Mike’s Personal Blog

Ever wondered what the role fo the human Appendix is?

In plant-eating vertebrates, the appendix is much larger and its main function is to help digest a largely herbivorous diet. The human appendix is a small pouch attached to the large intestine where it joins the small intestine and does not directly assist digestion. Biologists believe it is a vestigial organ left behind from a plant-eating ancestor. Interestingly, it has been noted by paleontologist Alfred Sherwood Romer in his text The Vertebrate Body (1949) that the major importance of the appendix “would appear to be financial support of the surgical profession,” referring to, of course, the large number of appendectomies performed annually. In 2000, in fact, there were nearly 300,000 appendectomies performed in the United States, and 371 deaths from appendicitis. Any secondary function that the appendix might perform certainly is not missed in those who had it removed before it might have ruptured.

During the launch, a batter of cameras trained on the shuttle captured a few debris falling of - one of which is believed to be a tile which is believed to have come from near a door covering the nose landing gear.  Initial estimates put the tile to be about 1.5 inches in size.  However, according to NASA officials, there is really nothing to worry about.  NASA’s flight operations manager, John Shannon, said it was too soon to determine the source of the debris, how large any possible defect might be and whether it poses any safety threat for the spacecraft.

"We did not come into this flight expecting to eliminate" all falling debris, he said at an evening news briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "But we knew that we had the tools available to us to characterize it."

In addition to the possible piece of tile, video showed a piece of debris falling from the external fuel tank as it separated from the orbiter.  The piece however, did not strike the shuttle.

The recent launch of space shuttle Discovery is NASA’s 114th space shuttle launch and it went on schedule at 10:39am ET July 27.  The launch followed days of troubleshooting to fix a faulty fuel sensor in Discovery’s external tank that led to cancellation of a launch July 13.

Now that the space shuttle is in space, let us all hope and pray that it comes home safely.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this very very special event.