Mission Accomplished
8:14 AM, CDT:
Discovery has just made a smooth landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after a very successful mission to the International Space Station.
Congratulations to everyone involved with NASA and the space program!
ISS construction will resume after the August 28 launch of Atlantis, which will carry an 18 ton addition to the solar power generation system.
Discovery will return to space again on December 14, 2006
Labels: ISS, NASA, Science, Space Shuttle, STS-121
posted by VPCheney @ 8:22 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Some notes about the MSM...
On Sunday, the STS-121 crew did a series of interviews with assorted news media. All were carried live by NASA TV. Most of the interviewers had similar questions, and I was sure that the astronauts would tire of answering them. They did very well, addressing each one individually, and still giving the same answers. They seemed a bit stunned by a question posed by Fox News on behalf of a viewer that basically asked if they experienced spirituality changes or if they felt deity like looking over the earth. At least it was a different question.
ABC news followed up with the first question (as was all of the news organizations) about the APU pressure leak.
That was followed up by ABC wanting to tie the story to the mideast warfare. What do they think when they hear about the bloodshed and violence? What a freaking downer, ABC. STS-121's mission wasn't political, had been very successful, and was heading home.
NBC followed with a note that they heard the ABC question and wanted to ask it again in an even more depressing tone. After over-explaining that the mideast was exploding, how do you feel about it? Nice job, NBC, you outdid ABC in the downer mood factor.
Most of the crew had been sitting for all of these news feeds with smiles and a general sense of pride with the success of the mission. The smiles began to fade as they explained that they hadn't heard much of this before now.
I'm sure that ABC and NBC are proud that they are the first sources for bad news on earth, to the non-political astronauts on a mission success buzz.
Ambushes like this are why some people who know the press, dislike dealing with some parts of it. The crew handled it well and moved on without embarassing the dimwits who were transparently hyping their own "Mideast Crisis" bad news coverage.
Amen
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