NASA’s Been Busy
Awhile back, I posted a link to NASA’s memorial for all the fallen astronauts of the U.S. Space Program (See “Day of Remembrance“.)
Now they have a whole new section on NASA.gov devoted to the Space Shuttle’s upcoming Return to Flight after two years redesigning and retrofitting the remaining Shuttle fleet (Discovery , Atlantis and Endeavour).
There’s also a Flash site devoted to the “Return to Flight”, including extensive narration by actor Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise) —
Without further ado, here’s
NASA’s “Return to Flight” Flash site …
In related news, the Shuttle’s new launch date is May 22, 2005. The STS-114 crew is led by NASA’s first female Space Shuttle Commander (it’s her second flight as a Commander; she was also the first female Space Shuttle Pilot), Eileen Collins. Eileen “…has logged more than 6,280 hours in 30 different types of aircraft. More than 537 of those hours were logged in space.”
PS: NASA’s Mission Control Center, Houston (Johnson Space Center) has definitely had some upgrades since I last took the “Mission Control Tour”. I wonder if they even still offer a “Mission Control Tour” in this post-9/11 world? I think the last time I saw Mission Control was in 1988, two years after my 7-day session at U.S. Space Camp (Huntsville, Alabama).
