Re: OT: Phoenix has landed!

On Wed, 28 May 2008 11:19:23 +0100, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)"
<mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2008 09:05:39 +0100, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)"
<mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2008 07:38:05 GMT, "Django Cat"
<notareal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hatunen wrote:


Once landed the mission was turned over to Phoenix mission
control here in Tucson

Is Tuscon mission control in Phoenix?

T-u-c-s-o-n

A regrettable name for the lander, which has nothing to do with
our dreary state capital save the fact that they are both named
for a certain mythical bird.

Hang about... I just played this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7419836.stm. The reporter closes by
saying he's at Mission Control in Pasadena (I think). Is he lost?

Mission Control in Pasadena handled the "truck driving": the
delivery of the lander to the surface of Mars. Control of the
lander is now with Tucson.

I almost forgot the folks at Cape Canaveral who control the
launch.

Interesting factoid about the Cape: After the JFK assassination,
many places were hastily renamed after him, including the Cape.
Then, some years later, it reverted to its old name. Here's why:

==============

Dear Cecil: [Adams]

Can you tell me why they changed the name of the U.S. space center
from Cape Kennedy back to its original name, Cape Canaveral? --S.M.J.,
Atlanta, Georgia


Sure, but let's get our facts straight: they didn't change the name
of the space center, they changed the name of the cape--i.e., the land
under the space center (or under part of it, anyway). The NASA launch
facility continues to be known as the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
The whole confusing business got started back on November 27, 1963,
shortly after JFK's assassination, when Lyndon Johnson was casting
about for a suitable memorial for the slain president. Jackie Kennedy
suggested it might be appropriate to rename Cape Canaveral--after all,
her husband had been a big space-exploration buff, and had launched
the Apollo program that would eventually put a man on the moon.

Now, your average president would have taken "Cape Canaveral" to mean
merely "the Cape Canaveral launch facility," which at the time
consisted of two installations--Station Number 1 of the Atlantic
Missile Range (operated by the Department of Defense) and the NASA
Launch Operation Center. LBJ, however, was never one for halfway
measures. In an exhibition of his legendary arm-twisting skills, he
got the Department of the Interior's Board of Geographic Names to
agree to changing the name of the cape itself in a record three hours,
enabling him to announce the rechristening of both cape and center in
his Thanksgiving Day message.

Nobody objected to renaming the space center, but quite a number of
Floridians were peeved about changing the name of the cape, which had
been called Canaveral for more than 400 years. It had been sighted by
Ponce de Leon in 1513, was named by other Spaniards not long after
that, and appears as Cape Canaveral on the earliest French and Spanish
maps of the area. ("Canaveral" is supposedly Spanish for "place of
tall reeds.") The nearby towns of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa promptly
sent resolutions protesting the change to LBJ and the governor of
Florida, but in the hysterical atmosphere following the assassination
nobody paid much attention. Nonetheless, state historical groups and
others persevered in their efforts to get the old name back, and
eventually a resolution to that effect was introduced in the U.S.
Senate.

Witnesses at a committee hearing on the matter were uniformly in favor
of resurrecting the name, but Congress was reluctant to act,
presumably because it might appear disrespectful to the late
president. Finally, having gotten fed up with waiting for Uncle Sam to
do anything, the Florida legislature passed a resolution stating its
intention to try to get the name changed on maps regardless of what
Congress did. What sort of behind-the-scenes scrambling followed this
declaration is not clear, but on October 9, 1973, the Board of
Geographic Names unanimously agreed to restore the old name. Ted
Kennedy wrote a brief letter saying his family "understand[s] the
decision," and that was that.

=========================

Some years ago I had a VIP ticket (obtainable through one's
Congress-critter) to watch a NIGHT launch! Can you IMAGINE how
spectacular! But the launch, as often happens, was postponed several
times, while I kept paying to change my plane ticket, but finally had
to give it up, as I had to meet a ship at Ft. Lauderdale at a date
certain.

However, I did tour KSC and WOW was it worth it!
Einfach fantastisch! Go if you ever have a chance and are
a fellow space freak (or even if not). Ideal for a family trip; kids
would love it.

Aspasia

.

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