Starship Asterisk*

---

As alert APOD viewers know, a couple of times a month or so, an image that previously appeared on APOD may be rerun, usually on a Sunday, possibly with updated text and/or links and/or as a larger image. There are good reasons to rerun images, and those reasons are covered very nicely in the APOD FAQ (Q4).

Do you have a favorite APOD from that past -- at least three years old -- that you think should be updated and shown again? If so, please help the editors out and nominate it by specifying:

• APOD Title (Date)
• Link to the APOD
• Optional: A few words on why you are nominating the image

Thank you!

---

STS-1: First Shuttle Launch (2001 Apr 12)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010412.html

First Shuttle flight STS-1 (20th anniversary post)

2001 April 12.

End of an era. Who would have thought in 1981 (When I was 30 years old) that at the end of the Space Shuttle flights, America would be incapable of putting a man in orbit, and NASA would have nothing in progress to do so.

50th Anniversary of Sputnik: Traveling Companion (2007 Oct 4)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071004.html

As we reflect on the future of spaceflight, where we go from here, and as Cody says, America's current inability to put a man in orbit, I suggest we go further back to Sputnik and mention how the space race has gone full circle with now only the Russians having the ability to put a man in orbit.

Sad isn't it?

Looking for APODs? Here's one way to do so: using the calendar. Very handy!

There's also the image archive, and of course, the search feature works well, too.

The Flight of Helios (2007 July 22)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070722.html

The Most Distant Sun (2007 July 09)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070709.html

The Solar Spectrum (2003 June 29)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030629.html

The heatwave makes it seems apropos to use the sun or 'look' at it.
GOSH I love that last one, that is SUCH a pretty spectrum.

Liftoff of Space Shuttle Columbia (1995 Aug 06)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950806.html
STS-1 First Shuttle Launch (1981 Apr 12)

To Fly Free in Space (2002 Sep 24)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020924.html
First untethered space walk (1984 Feb 7)

In rememberance of an era now completed (and hopefully back soon in a new fleet), I suggest a tribute to the very first shuttle launch in 1981! the picture of the Columbia launch originally displayed on APOD Aug. 6, 1995. Or maybe just a cool picture of an untethered space flight, see APOD Sept 24,2002.

The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula (2005 Aug 03)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050803.html

Michael Sherick's 'The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula" -- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050803.html, run August 2005. There are many excellent views of the Lagoon Nebula but this one always goes straight to my heart.

It's been over a year since any sun pillar has been featured. This one is particularly nice:
A Sun Pillar in Red and Violet (2006 Feb 5)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060205.html

This one is made me catch my breath because of the text:
Launch of the Sun Pillar (2003 Jan 23)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030123.html

Iapetus hasn't been featured lately, either, and this image has been seen only once on APOD, and I think it's kind of cool:
4,000 Kilometers Above Saturn's Iapetus (2007 Sep 19)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070919.html

And I like this image, and there's an interactive one (still) available, too, whichi is cool. Also fits the theme that others have suggested of the US's space program, and this image has been shown on APOD only once:
An Apollo 17 Panorama (2002 Jan 28)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020128.html

link: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950812.html
title: Atlantis Landing
I also like the idea of featuring the shuttle. Any of the images will do. I particularly like this one, of Atlantis landing at Edwards. I live in southern California, near the coast. The returning shuttles often crossed the coastline early in the morning, and we'd hear the double sonic-boom and wake up thinking 'they're home'. I miss that.

I nominate the Shuttle Ferry, the Boeing 747 aircraft transporting the last Space Shuttle 'Atlantis' back from California to Florida, shown as the Astronomy Picture of the Day on 8 July 2007 (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070708.html). This would be a fitting - and majestic - tribute to the end of the Space Shuttle era.

Rob Yule, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Boo All from Aust,

In short, anything Shuttle. Shame it is all over. Endeavour would be a good subject mainly because of Australia's links to her namesake and she is the baby of the fleet...missed out on all the extra flights. Then Columbia ought to get a run. She was the first and the one everyone will learn about during history lessons.

This one remains a most impressive image never to be repeated: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110608.html

So while we consign this volume to the silence and dust of the upper shelf, many can say...."We saw that".

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080427.html
The Galactic Center Radio Arc
It would be interesting to know if anything new has been learned about super-massive black holes like Sagittarius A in the last three years.

Titled "A Starry Night In Brazil" http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090509.html

I think this picture is wonderful. Photographically, astronomically, it's just beautiful. So much can be learned from studying it for a few minutes. Not to mention, I would assume that most of APOD's fans are in the northern hemisphere, in which case this is a brand new sky that many people have never seen (myself included). Amazing

Cody wrote:STS-1: First Shuttle Launch (2001 Apr 12)
End of an era. Who would have thought in 1981 (When I was 30 years old) that at the end of the Space Shuttle flights, America would be incapable of putting a man in orbit, and NASA would have nothing in progress to do so.

i share your sadness. nasa has done so much for the world and especially america. it really is tragic that the country's economic policy has been taken over by fools ignorant of the fact that nasa generates $1.50 for ever $1 it's given.

owlice wrote:Looking for APODs? Here's one way to do so: using the calendar. Very handy!

Thanks for posting the APOD [Calendar] link. I didn't know the feature is available.

I would nominate this APOD from 05-23-10 as tribute to the shuttle program ans as a sight that can never be recaptured in the future

BMAONE23, that's a great (great!) image, but generally, repeats are a couple years old or more.

robertmf, you're welcome. There's a link to the Calendar at the bottom of every APOD; ditto links to the Archive and Search features. I think the links so often go unnoticed that several times a year, the APOD editors should make them blink or dance or make one after another big/bold/bright red/etc. periodically, just so people see them again!

Here is another Atlantis vision never to be repeated from APOD July-08-2007 and here is an older image of Atlantis and the (more incomplete) ISS from APOD Sept-21-2006 But I still like the newer version better from APOD May-23-2010

Maneuvering in Space (2006 May 22)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060522.html

Home from Above (2008 December 30)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081230.html

Tungurahua Erupts (2007 September 18)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070918.html

Uranian Moons, Rings, And Clouds (1997 Nov 26)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap971126.html
We need to know what's happens into our own backyard Thanks