DISCOVERY— Rollout and a “blast from the past”

May 1, 2008—Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center will roll Space Shuttle Discovery out to the launch pad on Saturday. Don’t expect the crawler transporter to be pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol. The trip goes at one mile per hour!

Discovery is set to carry the second section of the Japanese Kibo lab to the International Space Station. The mission really begins with the slow crawl to the launch pad on a tractor that dates to the days of Apollo. Back then, Wherner Van Braun and his colleagues were thinking about an open hangar for the Saturn V moon rockets, or maybe rolling the spacecraft to the pad on railroad tracks. Ultimately, they decided on the huge crawler transporter tractor like the one carrying Shuttle Atlantis in the picture at the left. So, Discovery is making Saturday’s move based on a method approved back in the 1960’s.  Launch is set for May 31^st.

Separate subject—Orlando TV viewers may remember Channel 6 health reporter Charna Davis. Well, it’s Charna Davis-Wiese now. She’s hosting a new TV program produced by the University of Central Florida, and it’s about authors. I sat down to talk with Charna about “Final Countdown”, and you can view the video clip here…

http://www.truveo.com/UCF-Expressions-Pat-Duggins-NASA/id/1067724342

Also, many thanks to the Mount Washington Observatory for their invitation for me to speak during their Spring fundraiser at Harvard University. Mother's day and Father’s day are both coming up, and if you’d like an inscribed copy of “Final Countdown” and support the Observatory, you can get signed books by contacting their on-line shop at..

http://www.mountwashington.org/store/index.php?cPath=6&main_page=index

More to come...

Photo courtesy of NASA