Space shuttle Discovery lifted off at 4:53pm EDT Thursday for what is scheduled to be its final flight in to space. Shuttle mission STS-133 is led by commander Steven Lindsey and flown by pilot Eric Boe. Some interesting facts about this flight are that mission specialist Steve Bowen is making his second consecutive shuttle flight as he was on board Atlantis for mission STS-132 in May of 2010. He is the first astronaut to ever fly back-to-back missions. The second interesting bit is that Discovery will have a "robonaut" on board. "R2" as NASA calls it will become a permanent resident of the International Space Station and be used to assist crew members and also studied to understand how robots behave in space. The educational and inspirational experiences the shuttle program has provided will surely be missed after the program is retired later this year. Two more flights are scheduled for this year with the last being STS-135 slated to lift off in late June 2011. Meanwhile, the weather in the West continues to be unsettled with snowy and very cold conditions. We are still tracking a slight risk of severe weather over much of the southern plains into the Mississippi river valley on Sunday so stay tuned for further updates. Have a great day!
(Logo credit: NASA)
No comments:
Post a Comment