle flight, along with the launch. A damaged heat shield caused Columbia to disintegrate during re-entry in 2003.

The somewhat weary Discovery crew members were looking forward to returning to their families on Monday, Stich told The Associated Press.

"We're getting ready to come home and we're just about there," Discovery commander Steve Lindsey told NBC News on Sunday.

Lindsey said his crew members accomplished every one of their preflight goals and did a little extra.

"I hope our legacy was that we closed out the return-to-flight test portion of the program following the Columbia accident and we set the stage for space station assembly to continue," he said Sunday. "Those were our two primary goals and I think we achieved those goals."

Final inspections for heat shield damage on Friday and Saturday revealed no problems caused by dust-size micro-meteorites.

[skeptoid]

"A landing at Edwards costs NASA $1.7 million to fly the shuttle back to Florida......"

".....four new tires and wheels, each of which are two inches larger and 27 pounds heavier...."

The astronauts said being in orbit put the violence in the Middle East in perspective, with astronaut Stephanie Wilson saying: "looking down at Earth reminds us that it's a wonderful place and that we should all live in peace and harmony if we can."

"We just flew over the Middle East and I have to tell you, from up here it looks peaceful and quiet just like the rest of the planet," astronaut Piers Sellers told ABC News. "I think all of us are mindful from flying around and around, this one little Earth, that it's all we have."

---

Oh Glory!!!
I hear the Music!!

And I'm so reassured by the BOLD statements by our BRAVE ASTRONAUTS as they expound on the situation in the Middle East.....

.........NOT!!

Why don't they stick to the mission and the view and drop the political and eco commentary?

The last flight was just as bad.
Whos' idea is this?

[dayglored]

> I'm so reassured by the BOLD statements by our BRAVE ASTRONAUTS as they expound on the situation in the Middle East......NOT!! Why don't they stick to the mission and the view and drop the political and eco commentary? The last flight was just as bad. Whos' idea is this?

Pardon me, I wasn't looking to flame anybody tonight, but in my opinion you are way out of line.

Every single astronaut that's ever viewed Earth from orbit has experienced some sort of spiritual awakening and inspiring revelation of the reality that we are indeed God's creatures on a beautiful chunk of blessed soil. You do our BRAVE ASTRONAUTS a tremendous disservice and dishonor with your cheap shot words. You get your ass up on that rocket before you earn the right to demean their efforts and their words.

Sure, they're not professional political commentators, but they have a view and a vision that no one one the surface can have, and it broadens the mind. Ask anyone who's been in orbit, or better, any of the fellows who went to the moon. They all came back a bit more humble, having gotten a little closer to their God.

You have not seen what they've seen, and you have not been in their shoes. Have a little respect.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Sorry if looking at the entire earth from orbit brings about some small commentary on the entire mission on the true nature of the human condition. Earth is an oasis in a vast ocean of black. It IS our only home for now.

Doesnt mean they dont want terrorists dead too you know.

She said "IF" we can.

I guess IF people would listen.

I think you are waaaaaaaay over reacting. Astronauts often make such commentary.

[Names Ash Housewares]

I didnt agree with Carl Sagan on many things political, but there are things that transcend politics and he was very good at putting them to words....

Reflections on a Mote of Dust -- Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpted from a commencement address delivered May 11, 1996. Dr. Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot expands on these ideas. Image from Voyager 1, 1990.

[dayglored]

> ...there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world...

Thank you for copying in those words from Sagan. Politics aside, he did have vision that few on the surface were blessed with. Reading that piece just now calmed me down a lot. ;-)

[Names Ash Housewares]

Im an optimist. Civlization will triumph over the evils of today. We have come so very far in a short time already. I do see an end to wars one day, maybe sooner then we dare to think.

There is quite compelling evidence to back this up here........

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DP.CLOCK.HTM

[dayglored]

> Im an optimist. Civlization will triumph over the evils of today. We have come so very far in a short time already. I do see an end to wars one day, maybe sooner then we dare to think.

I mostly share your optimism. I tend to think we have quite a ways to go yet, but in geologic timescales it's still just a blink.

Thanks for the link to the Univ. of Hawaii "Democratic Peace Clock". Interesting premise. I'm sure you realize that something called "democratic" and containing the word "peace" is likely to get flamed on FR, regardless of what it actually is... ;-)

The only thing I find odd in a quick glance over the page is the apparent assumption that the USA is a democracy. We're not, we're a Constitutional Republic, and the difference is profound and critically important. If we were in fact a Democracy we wouldn't have made it this far. But overlooking that aspect, the DPC is interesting. Thanks!

> [to skeptoid] I think you are waaaaaaaay over reacting.

I think s/he was trolling. Just the post, half an hour ago, and no reaction to our comments. A pretty active poster, on FR around since 2002, so I guess I'll just ignore it... gotta to to sleep anyway, I'm on East Coast time and I gotta be up at 7AM in about 4 hours. Cheers!

[cabojoe]

Agreement bump, and here's to a successful landing and end to a successful mission in the morning.

[dayglored]

> Agreement bump, and here's to a successful landing and end to a successful mission in the morning.

Hear, hear!!

[taxesareforever]

They all came back a bit more humble, having gotten a little closer to their God.

Contrary to some opinions, a person does not get closer to God by going into space.

[Rte66]

What in the world are you talking about? Nothing patriotic about astronauts, is there? I had just put their quote on the ME live thread. Did not expect to see something like this here on FR.

[Unmarked Package]

The astronauts said being in orbit put the violence in the Middle East in perspective, with astronaut Stephanie Wilson saying: "looking down at Earth reminds us that it's a wonderful place and that we should all live in peace and harmony if we can."

I listened to the entire live, unedited news conference with the astronauts. Stephanie Wilson made this response to a question asking the astronauts if any of them felt closer to a higher being during their space flight. The question was not posed in the context of violence in the Middle East, and it preceded all questions referring to Middle East violence. Only Piers Sellers responded to questions posed in that context.

It is extremely deceptive of the editor/reporter of this news story to associate Stephanie Wilson's response with Middle East violence in the same sentence, but what else is new from media that frames everything, factual or not, in their liberal views and agenda.

[dayglored]

>> They all came back a bit more humble, having gotten a little closer to their God.

> Contrary to some opinions, a person does not get closer to God by going into space.

Oh, I know that. ;-) I was referring lightheartedly to the feeling of closeness after a spiritual experience... perhaps "gotten a better appreciation of their Higher Power" or something like that.

Besides, we all know God hangs out on the Dark Side of The Moon... [joking! I'm joking!]

[taxesareforever]

LOL!

[Huck]

Great post.