I’m sorry, it’s all my fault. Haven’t hit the keys in a while, and I can only hope that you’ve found some really cool adventure book club to sustain you in the interim (there ARE still book clubs, I believe…?). You know how hot it’s been–

...and Discovery jumped over the Moon

April 5, 2010.  Another night launch, this time under a clear sky and the soft light of a quarter-moon.  This was really a good one, but we still almost forgot when Discovery would make its return trip 2 weeks later (something especially embarrassing since THAT flight path would turn out to be in broad daylight, and nearly over the roof of our house).  We had been warned…

April 20, 2010. We are sort of idling between sleep and totally get-some-food-into-the-dog awake, when blaBLAM! blaBLAM! we’re practically thrown off the bed by twin sonic booms, only a few air molecules apart. Before Josey even had time to get up her usual head of barking steam, I had flip-flopped my way out the front door to see if we were under attack, or if the Angels (the Blue ones) were beginning an unscheduled practice overhead.

Way up in the morning sky, a streaking southbound contrail announced the return to Earth of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Lucky for us (and the astronauts, for that matter) by the time it reached our neighborhood it had shed most of its orbital speed (Mach 26, or what?!) but was clearly still beyond recognition by our local police radar. Mach whatever it was, it was still going really fast, and the runway at the Cape is only about 90 miles south of here. Then again, re-entry IS an unpowered flight so it’s really a good thing all that energy is up there hurtling along: Flaps and gear down won’t happen until they’re almost at the KSC (the Space Center, not the fried chicken place across the street) landing site, certainly not over our roof.

Here’s what it looked like just before touchdown:

Final Flight?

Advertisement