 
Goodbye, space shuttle!
Nalaka GUNAWARDENE and Vindana ARIYAWANSA
The US space agency NASA’s Space Shuttle
programme has just ended after 30 years. Space Shuttle Atlantis
performed STS-135 mission which was the final flight by a Space Shuttle:
it lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on July 8,
2011, and landed at the same facility on 21 July after 200 orbits around
Earth and a journey of 5,284,862 miles. Thus ended three decades of
exploration that taught humanity much about how people can live, work
and thrive in near orbital space. The space shuttle was developed in the
1970s as a reusable launch system and orbital spacecraft for human space
flights.
The first of four orbital test flights
occurred in 1981, and operational flights commenced in 1982. Starting
with Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and
Endeavour, the space shuttles have carried people into orbit repeatedly;
launched, recovered and repaired satellites; conducted cutting-edge
research; and built the largest structure in space todate - the
International Space Station. The winged Space Shuttle could be launched
vertically, usually carrying four to seven astronauts (although eight
have been carried) and up to 50,000 lb (22,700 kg) of payload into low
earth orbit.
The shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to achieve
orbit and land, and the only reusable space vehicle that has ever made
multiple flights into orbit.
1 Each Space Shuttle was designed with a projected lifespan of 100
launches, or 10 years of operational life. Of the five Space Shuttles,
which one flew the most number of missions? By its last mission in March
2011, it had flown a combined 148 million miles (238 million km) on 39
missions, completed 5,830 Earth orbits, and spent a total of 365 days in
orbit in over 27 years.
 2 Of the five Space Shuttles, two were lost in tragic accidents. The
first was when Challenger blew up just 73 seconds after the launch of
its 10th mission on 28 January 1986 killing all seven of its crew
members and grounding the entire fleet for two-and-a-half years. The
Space Shuttle missions resumed in 1988 with the launch of Space
Shuttle Discovery. Challenger itself was later replaced by another Space
Shuttle which first launched in 1992. What was its name? (It
was constructed from spare parts originally meant for Challenger and the
other shuttles in the fleet.)
3 The first prototype Space Shuttle orbiter built in the 1970s to
perform test flights in the atmosphere. As it was constructed without
engines or a functional heat shield, it could not actually travel to
space on its own, but conducted a successful series of glide-approach
and landing tests that were the first real validation of the design.
These tests paved the way for all Space Shuttles that followed. This
test shuttle was originally planned to be named Constitution, but a
massive write-in campaign from fans of the Star Trek television series
convinced the White House to change the name to the name of the
futuristic spaceship in that series. What was the name?
 4 On 5 July 2011, Madame Christine Lagarde became the new Managing
Director of the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. She is the 10th
person to head this body, and also the fifth French national and first
woman to hold the post. The first Director General of IMF was a national
of Belgium, who served as Managing Director from May 1946 to May 1951.
Who was he?
5 Twitter is a website, owned and operated by the San Francisco-based
Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and micro-blogging
service. It allows users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets
are very short, text-based posts displayed on the user’s profile page
at www.twitter.com, and sometimes described as ‘SMS of the Internet’. In
mid 2011, it was estimated to have 200 million users worldwide. What is
the maximum number of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation marks or
spaces) permitted in a single tweet?
6 She is a 44 year old successful Thai business woman and a graduate
in political science and business administration. She has never before
run for office nor held a government post. Yet she heads the Pheu Thai
Party which won a landside victory in Thailand’s general election held
on July 3, 2011, making her the first woman prime minister of her
country. What is her name?
7 While the Prime Minister is head of government in Thailand, the
king is the head of state. The current king of Thailand, born in 1927,
has reigned since June 9, 1946 which makes him the world’s
longest-serving current head of state and also the longest-reigning
monarch in Thai history. He is known as Rama IX in the monarchical
tradition of Thailand. What is his full name?
8 South Sudan is the world’s newest independent state. It became an
independent state on July 9, 2011 at midnight (00:00) local time
following a referendum in January 2011 in which nearly 99 per cent of
voters opted for independence from the rest of Sudan. On July 14, 2011,
South Sudan became a member state of the United Nations. This country of
8.2 million people is spread over 619,745 square kilometres in eastern
Africa. What is its largest city which has become the capital of the new
state?
 9 Until South Sudan seceded to become a separate state in July 2011,
Sudan was the largest country by land area on the African continent. It
is no longer. Which country in northern Africa, covering a total of
2,381,741 square kilometres, is now the largest country on the African
continent? It is also the 10th largest country in the world.
10 Versatile and accomplished Sri Lankan film actress Malini Fonseka
won the Silver Peacock Award in the 39th International Film Festival of
India (IFFI) in 2009. The festival organizers said the award was a
“tribute to her accomplishment and a celebration to cinema”. For her
performance in which Sinhala film was she thus honoured?
11 Standing at over 800 metres, this building has smashed the
previous world record of Taiwan’s Taipei 101 as the tallest building in
the world. This means that four out of five of the world’s tallest
buildings now are in Asia or the Middle East. Name this latest tallest
building of the world, which measures 828 m (2,716 feet 6 inches),
developed by Emaar Properties and officially opened on January 4, 2010.
12 The women’s 400 m world record of 47.60 seconds was set in Canbera,
Australia, on October 6, 1985 by a runner from German Democratic
Republic (or East Germany, as it was then called). It still remains
unbroken. Who holds this world record?
13 During World War Two, the Japanese Sea and Air Task Force raided
Colombo harbour and Ratmalana airport. Two ships - an armed merchant
cruiser and a submarine deport ship which were in Colombo harbour - were
also damaged. A number of buildings and workshops in the vicinity of
Colombo harbour were destroyed by the Japanese bombing. Name the date on
which Japanese bombed Colombo.
14 Of the 54 member states of the Commonwealth, one member state
remains suspended in response to the unlawful change of government in
that country. This follows the decisions taken by the Commonwealth
Ministerial Action Group on July 31, 2009, which suspended the country
from membership of the Commonwealth on September 1, 2009. What is this
country?
15 The human body is made up of the same chemical elements available
in the physical world. The top 10 elements in the human body account for
99 per cent of the total body mass, with the balance being made up of
minute quantities of metallic elements. Which chemical element is found
the most, in terms of weight, in an average adult human body?
Answers will be published next week.
Last week’s answers
1. Last Man in Tower
2. River of Smoke
3. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
4. Hispaniola
5. John Dalton (1766 – 1844)
6. Ioan Gruffudd
7. UNESCO World Heritage list
8. Dr Christopher Riley
9. Yann Arthus-Bertrand
10. Mahatitta
11. Rinderpest, which is an epizootic, an animal disease
12. Somalia
13. Walter Frederick Morrison
14. Fiji
15. Cashew |
