Space - the Final Frontier
Lately, I've been getting dis-enchanted with Phil Plait (The Bad Astronomy blogger) ( http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ ) as his blog has become more of a screed on skepticism, railing on anti-vaccination people, and whining about "climate change deniers".
Today, I have to admit he's said something so very very true about the Discovery:
"Today, Wednesday, March 9 at 11:57 a.m. Eastern time, Discovery - the Orbiter that launched Hubble in to orbit, then serviced it twice; that deployed Ulysses; that was the last Orbiter to dock with Mir; that twice was the first Orbiter in space after another was lost; that served more flight days than any other Orbiter, 365 in total, a solid year; a spaceship built by humans that’s logged 238,000,000 kilometers (148 million miles) in space, the most used spacecraft ever built by humans - set her wheels to Earth one final time.
I’d say "Welcome home", but the ground is not a spaceship’s home."
I must admit, I was rather choked up when I read that last line.
Today, I have to admit he's said something so very very true about the Discovery:
"Today, Wednesday, March 9 at 11:57 a.m. Eastern time, Discovery - the Orbiter that launched Hubble in to orbit, then serviced it twice; that deployed Ulysses; that was the last Orbiter to dock with Mir; that twice was the first Orbiter in space after another was lost; that served more flight days than any other Orbiter, 365 in total, a solid year; a spaceship built by humans that’s logged 238,000,000 kilometers (148 million miles) in space, the most used spacecraft ever built by humans - set her wheels to Earth one final time.
I’d say "Welcome home", but the ground is not a spaceship’s home."
I must admit, I was rather choked up when I read that last line.