February 09, 2006
Of interest only to airplane geeks.
Massive plane, NASA's Super Guppy, lands in Huntsville
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — NASA's Super Guppy, a massive aircraft described as a warehouse with wings, has touched down in Huntsville, bringing with it a habitation module for the International Space Station.
The European-built Supper [sic] Guppy, which left from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, arrived at Redstone Airfield on Wednesday afternoon. NASA engineers plan to use the 8,496-pound habitat module to develop advance life support systems for trips to the moon and other missions. [...]
Looks straight off of a Disney cartoonist's board, but they're pretty darned cool. Read all about it here, and see all the ones that came before, all the way back to 1962, here.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at February 9, 2006 01:40 PMMy brother loads and unloads the cargo from the Guppy. I suppose that if you have trained to swing crane loads over nuclear reactors, you can handle space station parts and airplanes.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at February 9, 2006 01:57 PMOne would hope.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 9, 2006 02:01 PMSweet. Do they give rides?
"... for trips to the moon and other missions." One of these days, Alice - bang, zoom!
If they put sharp fangy teeth on it, then it would look like a piranha.
Bonus Question for the day:
How many styrofoam peanuts can it hold and still be able to fly?
[answer = 3,824,631]
Posted by: MarcV at February 9, 2006 02:13 PMMy brother doesn't do the styrofoam peanut loading or unloading.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at February 9, 2006 02:15 PM[Carson] I did not know that! That is some wild, wacky stuff! [/Carson]
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 9, 2006 02:16 PMGuppies for Supper? Doesn't sound like much of a meal.
Maybe if you add the packing peanuts...
Posted by: skinnydan at February 9, 2006 02:58 PMI bet if you squish a bunch together around a wooden stick, dip 'em in cornbread batter, and deep-fry 'em, you'd have yourself one tasty supper treat!
MMMmmm--Cornuppies! Ask for them by name!
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 9, 2006 03:04 PMInstead of cornbread batter, how about a batter made from crushed packing peanuts? Mmmm, give it that "astronaut explorer modern-age" taste.
Or better yet! Remember when there was that big deal with all that astronaut food way back when the space program got started? Well, we could mash up some guppies and styrofoam and cornbread, and put it in a cool squeeze tube!
Squishy!
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 9, 2006 03:24 PMThat was my thoought too. You just need to freeze-dry it, and you can charge 9 bucks a shot.
Oh, and let's not confuse Cornuppies with CornPuppies. Or Hush Puppies, for that matter.
Posted by: skinnydan at February 9, 2006 03:27 PM
I think the puppy-blending Glenn Reynolds has the market cornered on CornPuppies.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at February 9, 2006 03:32 PM