Blog Editor's Note: Here at spacebook mission control in Rolla, we are serving as the moderator between you and Dr. Magnus. We have been receiving all of your comments and questions. But, obviously, we need to give Sandra time to get ready for the launch. Once she's settled at the space station, we should be able to get some of your new questions answered. In the meantime, we're going to continue to post Sandra's answers to questions presented to her last summer by kids attending S&T's Aerospace Camp. Thanks for interacting with this blog! Keep the comments coming. P.S. Remember that Friday's launch is scheduled for 6:55 p.m. Central.

How long does it take to get out of the earth's atmosphere?
-- Jax (Team Explorer)

MAGNUS: The shuttle reaches orbit in 8.5 minutes, but we are well out of the Earth's atmosphere after only a few moments of flight. Our atmosphere blankets our planet as a very thin sphere and this is very obvious when you look out of the window and see the horizon. You can understand this intellectually when you think about the circumference of the Earth - on the order of 25,000 miles. You are out of the life supporting part of our atmosphere well after 50 miles up. Think of how thin a layer of air that is in comparison to the size of our planet!