Page 18 - Orbiter News Today

I didnt know what to expect when i got here. i got to my locker and saw a jersey in it number 43. i just wanted to take a picture of it just for myself. its just amazing to see my name on the back of it its an honor. its an honor to be taken serious and to be given this opportunity. >> shepard: banks says is he angry orbiter in no way. he says you just have to forgive and move on. a nationwide manhunt for a doctor now whose a former soldier and a weapons expert after his ex-girlfriend turned up ...

Orbiter. that is where the external tank was attached for spaceflight. you see all the systems attached to the enterprise. jenna: 60 feet? can you imagine? that is so scary. i cant even imagine that. jon: so much bigger than people imagine. you can basically, tom, if im right you can basically put a bus in the cargo bay of the space shuttle, right? >> thats correct. it is 60 feet long, 15 feet wide and can carry about 50,000 pounds of cargo including things like the hubble telescope. this the si...

Tv. im guessing there is not work getting done in manhattan. thanks for sticking with us. let me bring mark kelly back in. again, just to this whole idea of the dlthrill of us, for thos watching on tv, on the ground, are they feeling anything when its flying this low? >> youll hear the engines from the 747. i doubt that sounds any different than a normal 747. certainly a thrilling sight to see. ive only seen it a couple times with the orbiter on top of the shuttle carrier plane, once at the jo...

That is not a normal 747. its almost gutted on the inside, to make it much lighter, once they add the shuttle carrier or once they add the space shuttle to the orbiter to the top, that has different flying characteristics. i havent had an opportunity to fly it but i hear its a challenge. >> i wbet it is. people made observations what would be the future of manned space flight and are people -- obviously, a lot of what happened with the space race early on in the time of john glenn and the first ...

>> so no, only in enterprise has there been a crew that have flown in the space shuttle when it was on top of the 747. there were some active test flights where it stayed connected to the airplane, i think they did three of those, this was in the late 1970s, and then five flights where space shuttle enterprise was released from the top of the 747 and those were the approach and landing tests, landed at the runway at edwards air force base. when the shuttle is ferried, there is no crew in the orb...

Obviously, this is not your everyday 747 flight. i think we hear people yelling in the background. its exciting. how difficult is this to maneuver at this point? obviously flying at low altitude, what altitude are they flying at now? >> well, i mean it looks like probably 1500 feet to me in the video im looking at. the space shuttle empty weighs 195000 pounds, enterprise is different im not sure of the exact weight, flying a 747 with something of that size and mass on the top is a little bit cha...

plymouth, massachusetts. i appreciate you calling in. can you just first talk me through what folks there on the ground in huntington beach, what the situation is what they need to do? >> i think the first thing is that you have to assess whether or not this is an animal that is in need of human intervention or not. and so, you know, from what ive seen, theres a pod swimming somewhat freely and then this one particular animal thats a little bit away and stranded. here normally if we ha...

bond hearing. >> and the oldest and most traveled space shuttle welcomed this hour at the museum where it will live out its days. more than 13 months after its final mission "discovery" on public display in a hangar near dulles airport in virginia. its part of the national air and space museum, home to that stuff that wont fit in the building youve probably visited on the mall in d.c. "discovery" flew into dulles on tuesday and its sister shuttle "endevour" was bound for los angeles an...

Yesterday the final crew that came -- that came out here and flew on the orbiter, on sts 133 came out and visited, walked around the shuttle and their remarks were that seeing discovery go off to the smithsonian, a little melancholy and sad. >> i hope people appreciate the workmanship and the craftmanship and the expertise that went into making that work over and over again. and thats part of what we dont have, well captured when it goes to a museum. >> now, in washington, d.c., at around 10:00 ...

Earned it. a total of 365 days in space without a mishap. what a champ. >> really is a champ. want to remind people that this veteran orbiter spent a year over the course of the 39 missions since 1984. i remind all of our viewers that you have been with discovery since that time. you have been seeing these launches and all of these safe returns and watching the discovery going to its final place, how soon are you going to come visit? >> im coming back to see you guys. im still on the payroll. nb...