Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America" concluded shuttle wake-up calls for STS-135 and the entire program on July 21, 2011.
Credit: RCA
Flight Day 14 - July 21, 2011
Kate Smiths rendition of Irving Berlins "God Bless America" woke Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.
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"A number of historical lasts occurred within STS-135, which is to be expected when you retire what is arguably the most recognizable and indisputably the longest running spaceflight program ever put forth by humankind."
Longest running? Really? What about Soyuz?
Soyuz-1 (launch) 4/23/67
STS-1 (launch) 4/12/81 (Funny, I didn't notice at the time the nod to Yuri Gagarin's flight on 4/12/61.)
STS-135 (landing) 7/21/11
Soyuz (last landing) ? (hasn't happened yet).
So far, Soyuz has outlasted the Shuttle by nearly fifteen years. And counting.
-- Paul
Longest running? Really? What about Soyuz?
Soyuz-1 (launch) 4/23/67
STS-1 (launch) 4/12/81 (Funny, I didn't notice at the time the nod to Yuri Gagarin's flight on 4/12/61.)
STS-135 (landing) 7/21/11
Soyuz (last landing) ? (hasn't happened yet).
So far, Soyuz has outlasted the Shuttle by nearly fifteen years. And counting.
-- Paul
...but Soyuz has had a number of fits and starts, not least because the country that started it -- the USSR -- hasn't existed for 20 years. Soyuz-designated capsules have been around since the 1960s, but it's a point of debate as to whether they all belong to one, uninterrupted program.
I think that as a series of machines Soyuz is unquestionably a continuum.
As computer and other electronic gear got better they did upgrade, but then, so did the operators of the STS. So that's a wash.
As a series of political/economic gestures it can be argued either way.
But I think that the technological continuity trumps the lack of political continuity, so, yes, I'm going to retain my original opinion
As computer and other electronic gear got better they did upgrade, but then, so did the operators of the STS. So that's a wash.
As a series of political/economic gestures it can be argued either way.
But I think that the technological continuity trumps the lack of political continuity, so, yes, I'm going to retain my original opinion
...but then I'll go a month without great feedback like this. Suffice it to say, if the Quibble was still running, this would earn a mention.
Didn't the Dragon return to earth with a payload from the ISS? Granted, it was mostly stuff they didn't care too much about, but it seems like that qualifies as a "downmass payload" - or am I missing something? (Hey, it's Friday...)
Glad to see the Geek Trivia column - haven't seen it in a while.
Glad to see the Geek Trivia column - haven't seen it in a while.
...the shuttle was unique in that it could do free orbital downmass capture -- it could snag standalone satellites never intended to perform reentry and bring them safely to ground. Technically, every time an astronaut returns to earth he or she is "downmass" so every spacecraft has downmass payload capacity, but the shuttle was a rather unique cargo hauler. I should have been more clear.
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