The Atlantis astronauts are undergoing post-flight medical examinations after capping their highly successful Hubble Space Telescope servicing flight with a spectacular landing at Edwards Air Force Base.Here is a series of 12 NASA TV screen shots that show the winged shuttle orbiter making its final approach, landing and rollout on Runway 22 at the Mojave Desert military base.
You can click to enlarge and save each of them:
1 comment:
Hi Todd!
Another sucessful flight to the soon to be ending shuttle program.
I have an editorial question for you today. Have you ever noticed that whenever a shuttle lands at Edwards and has to be flown back to KSC, very nearly every reporter (perhaps yourself excepted) has to make the comment in their story that the flight back to KSC costs $ 1 million (or 1.84 Million, or whatever)?
Why is that?
Further, why is it that in almost every story about the shuttle, or Hubble or ISS, or something at NASA, the cost of the project is prominent in the story?
When you read about, say, social security, in the newspaper, the overall cost of the program is in the back of the story, if mentioned at all.
It seems to me that NASA has always been the 'whipping-boy' of the media regarding the costs of the programs. If a new space program is proposed, the critics first question is almost always, how much is this going to cost?
When the President wants to spend Trillions as an economic stimulus, the congress can't wait to approve it. Can't even wait long enough to actually read the bill.
Sorry, I'm venting there.
What do you think?
Rick Steele,
Sarasota, Florida
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