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Astronauts on space shuttle get wake-up call from Captain Kirk

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The team of the Space Shuttle Discovery lately received a “wake-up call” from “Captain Kirk” of the “Star Trek” series. The astronauts were awoken in the morning to the sounds of the “Star Trek” theme, complete with a specially recorded monologue from William Shatner. However, the quest is a bittersweet one for the team. This is the final trip for Discovery.
13 years ago, March 11th 2011 No: 1 Msg: #130843  



The team of the Space Shuttle Discovery lately received a “wake-up call” from “Captain Kirk” of the “Star Trek” series. The astronauts were awoken in the morning to the sounds of the “Star Trek” theme, complete with a specially recorded monologue from William Shatner. However, the quest is a bittersweet one for the team. This is the final trip for Discovery. Source of article - Space shuttle crew gets wake-up call from Captain Kirk by Newsytype.com.


'These are the voyages of the Shuttle Discovery\'



The crew on-board the Space Shuttle Discovery received a unique wake-up call from Earth while on a quest to the International Space Station, according to CNN. Discovery got a Houston broadcast that had William Shatner reading the “Star Trek” television series opening monologue at 3:23 a.m. on March 7. ”Captain Kirk” read the monologue with different words added to it. The original music nevertheless played:


"Space, the final frontier. These have been the voyages of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Her 30 year mission: to seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together in the final frontier. To boldly go, and do, what no spacecraft has done before.\"



Song came from competition at NASA



NASA allows the public to vote for songs to be used as a \"wake up call\" for astronauts in orbit through the NASA Song Contest. Almost every NASA mission in history has had a “wake up” tune played. Typically the NASA officials or family members of the astronauts picked the songs out though. Several years ago the voting began for this mission. Individuals were allowed to select from popular songs listed or submit original music. Versions of the “Star Trek” monologue were submitted by bother William Shatner and Patrick Stewart while the “Star Trek” theme has been really important to many. There has already been voting for the next quest. On April 19, the STS-134 will launch.



The final Discovery quest



The Shuttle Discovery will not go on anymore missions after this one. On Wed, March 9, Discovery and STS-133 team will both land at Cape Canaveral for the spacecraft’s final end. The Washington Times states that Endeavour and Atlantis have 2 final missions scheduled for April and July. Then, they\'ll be completed with also. When these shuttles are finished, only private companies that own and operate the “space ferry” crafts will be doing missions into space. NASA will work on making new spacecraft for the future.


Citations



CNN

cnn.com/2011/US/03/07/nasa.shuttle/index.html?hpt=T2



NASA Song Contest

songcontest.nasa.gov/home.aspx



History of NASA Wake up Songs

History.nasa.gov/wakeup calls.pdf



Washington Times

washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/7/space-shuttle-discovery-heads-home-to-retirement/?page=1

Reply to this

13 years ago, March 12th 2011 No: 2 Msg: #130940  
Harlene,

Thank you for your posting. I too, am sad that the space shuttle Discovery is making its final voyage. I think it is important to maintain our NASA space program. There is not enough money to support all of the work that we need to take care of but I'm sad this budget has been cut back. Reply to this

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