Vicharan in Space

Tuesday 2 July 2002, USA

Nasa recently launched the space shuttle COLUMBIA from Florida, USA. One of the astronaut on board the COLUMBIA was James H. Newman of Houston, TX. One of our devotee Dr.Bharat Patel lives in the same area as astronaut James. H. Newman in Houston. Dr. Bharat Patel kindly requested the astronaut to take a small murti of Lord Swaminarayan and H.D.H. Pramukh Swami Maharaj in space. We appreciate astronaut James. H. Newman's gesture and pray to Lord Swaminarayan for world peace.

About space shuttle, COLUMBIA:

COLUMBIA launched from Pad A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Its crew of seven astronauts completed a rendezvous and grapple of Hubble Space Telescope; five spacewalks to install new solar arrays, a new power control unit, and the Advance Camera for Surveys; and a successful reboost and deploy of Hubble.

COLUMBIA orbited the Earth 165 times, traveling 4.5 million miles in almost 11 days, before landing on Runway 33 back at Kennedy Space Center.