I read in the paper the other day about the spacecraft that went out, collected comet debris and actually brought it back!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...l/3591039.html

Delayed again, this time because the command center in Maryland lost power in a storm.

In defense of my state, is was a nasty storm. Thunder, Lighting, Dogs sleeping with cats, real rath of God type stuff....

The early results are in, and it seems it was a major success. They've unsealed the canisters and found that it does indeed contain a whole lot of trapped material, possibly over a million individual bits.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10909782/

Is this true?

Yes it's true. This man has no dick.

A successful launch, sans nuclear meltdown.

link, with video. Don't blink that thing's outta there, well, like a rocket. Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, but it seems to me that the speed difference between this launch and a shuttle launch is readily apparant (though I would presume the speed difference between this and other un-manned launches is lesser).

On an overall mission note, NASA's trying to decide whether they want to alter the flight plan slightly to include some observation of the 2 newly discovered moons around Pluto. They'd better hurry, they only have 10 years to decide.

Hummm...


Interesting tracking chart on the NASA/JPL site. Blast off from Florida, a U-Turn over Australia, a bee line for South America and WE ARE OUTTA HERE!

Hummm, Part 2.

After it's scorch-by of Jupiter next year our intrepid little probe will be cruising at a comfortable 47,000 mph in order to reach Pluto before all the mission specialists reach the age of forced retirement.

I guess that implies we won't be seeing a nice insertion orbit around Pluto. It's going to be a buzz-by at 47,000 mph. Hope they put a fast camera on that probe.

Would any of you math whizzes want to ballpark a figure on when the probe will overtake Voyager-1 and claim the title of farthest hunk-o-junk ever sent from earth?

Voyager 1 is going 16.49 km/s and has already left the building...

Hummm, Part 2.

After it's scorch-by of Jupiter next year our intrepid little probe will be cruising at a comfortable 47,000 mph in order to reach Pluto before all the mission specialists reach the age of forced retirement.

I guess that implies we won't be seeing a nice insertion orbit around Pluto. It's going to be a buzz-by at 47,000 mph. Hope they put a fast camera on that probe.

Would any of you math whizzes want to ballpark a figure on when the probe will overtake Voyager-1 and claim the title of farthest hunk-o-junk ever sent from earth?

Voyager 1 is going 16.49 km/s and has already left the building...

Hummm, Part 2.

After it's scorch-by of Jupiter next year our intrepid little probe will be cruising at a comfortable 47,000 mph in order to reach Pluto before all the mission specialists reach the age of forced retirement.

I guess that implies we won't be seeing a nice insertion orbit around Pluto. It's going to be a buzz-by at 47,000 mph. Hope they put a fast camera on that probe.

Would any of you math whizzes want to ballpark a figure on when the probe will overtake Voyager-1 and claim the title of farthest hunk-o-junk ever sent from earth?

Voyager 1 is going 16.49 km/s and has already left the building...
(Hint: Pluto exrpess will be going 21.01 km/s)