Six to spend 11 days in Atlantis
Brandon Peterson
Issue date: 11/23/09 Section: News
Monday, November 16 proved to be an eventful day at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. At approximately mid afternoon, the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Pad 39-A with a crew of six for a planned eleven day mission. This eleven day mission is the first of five planned to take place between now and September 2010. The goal of these five missions is to supply the space station with enough equipment to make it sustainable until at least 2015.
The Atlantis mission marks the beginning of the end of the space shuttle program, as these next five missions to the space station mark then end of the space shuttle's thirty year career. The space shuttle program, which claimed the lives of 14 astronauts and cost $5 billion a year, will finally be retired. This will bring an end to the constant concerns over safety and expense of these space vehicles.
The shuttle has been the workhorse for ferrying equipment to and from the space station. The shuttle has the available storage space to carry 30,000 pounds of large, bulky equipment needed to sustain the space station for many years to come, something the cargo ships of Russia, Europe, and Japan lack.
With the retirement of the space shuttle, the space program is moving to a new capsule type spacecraft known as Orion. Orion will be able to travel to the moon as well as other places in our solar system, making it a good upgrade from the shuttle.
Sources:
csmonitor.com, canada.com
The Atlantis mission marks the beginning of the end of the space shuttle program, as these next five missions to the space station mark then end of the space shuttle's thirty year career. The space shuttle program, which claimed the lives of 14 astronauts and cost $5 billion a year, will finally be retired. This will bring an end to the constant concerns over safety and expense of these space vehicles.
The shuttle has been the workhorse for ferrying equipment to and from the space station. The shuttle has the available storage space to carry 30,000 pounds of large, bulky equipment needed to sustain the space station for many years to come, something the cargo ships of Russia, Europe, and Japan lack.
With the retirement of the space shuttle, the space program is moving to a new capsule type spacecraft known as Orion. Orion will be able to travel to the moon as well as other places in our solar system, making it a good upgrade from the shuttle.
Sources:
csmonitor.com, canada.com
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Debi Ray
posted 11/24/09 @ 3:36 AM EST
The apple does not fall far from the tree, unless perhaps the tree is on a hill,therefore allowing the apple to roll, and in some cases the apple could roll very far. (Continued…)
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