Discovery Prepares for Return

Kailash Nadh writes "Discovery's astronauts packed up their stuff on Friday as they prepared to undock from the international space station now that NASA has cleared the shuttle to return to Earth next week. Their most difficult task before leaving the station was the maneuvering of a huge cargo container filled with 2 1/2 years worth of trash into the shuttle's payload bay. Once back on Earth, the items would either be disposed of or returned to researchers."

Aldrin

[coflow]

I find it interesting that Aldrin is critical of the shuttle program. I know there are a lot of people unhappy with it, but it seems a name as big as Aldrin being critical has quite a bit of meaning. Hopefully this is a sign of a new approach to space travel in the future.

Come home safe

[ZPO]

Come home safe travellers.

How bout an auction of the Space returned garbage?

[Guru Goo]

Would be any takers if NASA were to auction the space returned garbage on ebay ?

Re:Aldrin

[0xC0FFEE]

There's quite a bit of tradition at NASA. For example, the CAPCOM is always an astronaut. This person is, alone, tasked with relaying information between command and shuttle crew. Seems experience as an astronaut is mandatory for conveying essential information in critical times.

So my guess is Aldrin brings up something important to "the continuity of space exploration" in the same way. Whether you thing this is a PR move or not, I think having people with (successful) field experience in the decision structure is tremendously important. I think the 2 shuttle disasters showed how much managers not grounded in reality can be, well, disastrous.

A reason to bringing back the waste.

[Chonine]

It is very possible that what we consider waste and what NASA does could differ. Remnants of experiments, minilabs that belong to schools, old journals, outdated equipment, failed equipment... I think a big part of the reason to take it all back is so the engineers can find out failure points, reuse or sell older equipment, for NASA historians and archivists to keep any documentation, and to give loaned items back to their respective owners.

what a fucking dumb-ass comment

[Anonymous Coward]

what, are you picturing a stack of black plastic garbage bags piled up in the cargo bay?
no, they have a multi-purpose module that they carry up into space that holds all the supplies they were bringing.
While docked, they lift the module out of the cargo bay and dock it to the space station. The crew can then transfer the contents to and from the ISS (what, you thought they loaded everything through the shuttle's airlock?)
Before undocking, they move the module back into the cargo bay so they can take it back to earth and use it again (what, are they supposed to "send it into the sun" and make a new one for the next trip?)
Why the hell wouldn't they transfer refuse from the station back into the module since it's going back anyway.
Where did you get the stupid idea that this added any risk to the mission or that it was desirable or even possible to eject this crap into space and have it burn up in the sun.

go fuck yourself, dumbass

Embarrasing. Just let it die!

[johnnywheeze]

Embarassing trip all the way around. Foam still fell off, even after x number of years and x millions of dollars. Shuttle grounded again. Spacewalk to remove a piece of junk by hand.

Seems fitting that it's returning to earth full of garbage. Lets just put the shuttle with the rest of the refuse and move on to the CEV.

Doesn't anyone remember us chiding the russians because Mir was old and rickety and well past its intended lifespan? Drop the shuttle, burn up the ISS, and start reaching for the stars from scratch.

Garbage scow

[isomeme]

Their most difficult task before leaving the station was the maneuvering of a huge cargo container filled with 2 1/2 years worth of trash into the shuttle's payload bay.

When, at the age of seven, I sat enthralled by the Apollo XI landing in 1969, I would never have believed that our most sophisticated space vehicle in 2005 would be an aging garbage truck traveling a couple of hundred miles from Earth to visit a space station with no purpose.

I can't even think about this for too long; I start shaking with the force of my anger and disappointment.