Judy and I hit the walking route around the perimeter of our park by 8:00 this morning. On our second time around we noticed a small crowd looking off into the distance at the very north east corner of our park. When I questioned someone as to what they were looking at, they explained that they were waiting for the NASA liftoff of the new Orion Space System at 8:26 a.m. Well, I had to hang around for that... however at 8:30 we all determined that they cancelled the launch...too bad.
However, it has been put back on the agenda for tomorrow morning at 7:05 a.m. eastern time. I will have to get outside to take it in.
It is all set for liftoff from Cape Kennedy, Florida... The Orion is the new Space System that NASA has turned to now that it retired all the older Space Shuttles. The Orion though, has a totally different mission than the Shuttles did.
The Shuttles remained in Earth orbit, and a low one at that usually. They were great fore re-supply missions, and running space related experiments, and acting as a taxi for astronaugts to the Space Station.
The Orion is a totally different spacecraft.
It is meant to explore space! The first launch now scheduled for tomorrow, will be without any humans aboard. It will be controlled by the ground crew, and will only orbit the earth twice before splashing into the Pacific, hopefully close to one of the U.S. Navy Ships waiting for it. By the year 2030, NASA wants to send the Orion on a mission to the planet Mars!
I think that would be quite a mission to go on... hopefully you would get to come back home! In the next few years, they have lots of missions planned for Orion, as they prepare for the Mars Mission. They plan a visit to an astroid, and also can use Orion to visit the International Space Station, and also plan scientific missions to Saturn and Jupiter! (Un-manned) This thing can do it all! If you want to go to Mars though, you better apply soon, there will only be 4 seats!
Today, a big gust of Florida wind, and a sticky fuel valve were the culprits at launch time. Don't worry, NASA will get it right. Of course this new spaceship is new, faster, lighter, more sophisticated than anything ever built before, and ya, it probably cost more as well...lol
I will keep my eye and camera ready for you all tomorrow morning, we are not too far from the Cape, and should be able to see the vehicle launch with no problem.
Till tomorrow...
Posted with Blogsy
Goos luck with you sighting and some pics too would be nice
ReplyDeleteHope you get to see the lift-off tomorrow morning - that would be fun to see.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your photos!