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I've made some wallpapers using images from the latest STS-128 Discovery mission, which has Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang aboard.

Pretty cool, huh?

They look great. BTW, does Fuglesang means "Birdsong" in Swedish?

I've often wondered why they locate the launchpad in a state so plagued by stormy weather and lightning in particular. (Though not enough to find out why, obviously.) Maybe it's the closest the US gets to the equator and a handy site for dumping used rockets in the water without launching outside the continental US?

panyasan wrote:They look great. BTW, does Fuglesang means "Birdsong" in Swedish?

Norwegian actually. His father is from Norway.

The reason Nasa likes to use Florida to launch shuttle missions has to do with the fact it's the right place to launch vehicles into space and has something to do with the equator and cape kennedy was picked for the Apollo missions. to being picked for the perfect place with the spaceshuttle being able to catch up to the international space station so they end up in the same orbit..I was just reading about it in a book about the Apollo missions.

OOOH, I love that lighthouse one! That's now my wallpaper on my new computer.

Reanok wrote:The reason Nasa likes to use Florida to launch shuttle missions has to do with the fact it's the right place to launch vehicles into space and has something to do with the equator and cape kennedy was picked for the Apollo missions.

Well, even before Launch Complex 39 was built for the Apollo missions (later modified for the Shuttle), NASA used the so called "missile row" at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to launch its earlier Mercury and Gemini missions, since they used Air Force missiles (Redstone, Atlas, Titan) as launch vehicles

But yeah, the relative proximity of the equator probably was the reason why the Air Force originally used it to launch ballistic missiles. And once they were there it was natural to expand the Cape as the main launch site for all space flights.

Ooooh, I really like that last one especially.

And some additional STS-128 wallpapers:

Kevin I really like the new wallpapers you posted that one of the Earth and Moon is gorgeous.

The mission is already finished, but I wanted to complete the set so here are the last STS-128 wallpapers:

Lovely wallpapers! The seventh from last one was kind of an illusion for me. Since you only see the blue of earth in the background and no black of space, it looked like I was looking up at the station in the sky from the ground.