Space Shuttle Atlantis Will Carry Basketballs Into Space 38
Having figured out everything there is to know about space, and being huge fans of Space Jam, NASA has left some of their sciencey stuff behind and made room for a pair of basketballs on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. One of the balls comes courtesy of The Harlem Globetrotters, and the other is on loan from the University of Chicago. It was used by Edwin Hubble in a 1909 victory against Indiana University. "It is only fitting that the team that has seen more of the world than any other in history would have a presence beyond the stratosphere," Globetrotters chief executive officer Kurt Schneider said in a news release.
Astronomer (Score:1)
Space jam? What about (Score:2, Funny)
What about Space Balls?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Seems wrong to me (Score:5, Insightful)
That just seems wrong to me. They actually damaged something nearly 100 years old just to make it smaller. It could just be me, but they should have just taken it into space the way it was without damaging it. Seems shameful to me.
Re:Seems wrong to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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It is really just an object. Besides its historical value will increase of it being the first basketball in space. Just because it is a hundred years old it doesn't mean it is of a real value. If that was the case I would be in panic when I drilled a hole in my house to put in some wiring.
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Sure, but couldn't they have cut a bit of mass/space out in some other way? The fact they are doing this in the first place implies they have some capacity to spare... why not chop up something else?
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What they should have done is stuck t
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Don't know if this applies for a ball stuffed with something other than air, but my sister-in-law was forced to deflate her basketball when she went to Ireland for college. Something about the prop plane she was taking from Heathrow to Dublin not having a pressurized cabin, and they were afraid it would explode.
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Well, possibly, except the shuttle has a pressurized cabin. It kind of has to have one. Even so, why cut the ball up. Surely installing a discrete hole would be sufficient. Besides, The Fancy Ar
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That just seems wrong to me. They actually damaged something nearly 100 years old just to make it smaller. It could just be me, but they should have just taken it into space the way it was without damaging it. Seems shameful to me.
There are lots of old basketballs around. The thing that was special about this one was that Edwin Hubble had used it..
Do you think Hubble would have minded that "his" ball had to be deflated in order for it to go into space? This was a man who spent his life studying the Universe, but who died before mankind had even managed to put an object in orbit.
I think he'd consider it amazingly cool that the ball he played with went into space along with astronauts doing repair work on the space-based telescop
Press Release (Score:5, Funny)
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Hermes: I'm just glad my fat, ugly mother isn't around to see this.
Farnsworth: Leave your promiscuous mother out of this!
In space... (Score:2, Funny)
Even white men can jump.
I see (Score:5, Funny)
What's the point again? (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Cut open century-old ball
3. Send up to space and bring back.
4.
5. What exactly?
Been there, done that... (Score:5, Informative)
Been there, done almost that...
No me, but:
Today, the European Space Agency hosted a unique sporting event. Supported by the World Flying Disc Federation and sanctioned by the Swedish Frisbee Sport Federation, STS-116 mission specialist Christer Fuglesang broke the world record in the flying disc sporting discipline MTA, Maximum Time Aloft.
ESA believes that this is the first ever sanctioned sports event that has taken place in space.
The rules of MTA are simple: A player shall attempt to throw the disc in such a fashion that the disc remains airborne for as long as possible, before catching the disc himself. The timing of the flight of the throw shall be measured from the instant is initially touched in the catching attempt.
In this specific competition, Christer was free to waive the recommendation in the rules that an additional disc be available in the event a disc was lost or becomes unsuitable for use.
Fuglesang's record-setting attempt at MTA had an air time between his toss and catching the disc of 20 seconds.
Until today, the MTA world record stood at 16.72 seconds and was set by Don Cain on May 26, 1984, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The sanction for the attempt to break it was formally announced by the Swedish Frisbee Sport Federation on December 10, 2006.
(from: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum30/HTML/000476.html [collectspace.com])
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Couldn't he have tossed it, had a nap and then caught it?
Send Bill Cosby up! (Score:3, Funny)
After all, he is an official honorary [wikipedia.org] Harlem Globetrotter! [harlemglobetrotters.com]
And didn't they invent Jello Pudding for NASA or something? It's so high-tech, they must have.
Planet Basketball (Score:3, Informative)
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Two basketballs? (Score:2)
Have none of you pathetic earthlings game??? (Score:2)
Sweet Clyde, laugh derisively at them!
~Philly
Sounds like an old McDonalds ad (Score:1, Funny)
Off the ISS, off the moon, nothing but net. now gimme my Big Mac.
Oblig. (Score:2, Funny)
Colonel: What is it, son?
Johnson: I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant--
Jet Pilot: Dick!
Dick: Yeah?
Jet Pilot: Take a look outta starboard.
Dick: Oh, my God! it looks like a huge--
Bird-Watching Woman: Pecker!
Bird-Watching Man: [raising binoculars] Oh, where?
Bird-Watching Woman: Wait! that's not a woodpecker, it looks like someone's--
Army Sergeant: Privates! We have reports of an unidentified flying object! It is a long, smooth shaft, c