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Space Science

Space Shuttle Endeavour's On-Board Souvenir Stash 39

Posted by michael from the got-junk dept.
Robert Pearlman writes: "Seven astronauts, four payloads, and over 11,000 souvenirs are on their way to the International Space Station, among them a U.S. flag recovered from the World Trade Center, a cylinder record which belonged to inventor Thomas Edison, and golf course markers from Scotland and Ireland. Read the entire manifest here."
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Space Shuttle Endeavour's On-Board Souvenir Stash More

Space Shuttle Endeavour's On-Board Souvenir Stash

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  • Is this horse, if it is not dead yet, yes?

    Did you get to see the launch, anyways, Michael? How close did you manage to get?

  • Rare (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Karma 50 ( 538274 )
    a cylinder record which belonged to inventor Thomas Edison

    Isn't something like this rare and interesting(*)? Why risk sending it into space just for the novelty value of saying it has done so?

    * I tried looking at the official Edision national historic site at http://www.nps.gov/edis/home.htm to see how rare this is, but of course this site was shutdown yesterday!
  • This is a good and perfect idea. When I think about the US space program, I am reminded of Kennedy when he said, We choose to go to the moon, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.


    I am proud to be and American, because we, together, can do these hard tasks.

  • stupid question (Score:2, Funny)

    by Ledge ( 24267 )
    Item 7a.

    1. 5 Each Small Meatball Lapel Pins

    What the hell is a small meatball lapel pin??
  • Number 50 on the list, an 8"x10" class photo from Roscommon MI hits close to home. Roscommon MI is where I work, so I'm trying to find out exactly why an STS-108 crewmember requested that this photo make the trip.

    • You know, that's not the only one - there are a lot of items on there that would seem to be of primarily personal value to one or a small group of people. And what's up with the suveneers (sp?) for resturants and country clubs? I mean, I think the flags for those struck by the tragedy of September 11 is great, and I see the use of many of the items for agency presentations or diplomatic relations, but I really wonder what the selection criteria is for the rest of the items? I'm sure every elementary school would like to send their school flag or picture into space (okay, at least that was the case when I was a kid 15-20 years ago), so what made those that were selected so special? (Maybe they've been waiting 15 years for a slot?) I imagine there have got to be some good stories there.

      -"Zow"

      • Most of the items flown for local schools and organizations (and apparently, golf courses) are at the request of the crew.

        Take for example, #s 48 and 52 -- both of which were gathered from West Orange, NJ (by coincidence, my hometown). I don't know positively, but its a good bet that pilot Mike Kelly requested these items be flown as he also grew up in West Orange.

        That might also account for Edison's cylinder record. The location of Edison's historical site and laboratory? Yep, you guessed it: West Orange.

        (BTW, in addition to the Official Flight Kit, the astronauts each have their own little stash of personal items onboard. That's called a Personal Preference Kit (PPK), the contents of which are not released to the public.)
      • > so what made those that were selected so special?

        You might ask that question about the more than 35 Texas state flags they have up there (far more than any other state, as far as I can tell). Did Mr. Bush have something to do with that? :) It seems like a waste of resources to send all that weight (1 pound of flags, @ $10,000 a pound).
  • Last I heard, sending stuff into space costs thousands per kilogram. A few 4"x6" flags aren't going to make a big difference; a few thousand will. I couldn't find a total weight of all this junk on the linked site, but I'd think it'd be a few kilos at least.

    Why is cash-strapped NASA doing this? Just for the fun of it? Or are the $thousands insignificant in its $billions budget? Or are they getting extra $ from elsewhere?
    • If the Space Shuttle was only launching to carry the 11,000 souvenirs, than yes -- this would be (literally) pound wise and penny foolish.

      But the prime cargo are the larger items in the payload bay, followed by the astronauts. So, you might as well stuff every nook and cranny aboard that orbiter -- as its going to launch regardless (a.k.a. there are no savings for lighter cargo)

    • expensive to do, but think of the profit you could make:


      1) getting museums/restaurants/clubs/schools to PAY you to send their logo covered 'souvenirs' into space;


      2) selling your own products when they come back down "Authentic meatball lapel pin has spent >24h in actual, real, genuine space"....


      NASA may make some weird decisions about which projects to fund and which to ditch overboard, but sometimes they have good business sense (either that or they are learning from the nouveau riche capitalists in Russia who are pumping their space program for all it is worth...

  • Under the "Flags for Heroes and Families" program, 6,000 small U.S. flags are also on-board, to be distributed to the victims' families and emergency response teams.

    "We're so sorry about the loss of your loved one...but here's a flag that's been in space! Well, in a hermetically sealed package in a storage compartment in a spacecraft in space, but still...oooh!"

  • If I was on the space station... (Score:4, Funny)

    by itwerx ( 165526 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @05:27PM (#2673144) Homepage
    ...I'd be pissed!
    We don' need no steenkin' "meatball lapel pins". We haven't seen a woman in six months! Where's the pr0n?!?

    • Here it is (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      97. 1 Each Sorority Photograph Chi Omega Sorority, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

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