The crew will also troubleshoot -- and with some luck, fix -- the NASA communication gear attached to the U.S.-built Unity module.

CNN: liftoff

Best of all, thanks to the enormous investment the U.S. Navy and its counterparts have made in the ships, sensors, communication gear, and other infrastructure needed for sea based missile defenses, the costs of putting such a capability in place are a fraction of those associated with other alternatives.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Get On With It: Time To Deploy Sea-Based Missile Defenses

My car, outfitted with a GPS position finder and an off-the-shelf wireless local area network (WLAN) communication system, was tipped off by another car carrying the same gear.

CNN: Behold the?all-seeing, self-parking, safety-enforcing, networked car