RF Cafe visitor and RF Coffee Mug winner Jeff J. sent me these photos he took of the
Space Shuttle Atlantis' final landing at Cape Canaveral at 5:57 a.m. EDT on July
21, 2011.
"Space shuttle Atlantis
carried the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to
the International Space Station. The mission also flew a system to investigate the potential for robotically
refueling existing spacecraft and returned a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand
the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems."
Alas, this is the final flight
of the five-craft Space Shuttle program, which commenced on 12 April, 1981 and totaled 135 missions
(Columbia and Challenger were lost). America has no replacement system in the queue. Prior to the shuttle
fleet, the Apollo series ran from February 21, 1967 with Apollo 1 (a fire killed the crew on the launch
pad) through the splashdown of Apollo 17 on December 19, 1972. We landed two men on the moon at the
Sea of Tranquility with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969 (eventually a total of 12). At least during that 9-year
void of manned space flight, there was a replacement vehicle in the works (delayed from March 1978).
Now, we have no national manned launch vehicle on the books. NASA director Bolden remarked on
Al Jazeera TV that the organization
is now most concerned with teaching math and science to kids, international relations, and reaching
out to Muslims. Not to worry though, at least NASA has the "Mission to Planet Earth" - we
don't need no stinking launch vehicle for that. Ugh.
Space Shuttle Atlantis Being Towed After Final Landing
Space Shuttle Atlantis Near VAB
Launch Pad A at Kennedy Space Flight Center
Vehicle
Assembly Building
NASA Employees Awaiting Atlantis
Camera Platform with Infrared, High Speed, Still, and
High Definition Cameras
These images have been chosen for their uniqueness. Subject matter ranges from
historic events, to really cool phenomena in science and engineering, to relevant
place, to ingenious contraptions, to interesting products (which now has its own
dedicated Featured Product
category).
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while typing up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got
Mail" when a new message arrived...
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.