Science and Exploration

Lunar Echoes on STS-130

By Keith Cowing
May 24, 2013
Filed under

Mementos from canceled NASA moon plan flying on space shuttle, Collectspace

“Together with a piece of Everest’s summit, also retrieved by Parazynski, the plaque-mounted moon rocks will be displayed inside Tranquility’s new seven-windowed Cupola to inspire the astronauts working there. “Imagine being in the Cupola and looking out this huge series of windows and looking at the Moon and having a piece of the Moon right next to you. What’s that going to be like? I have no idea. I’ll come back and tell you,” said STS-130 mission specialist Stephen Robinson. Robinson had a role in including aboard the flight another, albeit subtle, nod to NASA’s lunar exploration history in the form of his and his crewmates’ mission patch. The six-sided emblem, which was shaped to resemble the Cupola viewing port attached to Tranquility’s side, depicts the Earth as it was first seen in a photograph taken from the Moon by Lunar Orbiter I.”

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project

Mementos from canceled NASA moon plan flying on space shuttle, Collectspace

“Together with a piece of Everest’s summit, also retrieved by Parazynski, the plaque-mounted moon rocks will be displayed inside Tranquility’s new seven-windowed Cupola to inspire the astronauts working there. “Imagine being in the Cupola and looking out this huge series of windows and looking at the Moon and having a piece of the Moon right next to you. What’s that going to be like? I have no idea. I’ll come back and tell you,” said STS-130 mission specialist Stephen Robinson. Robinson had a role in including aboard the flight another, albeit subtle, nod to NASA’s lunar exploration history in the form of his and his crewmates’ mission patch. The six-sided emblem, which was shaped to resemble the Cupola viewing port attached to Tranquility’s side, depicts the Earth as it was first seen in a photograph taken from the Moon by Lunar Orbiter I.”

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.