KmartQuality

KmartQuality t1_jbtg306 wrote

Reply to comment by S0whaddayakn0w in The van I converted by gnivilnav

I'm sure the weight of everything in the conversion of this van doesn't exceed the rated load capacity. All that stuff isn't really that heavy. It can hold a lot more, and still probably has enough oomph to pull a trailer.

This is still classified as class C automobile in America, at least. An ordinary car that requires an ordinary license. If be surprised if the whole thing is 6000 pounds with everything installed. There are some big cars at that weight.

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KmartQuality t1_j6omryq wrote

There's no special reason the flight wouldn't have been aloft 4 months earlier or the flare happened 4 months later.

Substitute 18 years (or 4 days) for 4 months and the sentence is the same.

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KmartQuality t1_j6azxed wrote

It was otherwise a routine mission but it had the added dimension of having a non-professional astronaut school teacher on board. She was supposed to do live lessons from space or something. There were school activities planned. It was a huge nationwide thing.

Shuttle missions were routine by then but this one had much MUCH more attention paid to it and it was played live in schools across the country.

I was in 5th grade and I remember getting my first early lessons in physics in the days before the launch.

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KmartQuality t1_j6ayqcp wrote

I was in 5th grade.

I live on the west coast so it was all finished by the time school started.

At line-up in the yard before school I noticed all the teachers were talking and some were visibly upset. I asked a kid what happened.

He said, "A teacher blew up!" To a fifth grader that's a funny joke. Obviously teachers don't just blow up. I cracked up laughing and said, "She BLEW ALL THE WAY UP?"

Half a dozen teachers turned to stare at me and my teacher grabbed my arm and told me how unfunny that was. I got detention. This teacher never got mad and never touched a kid but she was hurting then and this really sent her to the stratosphere.

That's how I remember that day.

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