MELBOURNE, FLORIDA - The astronauts woke up to Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” and it was still dark in New York City, where the Empire State Building glowed red, white and blue through the night, signaling a patriotic path homeward for crew members Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.
Last Space Shuttle Status
News broadcasters and writers erred in calling the July 21, 2011 touch down “the last ever shuttle flight,” as it was termed in a NASA release. It is only the last one directed by NASA, an arm of the U. S. government. Other countries continue to staff and supply the International Space Station.
U. S. involvement in the space shuttle program, reports NASA, is being sub-contracted to private companies as the United States uses NASA’s technical expertise and space age experience for a new focus that includes a closer look at the other planets in our solar system and extending technology so we can send manned vehicles deeper into space.
Space Shuttle Gee-Whiz Facts and Figures
The Space Shuttle Program opened up space to millions of television viewers worldwide and to thousands of scientists and technicians. Here are some mind-boggling facts and figures given by NASA officials:
- The space shuttle vehicle system consisted of about 2.5 million parts.
- In fiscal year 2010 the leverage cost of preparing and launching a shuttle mission was roughly $775 million.
- Shuttle Endeavor cost about $1.7 billion to build.
- The entire space shuttle program totals about $113.7 billion.
- 355 individual fliers (306 men and 49 women) have manned NASA’s space shuttles.
- NASA’s space shuttles have made 20,952 earth orbits and traveled 537,114,016 miles
Shuttle Passenger Statistics
Many firsts have been achieved by space shuttle astronauts. Here are some of the highlights:
- John Young and Bob Crippen were the first and second people to fly on a shuttle mission.
- People representing 16 different countries have been on shuttle flights.
- Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew aboard the Challenger in 1983.
- The youngest person to travel in space was Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, age 28 when he made his shuttle flight in 1985.
- John Glenn, then age 77, became the oldest person to travel in space during a 1998 mission.
- Story Musgrave is the only astronaut to have flown on all five shuttle vehicles (Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis).
- Astronauts Jerry Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz have flown the most shuttle missions, at seven each.
Next on the Launch Pad
In two weeks, Juno, which is already fueled up, is scheduled to launch (first week of August, 2011) from Florida for its five-year journey to survey the planet Jupiter. Once there, Juno will spend a year running extensive tests of planet formation and Jupiter’s characteristics. It is one of three planetary investigations scheduled for 2011 launch, making this a busy year as NASA reaches through space to discover more detailed information about other planets in our solar system.
“For me, the space program has always captured an essential part of what it means to be an American,” President Barack Obama said during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center. He defined that as “reaching for new heights, stretching beyond what previously did not seem possible.” He concluded that “space exploration is not a luxury” and “not an afterthought in America’s quest for a brighter future,” but instead “an essential part of that quest.”
Rosemary E. Bachelor - Rosemary Bachelor, a prize-winning journalist, has had a career as an editor, feature writer, magazine publisher and author. Her latest ...
