Page 511 - Space Program News Today

Keep it up. well check on you throughout the trip. >> martha, i saw a rattlesnake yesterday. and im not kidding. bill: and he is not scared. nicely done. look at this site right here, that is the space shuttle enterprise, on the back of a boeing 747. at the moment, americas space program is on the move yet again, departing out of dulles airport down there in washington, d.c.s area. and, bound for new york city. and in about an hours time, once enterprise is up in the air and has a little piggyba...

Exploration, and just what this program has meant to america, and the future of america and our space program. pamela is with me now. good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: you were on the mall last week, werent you when you saw discovery fly by. what was that like for you as an astronaut and someone who is so close and intimately involved in this program? >> oh, it was a wonderful experience to see discovery fly again, and in such a unique setting. you definitely are kind of surprised to s...

Martha: when discovery came into washington it had an escort plane as we watch it fly over new york city on the back left side. its an extraordinary site. obviously leonard nimoy excited to see it once again having not seen it since 1976. when you think back to those days in the 70s, and this really spans sort of an american moment in history as well during the excitement of this whole space program, and you think about kids growing up and wanting to than astronauts, and you wonder what they thi...

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 ...

Shuttles around the country, the discovery which is at the air and space museum will be displayed as if it was on the runway as if its landed, the one that will be at kennedy space center in florida will be with the payload bay door open like it was in space. the plan for endeavour at california science center as if on the launch pad with external tank and two solid rocket boosters. people can travel around the country and see the three shuttles that have flown in space in different configuratio...

Fundraising event with your wife, gabby giffords, someone would say mark, what do you do? what is their reaction when you say im an astronaut? >> usually i say im in the navy and ill say i work for thnasa, then i would say im an ast astrona astronaut. people feel close connection to the space program. certainly right now, were in a challenging times as we get back the capability to fly people in space, that will take another four or five, six years, but we have a lot of smart people, companies l...

Well bring her in in a moment to talk about the history of the shuttle and what this next chapter in the space program sells us and where it leads us. martha: you wonder what the pattern is going to be here. as i said when we watched discovery come in to washington it did a beautiful loop around the washington monument, the capitol, not too far from the white house. it was a gorgeous day and you had all the staffers on the hill coming out to look up in the sky and see this extraordinary sight of...

Orbit. while they knew they wanted to make it to be reusable, as you point out, it wasnt to be maybe used as much as they were. >> well the original plan was each vehicle would fly 100 flights. and discovery has flown the most flights and i think its upwards of 40. but it wasnt designed to last for 30 years. we have been flying the shuttles for 30 years. ism wit was time, part of me is sad to see it going. i loved the vehicle if i could do it every year i would. i think the risk was going up as ...

43 passengers kept on board a plane for more than three hours. the cause, a bug bite. "newsroom" begins right now. good morning to you. im carol costello. you are bere its final flight. the granddaddy of a program. it was the next wave of a space race that had americans holding their breath. a craft so futuristic and exciting president ford told nasa to name it after captain kirks ship from the legendary show "star trek." >> space, the final frontier. these are the voyages of the sta...

and jason carroll is out watching in new york. jason, why dont we start with you. what have you been able to see, feel, hear? give us an understanding of the landscape. >> reporter: what do i hear now? i think its the staples singers singing "ill take you there." i think thats what they are playing now. and the shuttle took a lot of astronauts to a lot of different places. but the "enterprise" never made it to space. but still exciting nonetheless. exciting for the hundreds of invited ...