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Picture of the day - September 3, 2005
The Space Shuttle Discovery Flying Home
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Photo courtesy of NASA.
America's space shuttles are amazing machines. Their combination of
complex flight & guidance systems and raw power make them among the most
interesting and dangerous vehicles ever constructed. A space shuttle liftoff can
light up the night sky for miles around the launch pad and the landings are
pictures of precision and grace.
Most Americans have witnessed shuttle launches and landings on television or in
person, but relatively few are aware of the method used to transport the
returned shuttle from a landing strip out west back to Kennedy Space Center,
and that method might surprise you...NASA engineers simply strap the space
shuttle onto the back of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft - a modified Boeing
747!
Today's picture shows the Space Shuttle Discovery being carried piggyback from California's
Dryden Flight Research Center back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 19, 2005.
Discovery recently returned safely to earth after a harrowing mission where
falling debris during liftoff once again damaged the spacecraft, making re-entry
a dangerous proposition. But several unprecedented space walks successfully
removed some loose materials that could have caught fire from the friction of
the earth's atmosphere.
Hopefully, the problem of falling debris can be eliminated in future space
shuttle launches so that we can continue using these amazing vehicles until the
next generation of spacecraft is ready for use in a few years.
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