Word: orbitals
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...wonderfully routine thing. Former Utah Senator Jake Garn snagged himself a seat on one flight - never mind that he spent much of the mission so violently space sick that NASA wags informally added a whole new category, labeled "Garn," to the sliding scale used for diagnosing nausea in orbit. Then Congressman (now Senator) Bill Nelson of Florida spent six days in space aboard the shuttle Columbia in January of 1986, the same month Challenger blew up, causing NASA to decide that maybe space flight was a risky enough job that it indeed ought best be left to the professionals...
Morgan, meantime, will fulfill McAuliffe's legacy, if in a slightly new capacity. No longer a Teacher in Space, but now an "Educator Astronaut," she will teach at least one live lesson from orbit, and up to two more if the mission is extended from 11 to 14 days, as it might be. She is also carrying a cargo of 10 million cinnamon basil seeds (a figure she playfully rounds up to "a kazillion,"), which will be distributed to schoolchildren to grow post-flight, so that they can observe any anomalies that might be attributable to the stint in weightlessness...
...planet, called HD 189733b, revolves around a bright star 64 light years from Earth. Scientists refer to the planet as a "hot Jupiter" (it's similar to but slightly larger than Jupiter - and keeps a much tighter orbit around its sun, ensuring a scorching climate). And they have examined it for water before. But earlier tests of the planet's atmosphere yielded uncertain results, so this time, astrophysicists tried something slightly different. When HD 189733b was passing in front of its sun, they observed the way electromagnetic radiation was absorbed by the planet's atmosphere. The authors of the current...
...going, the more propellant you need, but every pound of it you add means more mass the engine must propel, which requires more fuel still, and on and on. A spacecraft like Dawn, which is designed not just to fly by its two targets but also to settle into orbit around them, would require a massive load of onboard...
...ensure that it can uncover the secrets of both worlds, Dawn will ease itself into a six-month orbit around Vesta, then climb gradually back out and fly on to Ceres, which it will orbit for about five months. This is the part that would have been simply too fuel intensive for an ordinary spacecraft. Dawn, by contrast, should have enough xenon left over after its Ceres stay that mission planners might even consider sending it on to a third destination...