Desultory Thoughts

When astronauts returned to space last year I watched with interest and curiosity, as many people did. I would watch live streaming video of NASA TV [nasa.gov] every chance I got, even when the re-entry of the shuttle was scheduled for early in the morning. I remember setting the alarm for 2 and 3 in the morning to watch the re-entry only to hear that there was bad weather in Florida and that they would have to orbit one more time, thus setting back the re-entry and adding to my lack of sleep. But I felt it was all worth it, even though I was very tired at work the next day.

Something similar happened early this morning when I stayed up late to watch the entry of ” Stardust ” [nasa.gov], a capsule that was launched seven years ago to capture interstellar particles and bring them back to Earth. The difference was that it wasn’t as worth losing sleep as the re-entry of the space shuttle. I guess some major differences included the fact that no human lives were at risk, but it would still be quite an accomplishment. This would also be the fastest a man-made object would enter the earth’s atmosphere.

I was curious to see if the outcome would turn out better than the “failed” Genesis Reentry [genesismission.org] of September, 2004. For a minute I thought it may have a similar ending. The Genesis capsule failed to deploy parachutes and tumbled to the desert floor.

It seemed that a repeat was occurring as I listened to the mission commander report a deployed successfully deployed chute that would help it slow to a point where the main parachute could deploy. Despite this announcement another controller continued to report that the velocity was unchanging. He repeated this several times as I watched an infrared image of a tiny dot on the screen. Alas, the report came that the main parachute had deployed successfully and now it was apparent that the capsule was indeed slowing and falling to earth.

It was reported to come to rest at N40 21.9 W113 31.25 [maps.google.com], just outside of the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range in the desert salt flats of Utah.

While still interesting, I don’t think I’ll lose sleep over such an event again. Then again…

Read more at www.nasa.gov/mission_pa…