Eric The Viking
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- 19 Jan 2010
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South and slightly west of this Google Earth flag is a large, but rather lonely aircraft.
It's NASA's N905NA, Boeing 747-100 at the Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly NASA Dryden), at Edwards Air Force Base* in California. The image probably dates from late 2012. The Google "pin" marks the Space Shuttle's "Mate-Demate device" there, the gantry to lift the Shuttle up onto the carrier aircraft.
Here's 905 in service coming in to land at Cape Kennedy in 1990:
The aircraft is now on permanent static display at Houston's Johnson Space Center, with a dummy Shuttle mounted on top. Here's a close-up of one of the Shuttle mounts:
And an angled view of the facility from 2008:
I know NASA had to retire the Shuttles, but it's still hard to believe Obama didn't have the gumption to see how inspirational it all was to generations of schoolchildren. The trouble with a commercial replacement is that, because it's commercial, it's not open any more - so much is commercially secret. NASA, in contrast has been generally brilliant in communicating. The Apollo mission reports are available for download. I haven't, but I'm told if you printed all of them them you'd have a six-foot stack of paper. I have looked at them though, and the detail is wonderful.
I was prompted to post this after watching Buzz Aldrin on BBC2 last night. Gracious and witty, and just past his 85th birthday (Jan 20th).
I know we've had our Canadian songsters up there, etc., and even several Brits, and I mean no disrespect whatsoever to any of them, but the determined pioneering spirit seems to have gone, and with it some of the inspirational power. A US president that can't see that is a disappointment.
E.
[sound of man getting off soapbox]
*... Edwards has the longest runway in the world, by far, although technically that's cheating as it's across a dry lake bed, and not paved. If you're strict and only measure the concrete it's 17th (the new Denver is 8th, presumably because the altitude necessitates a longer take-off run for heavy aircraft).
It's NASA's N905NA, Boeing 747-100 at the Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly NASA Dryden), at Edwards Air Force Base* in California. The image probably dates from late 2012. The Google "pin" marks the Space Shuttle's "Mate-Demate device" there, the gantry to lift the Shuttle up onto the carrier aircraft.
Here's 905 in service coming in to land at Cape Kennedy in 1990:
The aircraft is now on permanent static display at Houston's Johnson Space Center, with a dummy Shuttle mounted on top. Here's a close-up of one of the Shuttle mounts:
And an angled view of the facility from 2008:
I know NASA had to retire the Shuttles, but it's still hard to believe Obama didn't have the gumption to see how inspirational it all was to generations of schoolchildren. The trouble with a commercial replacement is that, because it's commercial, it's not open any more - so much is commercially secret. NASA, in contrast has been generally brilliant in communicating. The Apollo mission reports are available for download. I haven't, but I'm told if you printed all of them them you'd have a six-foot stack of paper. I have looked at them though, and the detail is wonderful.
I was prompted to post this after watching Buzz Aldrin on BBC2 last night. Gracious and witty, and just past his 85th birthday (Jan 20th).
I know we've had our Canadian songsters up there, etc., and even several Brits, and I mean no disrespect whatsoever to any of them, but the determined pioneering spirit seems to have gone, and with it some of the inspirational power. A US president that can't see that is a disappointment.
E.
[sound of man getting off soapbox]
*... Edwards has the longest runway in the world, by far, although technically that's cheating as it's across a dry lake bed, and not paved. If you're strict and only measure the concrete it's 17th (the new Denver is 8th, presumably because the altitude necessitates a longer take-off run for heavy aircraft).
