Space Shuttle Landing – VIDEOS

Posted on 31. Jul, 2009 by fondue in News, Tech, Video

The space shuttle Endeavor has touched down safely at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its seven astronauts successfully completed a 16 day mission to the International Space Station, which included five spacewalks. In addition, the shuttle delivered a new crew member, flight engineer Tim Kopra, to the Space Station and picked up Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who had been living there for over three months. Do you realize there are now people living in space 365 days a year?

The ship was commanded by Mark Polansky, piloted by Marine Col. Doug Hurley,, and carried mission specialists Navy Cmdr. Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, and Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency. This landing marks the 125th time NASA has successfully completed a shuttle mission.

Endeavour first flew a space mission in May 1992 and is scheduled for decommissioning in 2010. NASA is now focusing its efforts on building a new rocket (as opposed to a space shuttle) for a return trip to the Moon.

The landing:

Here’s the view from the cockpit, so you can feel like you’re landing the space shuttle yourself. It’s such a foreign perspective; you don’t even realize what you’re looking at until about four-and-half minutes in. Funny note: the astronauts call the clouds “undercast” (instead of “overcast”).

Watch streaming video of the astronauts from Spacevidcast.com:

Tags: Christopher Cassidy, Dave Wolf, Doug Hurley, endeavor landing, international space station, Julie Payette, koichi wakata, Mark Polansky, NASA, space shuttle endeavor, Tech, Tim Kopra, Tom Marshburn