Racking Up The Miles

How many miles per gallon of fuel is that?

It took a lot of gas to get up to speed but once there, she coasts like a dream. The longer she stays up there, the better the mileage.

Q. What types of propellants are used in the Shuttle? How much do they weigh?

A. At liftoff, an orbiter and External Tank carry 835,958 gallons of the principle liquid propellants: hydrogen, oxygen, hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, and nitrogen tetroxide. The total weight is 1,607,185 pounds.

What about the solid rocket boosters on the side? Don't these exotic mixtures containing perchlorate salts?

Once it's up there, it will carry on orbiting until any of the following occurs:

• Its orbit decays, and it re-enters the atmosphere
• It incurs catastrophic impact with another object, and parts of it re-enter the atmosphere
• It is boosted to a speed that is in excess of Earth's escape velocity
• It is disassembled into kit form and returned whence it came by controlled re-entry.

So how is its continuing increase in mileage an achievement, given that the Moon is winning on that one?

what is a "whence"?

It is an opportunity to use Google to establish meaning.

advice from a snollygoster

Another good opportunity to use Google to establish meaning, however the invitation is declined.

you guys have a few words that are just nuts! I just came across this one today. Slang. One, especially a politician, who is guided by personal advantage rather than by consistent, respectable principles. Origin ofsnollygoster.

a clever, unscrupulous person.

That's the young damsel who brings the ale . . . .

Very close, but I believe that "whence" might be two (or more) of them.

Small British coin....