Posted on 09/21/2006 4:10:09 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
THE US space shuttle Atlantis landed safely at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 8.21pm AEST today after the first construction mission to the International Space Station since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Atlantis and its crew of six touched down before dawn following a 12-day mission that saw astronauts complete three spacewalks and install a new solar power module on the half-built, $US100-billion orbiting outpost.
Astronauts fired the spaceship's braking rockets while the shuttle flew upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean and Atlantis made its fiery reentry into Earth's atmosphere as temperatures outside the shuttle reached nearly 1650C).
Its long glide took the shuttle over the south Pacific Ocean, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Florida's southwest coast and ended with a smooth landing on the 4.8km runway at the space centre on the state's east coast.
The landing was delayed a day after some unidentified objects were spotted flying just outside the shuttle. The crew performed hours of unscheduled inspections on Wednesday to make sure the spaceship had not been damaged.
NASA managers cleared the ship to return home after the inspections turned up no signs of damage to the orbiter's protective heat shield or other critical systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Is there some reason the shuttle has no landing lights?
Watched it live....great.
The heads up view from the cockpit was the best....
It's not going to cost $100 Billion.
That figure is incorrect. More like $35 Billion. Still very expensive though.
I heard the double sonic booms this morning. It shook the windows of my house.
I agree. To what end??
I like the daytime landings better. I'm looking forward to a nighttime launch though.
Yeah. What the hell does all this achieve?
The human race moving steadily forward. The human spirit rising above.
The shuttle is maintaining a space station that will be part of the stepping stone for humanity's quest to the planets and eventually the stars.
the same kind of spirit that moved Lewis and Clark westward, Sacajaweau.....the same spirit that scraped a living from the outback, Aussie.
That's just what they would be expecting...
So what "was" the infamous piece of flotsam that caused the delay?? Did they ever find out??
That sounds right! There was a guy on FOX this morning who said, "Landing the shuttle was the knife's edge of physics".
What time is '8.21pm AEST'? I was taking a dump around 6:15 am EST when the double BOOM hit and helped shake out the last turd. (Was this too much info?) LOL
Beautifully said. It needs to be said again and again. Our ultimate destiny lies out in the unknown. This is our calling. It is an extension of the human spirit.
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