When it landed a slightly different picture emerged...
Posted on 09/19/2006 8:53:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Could be frozen piss. Really.
I remember one time watching the Shuttle flying over Mission Control while doing a liquid dump -- it was a big, sparkly cloud, and really quite pretty. I disliked living in Houston, so I was especially pleased that it was a urine dump.
When it landed a slightly different picture emerged...
So, what are your thoughts on this?
Debris from some previous space venture, something off the shuttle or mabybe an ice chunk?
Been doing class prep for Wed. Haven't followed it closely.
Just seems odd that NASA is so intensely and so publically interested in this.
Would seem they must think it's something from the Shuttle. But hard to guess--especially a layman from this distance ! LOL
Thanks.
The ignorance and stupidity on this thread is pretty scary, it reinforces the fact that so many Americans are scientifically illiterate.
Upshot? We track so many things with the shuttle that we never used to, so we keep finding new things that make us scratch our heads.
Here is to a good, safe reentry and the continuation of good science by people who understand it.
I would respond to your uppity post but since I'm illiterate I guess I'll have to pass :')
And the condescension and ouright arrogance in your post is even scarier.
No, this is a serious event, that has been blown out of proportion by the networks, and turned into a joke by freepers.
6 people are on that shuttle, and thousands of hard working engineers on the ground are working their asses off to get them home.
Condescending? It sure beats being a jackassed joker about the subject.
It's tradition hereon
for the naysayers about such things
to think that they're the only ones with brains and logical reasoning.
NASA searched for the source of multiple unidentified objects spotted close to the shuttle Atlantis today and to see whether they were linked to an indication from an impact sensor in the right wing that recorded several small jolts overnight.
Mission Control cancelled plans for Atlantis to return to Earth on Wednesday and instructed the six astronauts to prepare instead for a damage inspection of the shuttle using cameras on the robot arm.
Atlantis is equipped with tools and materials to repair small areas of impact damage to the shuttle's heat shield. Also, the space agency has a rescue strategy that calls for the shuttle astronauts to return to the international space station to await rescue if necessary.
NASA's shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said the origins of the floating objects, their size and mass were unclear, but they may have dislodged from Atlantis at about the same time the astronauts were conducting a pre-landing test of the ship's steering jets.
"Apparently, someting shook loose. Is it some ice? We know ice forms on different parts of (the shuttle). Is it something more critical we should pay attention to?" Hale said at a Johnson Space Center news briefing. "We are taking action. We have plenty of opportunity to get a good look at the thermal protection system and make sure it is safe."
"We have not brushed this off," said Hale. "This is the mark of a new culture. We are taking action."
The first unidentified object, a dark mass, was spotted flying below and parallel to Atlantis about 1:45 a.m. CDT today. The object was spotted by an alert flight controller in Mission Control who was watching the view from a payload bay video camera pointed at the Earth.
It was impossible to gauge the size or the distance of the single object in the video image.
Atlantis was circling the Earth at an altitude of 212 miles and the object appeared to be moving well above the cloud tops below.
The second sighting was by Atlantis astronaut Dan Burbank about 11 a.m. CDT and reported to Mission Control by Atlantis commander Brent Jett.
Jett reported a single object moving away from the forward left side of the fuselage.
"It was fairly small," Jett said. "It was departing away from us, pretty much fairly level in terms of altitude. It was not rising or falling much, but it was definitely moving away fairly quickly."
Well, its good news that NASA is very open with their concerns. If you remember, before liftoff, they publically aired a meeting on whether to launch.
As for now, go to nasa tv, the Russian craft has docked and they will be opening hatches in about an hour.
Atlantis is cleared for landing, things look good.
So there's hundreds and hundreds of pieces of space junk floating in orbit all over the place up there.
Have we ever thought of cleaning the place up a bit?
Or is that too costly?
Astronauts report seeing three more objects outside Atlantis. More soon ...
Breaking, no details yet on MSNBC.com
What would cause it to stop and assume the same course as the shuttle?
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