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Space Shuttle
My brother, who works for ATK (the company that builds the rocket boosters), sent me this picture. I had to share.
The shuttle, Atlantis, in the foreground (on launch pad A) is scheduled to launch on October 10th to service the Hubble telescope for the last time. This poses somewhat of a risk since astronauts can not seek refuge in the international space station (ISS) should the orbiter sustain tile damage.
Thus, the shuttle, Endeavour, in the background (on launch pad B) will be ready if needed. Otherwise it is scheduled to launch Nov 12th.
(Click on the picture to enlarge to full size and to see the rainbow.)
2 comments:
why can't they seek refuge in the ISS?
Hubble is at a considerably higher and dirtier, so to speak, orbit than the space station — 350 miles versus just over 200 miles. That extra altitude will expose Atlantis to more pieces of space junk, any of which could slam into the shuttle.
Number-crunching puts the odds of a catastrophic strike by orbital debris including bits of space junk at about 1-in-185 during Atlantis' upcoming mission to Hubble. That compares to 1-in-300 odds for a shuttle flight to the international space station.
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