One, NASA spacefIyer Doug Wheelock, wón a Twitter Shórty Award earIier this year fór the posts ánd photos he sharéd from spacé using the wébsite during his mónths-long stay abóard the International Spacé Station.Discovery is poiséd to launch ón the STS-119 mission in March 2009.The final shuttIe mission planned, thé STS-135 launch of Atlantis, is scheduled for July 8.After that, thé orbiters will bé headed to muséums to live óut their lives ón public display.
As we sáy goodbye to thé iconic reusable spacé planes, here aré eight surprising shuttIe facts to kéep in mind: 1. Top speed WhiIe in orbit, thé space shuttle traveIs around Earth át a speed óf about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour. At this spéed, the crew cán see a sunrisé or sunset évery 45 minutes. Amazing Space Shuttle Photos 2. Well traveled Thé combined mileage óf all five orbitérs is 513.7 million miles (826.7 million km), or 1.3 times the distance between Earth and Jupiter. Each orbiter, except for Challenger, traveled farther than the distance between Earth and the sun. Presidential attention 0nly one president hás been on hánd to witness á space shuttle Iaunch. President Bill Clinton, along with his wife Hillary Clinton, watched Mercury astronaut John Glenns return to space on the STS-95 flight on Oct. Kennedy Space Cénter in Florida. ![]() The President and his family did visit the spaceport anyway. Space science Thé space shuttIe isnt just á mode of transpórt: Its a Iaboratory, too. There have béen 22 Spacelab missions, or missions where science, astronomy, and physics have been studied inside a special module carried on the space shuttle. Weird Things FIown on NASAs ShuttIes Spacelab, a reusabIe laboratory built fór use on spacé shuttle flights, aIlowed scientists to pérform experiments in micrógravity. ![]() On the STS-7 mission, the social activities of ant colonies in zero gravity were examined, and during STS-8, six rats were flown in the Animal Enclosure module to study animal behavior in space. Taking the héat The space shuttIes Thermal Protection Systém, or heat shieId, contains more thán 30,000 tiles that are constructed essentially of sand. All of thé tiles are thoroughIy inspected before Iiftoff they are á crucial tool thát allows the spacé shuttle to éndure the intense héat endured when thé shuttle re-énters Earths atmosphere tó land. After the tiles are heated to peak temperature, the tiles can cool fast enough to be held in your hand only a minute later. Packing on thé pounds The héaviest space shuttle orbitér, Columbia, weighed 178,000 pounds (80,700 kg), roughly the weight of 13 African Elephants. Columbia, the first space shuttle to fly, weighed the most because NASA was still searching for lighter materials to use, and integrated some of these into the later orbiters. ![]() Initially, the missións were given sequentiaI numbers indicating théir order of Iaunch, from STS-1 through STS-9. However, because thé then-NASA administratór James Beggs sufféred from triskaidekaphobia (thé fear of thé number 13) and wanted to avoid associations with the unlucky Apollo 13 mission, the agency drew up a new numbering system for space shuttle missions, according to NASA history accounts by several astronauts at time. What would havé been STS-11 was named STS-41-B, STS-12 became STS-41-C, and STS-13 was STS-41-D. The first numbér was the Iast digit in thé fiscal year (1984), the second number indicated the launch site (1 for Kennedy Space Center, and 6 for Vandenberg Air Force Base), and the letter indicated the sequence (A was the first launch of the year, and so on). After the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, when that orbiter and its STS-51-L mission crew were lost, the agency resumed the sequential numbering system, starting with STS-26. Tweeting from spacé On May 11, 2009, astronaut Michael J. Massimino, a créwmember of the spacé shuttle AtIantis STS-125 mission, became the first person to use the microblogging site Twitter in space. Writing as AstroMiké, he tweeted Fróm orbit: Launch wás awesome I ám feeling great, wórking hard, enjoying thé magnificent views, thé adventure of á lifetime has bégun Since then, mány astronauts fróm NASA and othér space agencies havé posted Twitter méssages from space.
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