The launch and return of NASA space shuttle Discovery mission STS-13, which launched on February 24th, 2011 and made its return landing on March 9th, 2011, marked the end of NASA’s space shuttle program. But what does the end of the space shuttle program mean? What will be its successor?
Most of us have seen the pictures of the lone planet out in space with a dusty looking flat ring orbiting all of the way around it. These rings seem both alien and intriguing – why is it that some planets have rings and our own Earth does not, and which planets in our solar system have such rings?
Planet Earth is the third planet closes to the sun. Using the old saying, “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas,” it can be remembered that the order of the planets goes like this: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (if you consider it to be a planet). Accordingly, it would seem as though either Venus or Mars would be the closes planet to Earth. But which is it?
Here are 8 awesome pictures of the surface of planet Mars to give you a better idea of what Mars looks like up close.
Without having the engines that a typical passenger jet would have or the fuel to power them once the shuttle enters the atmosphere, the space shuttle seems as though it would be difficult to control and steer during its landing. How does a space shuttle land safely?