The narrator definitely said "statute miles" at least several times, but not every time. Sometimes he said only "miles" but he never said "nautical miles" or kilometers.
I don't know where the narrator was getting his mixed feeds, of meters per second, and of statute miles. Did anyone else watch the landing, live? Photographs of the landed Crew were later shown by NBC News. By the way, the Canadian in the Crew is also American, in the sense that Canada it a part of North America. Eugene Mechtly ________________________________ From: Kilopascal [kilopas...@cox.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:44 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:52768] Return From Orbit in Meters per Second Eugene, Are you sure it wasn't nautical miles? Did they actually use the word statute? Even if they did, they could have mistaken nautical miles for statute miles on a screen. Since the Russians use kilometres for land distance measures and also use nautical miles for aircraft and ships they may just call them miles as to them there is only this mile in existence. It is basically only the US & UK that uses two types of miles and confusion can happen if one isn't careful. It would make sense if NASA was getting a feed from Russia where the display gave speeds in metres per second and distances in nautical miles. What sense would there be for the Russians to measure speed in a metric unit and distance in USC? Also, is there another source of information for the landing other than NASA to know for sure? [USMA:52768] Return From Orbit in Meters per Second<http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=usma@colostate.edu&q=subject:%22%5BUSMA%3A52768%5D+Return+From+Orbit+in+Meters+per+Second%22> mechtly, eugene a<http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=usma@colostate.edu&q=from:%22mechtly%2C+eugene+a%22> Tue, 14 May 2013 10:12:04 -0700<http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=usma@colostate.edu&q=date:20130514> On the NASA TV Channel last evening, the descent speeds from the International Space Station were *narrated live* in "meters per second" but, regrettably, altitudes were narrated in statute miles, and, sadly, the return hardware was made in Russia. But, at least, that hardware was metric in design and fabrication, and the returning crew was American. Eugene Mechtly
