|
|
|
|
|
NASA brings future of exploration to Oshkosh Airventure 2006 NASA NEWS RELEASE Posted: July 20, 2006 NASA will take visitors to the moon, Mars and beyond at the country's biggest annual air show, held in Oshkosh, Wis., July 24-30. NASA scientists, engineers, educators, and communicators will be on hand at the Experimental Aircraft Association's Airventure 2006 to provide a glimpse of the future in an exhibit that has universal appeal, literally. Outside the NASA building at Airventure, visitors will be able to check out a full-scale space shuttle engine that weighs more than 17,000 pounds. The engine is about the size of a recreational vehicle. There also will be a 30-foot tall model of the heavy-lift rocket proposed for the future Cargo Launch Vehicle, and interactive demonstrations. Inside the facility NASA will feature a full-scale mock-up of America's next space capsule, the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The exhibit will help visitors understand how NASA plans to send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit. Included will be holographic astronauts to introduce the Constellation program. Constellation is the combination of large and small systems that will provide the capabilities necessary for travel and exploration of the solar system. No presentation at an air show would be complete without a look at NASA's contributions to aeronautics. Exhibits will feature a number of NASA-developed aviation technologies and a special education area will allow youngsters to make and keep their own paper airplanes, rotorcraft and straw rockets. Other displays will allow Airventure visitors to have their photograph taken in a spacesuit or see images coming back from space by way of the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA will take visitors to the moon, Mars and beyond at the country's biggest annual air show, held in Oshkosh, Wis., July 24-30. NASA employees will share their expertise at Airventure 2006. Aerospace craftspeople will be there to reveal mysteries of science and to show how they create the experiments that have propelled America forward as a leader in new air and space technologies. NASA representatives also will give presentations throughout the show at various Airventure pavilions. Speakers will include engineers, a test pilot, and veteran space shuttle commander Scott Horowitz. Horowitz is NASA's associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Washington. |
|
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
A camera was mounted in the front of space shuttle Discovery's flight deck looking back at the astronauts during launch. This video shows the final minutes of the countdown and the ride to space with the live launch audio included. The movie shows what it would be like to launch on the shuttle with the STS-121 crew.
A high-altitude WB-57 aircraft flying north of Discovery's launch trajectory captures this incredible aerial footage of the space shuttle's ascent from liftoff through solid rocket booster separation.
This is the full launch experience! The movie begins with the final readiness polls of the launch team. Countdown clocks then resume ticking from the T-minus 9 minute mark, smoothly proceeding to ignition at 2:38 p.m. Discovery rockets into orbit, as seen by ground tracker and a video camera mounted on the external tank. About 9 minutes after liftoff, the engines shut down and the tank is jettisoned as the shuttle arrives in space.
MiTEx -- an experimental U.S. military project to test whether the advanced technologies embedded in two miniature satellites and a new upper stage kick motor can operate through the rigors of spaceflight -- is launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket.