May 26, 2010

-FUPPETS- Will Miss the Space Shuttle Fleet

-FUPPETS- was there, looking out over the tops of the grammar school, as the Space Shuttle Columbia became the first shuttle to blast off from Cape Canaveral. From Puerto Rico, the shuttle could be seen arcing high into the sky and into outer space. It was a magnificent sight, never to be forgotten.
-FUPPETS- remembers siting in the middle school lunch room when a friend came by, flustered and anxious, to tell of that morning's Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It was a reminder of just how insanely risky any and all jaunts into outer space are.
-FUPPETS- was in Austin when the Space Shuttle Atlantis passed by around 10:15 PM one night, on it's way to it's scheduled landing in Florida. The bright white plume behind the glinting shuttle reflected the sunlight which was no longer hitting that side of the Earth. The shuttle crossed the whole arc of the visible sky in less than a minute, for it was going around ten thousand miles per hour. Rushing inside to find that, less than a minute after seeing it over Texas, the shuttle had reached Florida and was touching down, really stressed how very fast that ship was rocketing through the atmosphere.
-FUPPETS- has never had, and will never have, the luxury of seeing a Space Shuttle launch in person, for the last mission has just ended. Sadness for the science nerds. The Space Shuttle fleet has been retired, and all await the new replacement fleet, which will not be ready for years, forcing the USA and NASA to rely on the Russian space program to get anything up to the International Space Station. This sucks major.
Mr. Jay Penfield has been good enough to share a link to an amazing 4 minute time-lapse movie, compiled from hundreds of hours of footage taken of the preparation and launch of one of the Space Shuttles. It is an amazing thing to see just how much work goes into every tiny aspect of space travel.

Enjoy. Click HERE for the time-lapse movie.

No comments: