Happy Birthday Space Shuttle, let’s do launch!

While the space shuttle Discovery flies high above, we here down on Earth wish the crew a happy and safe 29th!! May your birthday bumps next week be cushioned and well-calculated.

Almost everyday I think about how amazing it is that there are actually people living and working in space. We have had a continual human presence in space for almost 10 years, and I think we should all take more time to recognize how cool it is that there is a real space station flying over our heads 16 times per day at over 27 000 km/hr! The space station is an incredible feat of human ingenuity that now shines brighter than Venus, but today we celebrate our intrepid space shuttles.

On this day 29 years ago the first space shuttle was launched, and the day also happens to mark the 49th anniversary of the first human space flight. Since 1981 the shuttle fleet of 6 sleek space planes have been boosting billions of dollars worth of planetary probes, satellites, telescopes and space station components into orbit. Now in the middle of it’s 131st mission, here’s a look back at the launch that started it all.

The launch of space shuttle Columbia was the realized, idealistic vision of NASA’s Space Transportation System (STS).  A fleet of reusable space planes that could ferry astronauts to orbit and land as gracefully as a bird. Construction began on Columbia in 1975, and in its life it would fly 27 pioneering missions for mankind until her tragic end in February 2003, when a damaged heat shield led to disaster on reentry. New precautions are now taken to ensure the remaining shuttles, Discovery Atlantis and Endeavour, will not meet a similar fate. Here’s a picture I came across of Columbia in her birthday suit.

As I write these words, the shuttle Discovery is delayed at the ISS, undergoing rigorous inspection to be sure its return on Monday is as safe as possible. Discovery’s next flight is scheduled to be the last space shuttle ever flown when NASA retires the fleet this year. With plans to return to Apollo-style capsules, it wont be long before everyday images of the space shuttle will start to look almost retro, with a historical stylish charm.

There are only 3 remaining shuttle missions left in this epic chapter of human history, and if you have never seen the space shuttle yourself, flying visibly over your head several times a day, I encourage you to click here to find out when the next visible passes are. Try to catch it next week when the shuttle separates from the ISS. It appears as 2 bright stars chasing each other across the night sky, and it is definitely one of the coolest thing I have ever seen.

And now, to mark the day, here’s what birthday candles look like in micro-gravity… Happy Birthday Space Shuttle, and Merry Russian Cosmonauts Day too!!

I wish for a space elevator