NASA Astronomers To Observe Hayabusa's Fiery Homecoming 142
coondoggie writes "NASA said that a group of its astronomers will have a front row seat in Australia to watch the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa's high-speed, fiery return to Earth. It is bringing with it a hunk of the asteroid Itokawa. The spacecraft is expected to land in an unpopulated area of Australia at approximately midnight locally, or 7 am PDT, on Sunday, June 13. Some 30 NASA astronomers will be flying onboard a specially equipped DC-8 with instruments that can monitor Hayabusa's reentry."
Hayabusa! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Actually... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Actually... (Score:1, Funny)
Judging from publicity that the breakup gets this is probably the apogee of it's mission.
Re:"unpopulated" (Score:3, Funny)
As far as I can tell, any place with "prohibited area" in the name doesn't sound hospitable.
Re:"unpopulated" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Actually... (Score:5, Funny)
But no matter what it brings back from Itokawa we can be certain that Godzilla will rise out of the dust of the Australian desert...
Especially as the piece of dust in the Australian desert they are talking about is the Woomera Prohibited Area. It is prohibited because of the high levels of radioactivity remaining from nuclear weapons testing. You couldn't script this better.
Astronomers? (Score:4, Funny)
NASA astronomers will be flying onboard a specially equipped DC-8
Sure, right.
We all know that when they say "astronomers" they really mean Xenu.
We all know that when they say "DC-8"s the really mean space ships that look exactly like DC-8s.
Don't be fooled people! It's all happening again!
Re:Actually... (Score:5, Funny)
Is that a challenge? We've got a number of very creative people on slashdot who would be happy to take you up on that.
Just some ideas on how things could get better:
The observation craft crashes in said desert, with the only survivors being the three very attractive but brainy female NASA scientists who unfortunately were slightly injured and had to tear the midriffs from their shirts in order to apply tourniquets to the pilot of the plane, who, despite their best efforts, expired on the desert flats -- but not before handing our intrepid heroines a jailbroken iPad with a map of a secret city in the desert.
The secret city, of course, is populated by mutants who are engaged in a war of factions between the aborigines and the whites. The whites have a technological advantage, but are really mean. The aborigines, however, reveal secrets to our heroines via a half-naked drug-addled walkabout whereupon it is discovered that the residue from the asteroid contains the last component to the ritual that awakens Croczilla from his dusty resting place and floods the desert, who upon awakening will be hungry for the other other white meat.
That's all I've got so far, I'm not sure how they'll keep Croczilla from destroying the opera house in Sydney. However, I'm quite sure it involves ridiculous sci-fi weapons and more toplessness of our heroines, and perhaps some beer.
Re:"unpopulated" (Score:5, Funny)
Not really: Woomera was a missile test range, and the dingoes have taken over the old SAM emplacements.
Wait... (Score:2, Funny)
The spacecraft is expected to land in an unpopulated area of Australia
Australia is populated?
Re:Hayab USA! (Score:3, Funny)
I find your ideas intriguing, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter!
Re:Hayab USA! (Score:3, Funny)
Uh, in 0-g, there is no "upside-down"
Re:Hayab USA! (Score:3, Funny)
It's all relative. I'd assume relative to what would normally be the "floor" of the cabin. If not, relative to the other observer (but hopefully not a relative of the observer). You always have to establish some point of reference for direction, which I'd assume would be done sometime well before you tried to get freaky in space. :)
Re:"unpopulated" (Score:3, Funny)