Oh, by the way the Space Shuttle is in Orbit

by Mark A. Gardner 

April 7, 2010

By now, you have probably heard that the Space Shuttle Discovery is in orbit. This is STS-131... only 3 scheduled flights of the STS program remain.

Rumor has it that they are considering extending the Space Shuttle program out a few years, I guess we'll have to see if America still has the "Right Stuff" or, if we've turned into a bunch of lazy, Earth based, humans doomed to die on our injured planet?

HOUSTON – Astronauts moved a cargo module the size of a mini bus the short distance from space shuttle Discovery's payload bay to the International Space Station's (ISS) Harmony node Thursday morning, setting the stage for a carefully choreographed ballet to begin transferring tons of supplies and equipment to and from and the orbiting laboratory. 

The Leonardo module is about 21 feet (6.4 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide, and weighed about 27,274 pounds (12,371 kg) -- 17,000 pounds (7,711 kg) of which were spare parts and equipment for the station's crew -- when it was packed forDiscovery's 13-day mission. The shuttle docked at the station early Wednesday.

There you have it.... I bet you thought I forgot about the Shuttle.... nope.

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