lnxguru
01-04-2008, 07:41 PM
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A jet owned by the founders of Mountain View-based Google too flight on Thursday on a scientific mission to view a meteor shower.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to produce more than 100 visible meteors per hour during its peak.
The Gulfstream V jet took off from Mineta San Jose International Airport at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
NBC11 was not granted access to the tarmac. The take-off and landing are both off-limits to the media.
The aircraft full of NASA scientists and their instruments was scheduled to fly for 10 hours over the Arctic and back to San Jose.
In September, NASA revealed a $2.6 million agreement with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, to let the billionaires house their aircraft at Moffett Field.
In exchange, NASA gets to do some occasional science work using the craft.
This is not Google's first foray into space.
The company is also funding a new space race through the Google Lunar X Prize competition.
Google will hand out $30 million to the company that comes up with a feasible plan to bring people to the moon.
Source: NBC 11 (http://www.nbc11.com/news/14972576/detail.html)
The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to produce more than 100 visible meteors per hour during its peak.
The Gulfstream V jet took off from Mineta San Jose International Airport at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
NBC11 was not granted access to the tarmac. The take-off and landing are both off-limits to the media.
The aircraft full of NASA scientists and their instruments was scheduled to fly for 10 hours over the Arctic and back to San Jose.
In September, NASA revealed a $2.6 million agreement with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, to let the billionaires house their aircraft at Moffett Field.
In exchange, NASA gets to do some occasional science work using the craft.
This is not Google's first foray into space.
The company is also funding a new space race through the Google Lunar X Prize competition.
Google will hand out $30 million to the company that comes up with a feasible plan to bring people to the moon.
Source: NBC 11 (http://www.nbc11.com/news/14972576/detail.html)