Saturday, September 22, 2012

History in the making: Space Shuttle Endeavour's final flight over California

Space Shuttle Endeavour
How many people as little kids or even big kids at heart have dreamt about being an astronaut or going into outer space?

Why do we have such a fascination in outer space? Where and when did this fascination start?
Importance of the stars (for example, navigation)
Ancient Grecian and Aztec's believed the world was flat.
There is a glimpse into different worlds.
Immense size of outer space.
Mysterious.
The unknown.

As many of us are aware space travel and NASA is changing. The retirement of the Space Shuttle Endeavour marks a change in man's ability to travel in space.

Some statistics:
Endeavour was created in California to replace the Challenger (1986 launch accident).
Endeavour went on to fly 25 missions- 12 to help construct and outfit the space station.
Endeavour logged nearly 123 million miles or 198 million km in flight during 4,671 orbits.
Those are amazing and crazy statistics.


How many people have either watched videos, looked at pictures, or for the lucky few saw the fly over California in person?? Why the popularity? Why the fascination?


We have witnessed the landing on Mars by the Curiosity Rover on Aug. 5th, 2012. Why are we so interested in Mars? The unknown- the nearest planet. Curiosity/willingness to explore it for signs of life.
I think part of this is our curiosity/wanting to know why are we on planet earth and not somewhere else (like Mars).

This is another example of history- history in the making. History happens - history has to happen.


Sources:

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