
Has NASA hidden the maple leaf again?
...cos that's what they did on the last arm install mission, wasn't it?
Space Shuttle Endeavour this morning blasted off at 02:28 EDT (06:28 GMT) from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for the 25th mission to the ISS, carrying the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo lab and the Canadian Space Agency's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or "Dextre". Endeavour lifts off …
The shuttle was only supposed to launch during daytime hours, to accomodate the safety photography that would ensure the ground crew would catch any damage to the shuttle during liftoff.
So why, after only two launches since the return-to-flight after the 2003 Columbia disaster, are they launching this at night again?
This is actually the eighth flight since the Columbia disaster. And the second night launch since then. The cameras can photograph falling foam even at night. And the Shuttle is checked three times in orbit for tile damage.
There's also the growing evidence that the foam shedding problem has been largely sorted. The Shuttle is now a safer vehicle than it's ever been.
A daylight launch yesterday couldn't have been put into a suitable orbit to dock with the ISS.
WOW.. guess that you do not follow the shuttle launches. There were many more than two launches since Columbia. And I do believe that at least one night launch already happened since.
I do believe that the night time launch restrictions were in place only for the RTF (return to flight) missions STS-114 in 2005 and one more...
Alien icon cause the truth is out there... where is my tinfoil hat?