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Shuttle Atlantis Landing Video, As Per Heinlein
Space shuttle Atlantis returned safely today. The crew of seven landed at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, after delivering the European space station lab. Take a look at the nicely done video.
(Space shuttle Atlantis landing video Feb. 20, 2008)
I just thought that today was as good a day as any to mention that Robert Heinlein was an early visionary/popularizer for the idea of a space shuttle. In his 1951 book Between Planets, he describes the idea specifically.
A shuttle ship up from the surface could leave any spot on Venus, rendezvous with the ship in orbit, then land on its port of departure or on any other point having expended a theoretical minimum of fuel... They were more airplane than spaceship...
(Read more about Heinlein's shuttle ships)
Update 08-Jun-2016: Take a look at this entry, the first use of the phrase "space shuttle", in Hell Ship of Space (1940) by Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr.. End update.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/20/2008)
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