They have done it again. Discovery and her crew performed even better than last year. Lift off on the 4th of July, a highly successful mission and today a picture perfect landing. Well done crew of Discovery!
Is this fly fishing related? In a round about way, yes. N.A.S.A. has done much to improve the quality of our lives through their spin off technology. Like this p.c. I am using, my digital wrist watch, the high strength polymer that my canoe is made from and those wonderful composites we use in our rods and gear. Lets not forget the M.R.I., CAT scanner, G.P.S., satellite photography and telecommunications.
Perhaps we can get N.A.S.A. to experiment with fly casting in orbit. The F.A.O.L. patch would look great on a space suit.
MOturkE,
Hey, perhaps N.A.S.A. can invent a new type of “knot less” leader and tippet.
You and I have more in common than we think. In the early to mid eighties I was an Army helicopter Crew Chief and Enlisted Aeroscout. Used to fly every night mission or black op that they would let me fly. Following tradition my pilot hung my call sign Nighthawk on me. He was a Vietnam vet and night missions in 'Nam were called Nighthawk Missions. I had to coordinate Cobra attacks and air strikes delivered by you guys from the left seat of my scout helicopter. Guys like you and me made them fly!
For some reason the shuttle sonic boom (double boom) was louder this time than usual, at least it seemed louder. Set off house alarms and dog barking all over the area as usual .
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 17 July 2006).]
Well, Jack, at least you wouldn’t have to worry about your back cast dropping off! It would be interesting to see the action/reaction of the rod and line in a micro g environment.
Yep, watched the guys take off from our front yard and about ten minutes later the sound of the SRB’s shook our windows…beautiful sound. But this time they came home a little south of us, so we didn’t get the sonic booms. I always look up and say, “Welcome home, guys” when I hear them. In 1998 a friend of mine from Dallas and I were fishing Dummit’s Cove over in the Indian River and heard the booms…extremely close together and very loud, scared the hell out of both of us, and within a few minutes we heard a whistling sound. As we looked toward the sound the shuttle was on final and dropping like a rock. We watched her flare out and almost touch down, but the mangroves were a little too high. That’s something Johnny and I will never forget, besides he works for Lockheed/Martin, so it really knocked his socks off.
They’d probably take light years to untangle, too! 
