Space shuttle lands in California

**dirtydog** · 25-05-2009, 08:28 PM

Space shuttle lands in California

The space shuttle Atlantis has landed in California, where it was diverted after continuing stormy weather prevented a Florida touchdown.

Atlantis landed at 1539 GMT at Edwards Air Force Base.

Officials had aborted Saturday's planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center for the second consecutive day.

The seven astronauts on board Atlantis have taken part in an ambitious and risky mission to service and re-fit the Hubble telescope.

Nasa said that weather conditions over Florida forced flight controllers to give up on Sunday's first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center.

Hubble revamped

Atlantis's mission was intended to give a new lease of life to Hubble.

The orbiting observatory is regarded as one of the most important scientific tools ever built.

The fifth and final mission to service Hubble has been hailed as a great success.

Over five spacewalks, astronauts installed new instruments and thermal blankets, repaired two existing instruments, replaced gyroscopes and batteries.

The only disappointment was the failure to restore the high resolution channel (one of three) on the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which has been responsible for many of Hubble's most impressive images of deep space.

"This is not the end of the story but the beginning of another chapter of discovery by Hubble," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for Science at Nasa Headquarters.

"Hubble will be more powerful than ever, continue to surprise, enlighten, and inspire us all and pave the way for the next generation of observatories."

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Space shuttle lands in California

**dirtydog** · 25-05-2009, 08:30 PM

**TSR2** · 25-05-2009, 08:34 PM

Can,t believe that its 28 years since it first flew

**crippen** · 25-05-2009, 10:04 PM

I watched it live.It came down from 12000ft to land in 1min 10secs.That is some speed of descent!

**dirtydog** · 25-05-2009, 10:09 PM

I have watched them take off from Cape Kennedy, also seen them training in 747s, you assume they are just doing a nose dive and are going to crash, like 45 degrees down skim the concrete then 45 degrees up and around again, looked pretty scary, assume they were 747s they were using for practise, bloody big planes anyway.

**Scandinavian** · 26-05-2009, 12:10 AM

I remember Columbia's first launch back in the 80's like it was yesterday. Since that day i was hooked on everything regarding space.

**BobR** · 26-05-2009, 02:09 AM

Don't mean to be argumentative, but considering we landed on the moon 40 years ago, and I remember that well, the 28 year old space shuttle represents relatively little progress in the last 40 years. Compare what we were doing in 1929 to the moon landing in 1969, then compare that to what we are doing in 2009. The WW2 generation really was the greatest by far.

**stewart888** · 26-05-2009, 03:35 AM

"The WW2 generation really was the greatest by far."

You are correct about that. My Dad is in that generation...what a cool bunch!!!

**Takeovers** · 26-05-2009, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by BobR

Don't mean to be argumentative, but considering we landed on the moon 40 years ago, and I remember that well, the 28 year old space shuttle represents relatively little progress in the last 40 years. Compare what we were doing in 1929 to the moon landing in 1969, then compare that to what we are doing in 2009. The WW2 generation really was the greatest by far.

True but with the Saturn 5 they came so close to what is possible that it is difficult to improve from there. You can mainly make it cheaper and more reliable.

The only major developement since Saturn 5 was the solid fuel booster which is both cheap and reliable.

The space shuttle was a big step in the wrong direction. That's what happens when politics makes technical decisions instead of the experts. Washington DC wanted a reusable spacecraft and got the Spaceshuttle. It sure looks impressive but the costeffectiveness was a desaster that has put space exploration back at least two decades.

The new carrier systems being developed now use almost identical technology but will be extremely costeffective and much more powerful in comparison. And only because they gave up on reusable carrier technology.

**Butterfly** · 26-05-2009, 07:26 AM

no space progress because no more Aliens technology to grab, they crashed once, were beaten and robbed, they learn their lesson.

**Muadib** · 26-05-2009, 07:41 AM

^ I doubt alien vehicles use booster rockets, computers that have less power than a cell phone and copper wiring instead of fiber optics...

Huge achievement from the 'can do' generation...

As far as the last 40 years, as the saying goes; 'no bucks, no Buck Rogers'...

The military has been flying the Aurora for some time...

I too have seen launches from the Cape... You can feel the shock wave from miles away... Truly impressive for a bunch of monkeys with an apposable thumb...

**Butterfly** · 26-05-2009, 08:04 AM

I used to see the Space Shuttle flying by every 3 or 4 weeks out of my bedroom window,

I was usually waked at 6am by a huge bang, very annoying

sometimes you could even see the yellow bright trail when taking off,

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