Endeavor will roll out for mission STS-134 on Friday, April 29 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 15:47 PM EST, 22:47 PM Israel Time
US President Barack Obama and the entire first family plan to attend the last launch of the space shuttle Endeavour. This is according to the announcement issued by the White House. Endeavor rolled out for mission STS-134 on Friday, April 29 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 15:47 EST, 22:47 Israel time.
Endeavour's expected flight was already in the news, and not for a scientific reason. The spaceship's commander is Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabriela Gifford of Arizona who was seriously wounded by an assassin's gunshots to the head during a meeting she held with voters on January 8. Six people, including a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge were killed and dozens injured in the incident. Despite his wife's condition, Kelly will continue with his plan and command the shuttle.
The arrival of the president, if it comes to fruition, will arouse great interest in the launch. Although currently the event is not listed in the official schedule of the president. However, a tweet by Congresswoman Gifford and on her official website speaks of Obama's arrival. "We are happy that the president will attend Mark's launch. This historic mission will be Endeavour's last flight," the website reads.
NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told Universe Today "I cannot confirm that the president will actually come to the launch, as you know we are an agency that belongs to the White House and we always welcome the president's visit," Beutel said.
Security is always tight at the Kennedy Space Center during launch, but the president's visit will lead to even tighter security and even bigger traffic jams. A large crowd is already expected to arrive for the historic flight of the space shuttle Endeavour.
Endeavor carries the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on its 14-day flight to the International Space Station. The scientific instrument will collect cosmic rays, search for dark energy, dark matter and antimatter and try to determine the origin of the universe. The principal investigator of this device is Nobel laureate Sam Ting of MIT. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has already announced that Endeavor will be on display at the Science Museum in California after its retirement from active service after this flight.
President Obama visited the Kennedy Space Center On April 15, 2010, he gave a policy speech in which he announced NASA's radical goals for manned flights. Obama decided to cancel Bush's Constellation project which included a return to the moon as well as the Ares 1 and Ares 5 rockets. He directed NASA to plan a mission for astronauts to visit the comet by 2025 and a flight to the moon in the mid-thirties. Obama also decided to revive the Orion crew vehicle being built by Lockheed Martin, whose vision is to also launch beyond low Earth orbit, and also decided to invest in the development of near-space taxis such as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to provide crew transportation services to the International Space Station.
The last time a sitting president watched a launch was in 1998 when President Clinton accompanied John Glenn's return to space.
Congresswoman Gifford is recovering from her injuries and shuttle commander Kelly said that she will be able to make it to the launch, but this depends on many factors, including the decisions of the doctors treating her at the hospital in the Houston area.
11 תגובות
Will it be possible to see the shuttle on Friday night (using a telescope or the naked eye)?
And speaking of trolls and feeding them: this flight is the last for the shuttle Endeavour, but another flight is planned after it, which will be the last in NASA's space shuttle program, which will be carried out by "Atlantis" this coming June. It can be hoped, for the benefit of the troll, that by then Messiah will land with his own fleet of spaceships and shuttles and the troll will not be left with any more questions.
And another question: if Obama instructed NASA to plan a "flight to the moon in the mid-thirties", then he actually did not ***cancel*** Bush's plan to return to the moon, but only postponed it by a decade or two, didn't he?
What is "Endeavour Naglala"? Is this a space shuttle or a scroll of Ruth?
To. Don't feed the troll it's a constant snooze that always asks the same questions.
Building new spaceships
Laby and Yam will run out of Soyuz spaceships, what are they doing
not to worry. There is a Soyuz
Also Obama and his low ambitions...
What's wrong with going back to the moon? What's wrong with Mars?
By the way, after Endeavor's retirement, what will happen to space flights? Who will replace the astronauts in space?
Thanks for the update.
Congresswoman Giffords will also watch the launch after her doctors cleared her to travel to Florida.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014868177_apuscongresswomanshotlaunch.html