Welcome to California Atlantis!

May 24, 2009

After traveling around the Earth for 13 days, notching up 5.3 million miles, I'm sure the seven crew of Atlantis were a little frustrated at having to postpone their return to Florida due to bad weather. But Florida's loss is California's gain when mission control decided use the back-up option of landing at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.

For more on the STS-125 Hubble servicing mission check out Shuttle Crew Over the Moon at Hubble Success.

I thought we'd seen the last shuttle landing at Edwards when Discovery used the base as a backup landing strip late last year after the space station STS-126 mission, so this is a bonus.

Edwards is only two hours north from where I live, so I'm feeling itchy I should have made the effort to welcome in Atlantis this morning. Looking out the window, the shuttle will be enjoying some classic SoCal sunshine right about now.

But you know what this means don't you? We get to see some more 747-Shuttle piggyback action when NASA authorizes the mother of all cross-country taxi services! I thought we'd seen the last of that too.

Welcome to California Atlantis, we're very excited to have you visit!

Update (10:45am PST):

The STS-125 astronauts are walking around and beneath space shuttle Atlantis, taking a last look at the vehicle that served them well in orbit and brought them safely home to Edwards Air Force Base in California this morning. --NASA archives

Source: NASA

Sunrise Behind the Space Station

April 10, 2009

Let's keep this post short and get right to the goods.

Here's a stunning image of the International Space Station (ISS) as seen by NASA's space shuttle Discovery after undocking late last month:

Until the above shot came along, this image here was my desktop background. We can safely say "goodbye" to that one.

Click here for a high-res version of the new photo, which shows the sun rising (setting?) behind the Earth as the ISS floats about 200 miles above it.

Photo: ESA/NASA

Mars 500, Hubble's Winning Image, Yuri's Night Craziness (Video)

April 06, 2009

In this week's Discovery Space Wrap Up:
Mars500 trial run begins (aka 6 guys stuck in a tube for 105 days), Hubble Space Telescope's winning image of Arp 274 taken, and last but not least some crazy fun Yuri's Night parties:

Fat Milky Way, 3-D Supernova, Wearable Space Toilets and More

January 12, 2009

What happened in space last week, and what's coming up on Discovery Space:

Extreme Space Shuttle Sighting

July 28, 2008

Robert Pearlman over at CollectSPACE.com has a great post up today of extreme ways people have watched a space shuttle launch.

There are two videos:

1) The first was taken from an Air Canada flight by someone who likes to say "cool" and "holy $#@%" quite a bit. If I was filming from his vantage, though, I think I'd drop the s-bomb as well -- you can see the shuttle launch from the ground and ascend far beyond the altitude of the the plane. (Normal low-Earth orbit for the shuttle is about 210 miles...)

Based on the time of day and post date, it's either space shuttle Endeavour or Discovery during a launch from last year.

2) The second video is of space shuttle Atlantis's launch (STS-117) during a skydive. Ridiculous and amazing, and oddly filmed better than our friends from within the plane.

Kinda reminds me of what I'll be doing in a few days to catch a total solar eclipse... I'm super-excited about this, obviously.

P.S. If you can't see the embedded YouTube videos from Robert's site (I had a bit of trouble), here are some direct links for you:
Airplane video, Skydiving video

Photo caption: A little too extreme to be real.
Credit: loomingma/webshots.com

Alien-Believing Astronaut Speaks Up

July 25, 2008

After news reports broke about Edgar Mitchell being quoted on the radio about his beliefs in aliens and UFOs, my fellow blogger Irene Klotz (blogger for Free Space) gave him a ring to say "what up?"

Here's a link to Irene's question-and-answer session with him over the phone.

I'm not quite certain what to think about Edgar now, because he seems to me -- in my non-psychological-expert opinion -- pretty sane in the interview.

It almost makes we wish I were a kid again... Then way I could lie belly-down on the floor in front of his chair with my chin in my hands and say "grandpa Edgar, can you tell me about UFOs and aliens?" and, without question, believe everything he says.

Alas, the skeptic inside me can't. Not until I see those aliens walk out of Wright Patterson Air Force Base...

Do you believe him?

Photo: stock.xchng

Former Astronaut: Govt. Covered Up Aliens

July 24, 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell has claimed on an Australian radio show that governments have covered up evidence of alien visits to Earth during the past 60 years...

Check out this Daily Mail article, which I don't think was the first to break the print/online news, but hey it works: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1037471/Apollo-14-astronaut-claims-aliens-HAVE-contact--covered-60-years.html

Mitchell made the announcement on a radio show called Kerrang!, which is hosted by Nick Margerrison. Here's an interesting snip:

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it."

"Some of us"? And who, exactly, briefed Mitchell on a super-intelligent alien race visiting our planet? These are some questions I'd like answered.

Personally, my skeptic alarm is ringing to a deafening level...

Now Robert Pearlman over at CollectSPACE.com has offered his views on this, and I think it's the clearest assessment I've read of the account so far. Here's a snip (be sure to check out his full comments here):

"I was curious if Dr. Mitchell was misquoted, so I found the original Kerrang! radio interview, quoted by the Daily Mail (and other news sources).

Based on the nine minute call, it (a) doesn't seem to be anything tremendously different from prior comments and writings by Dr. Mitchell, and (b) he isn't actually claiming first-hand knowledge but rather repeating what he was told by others. It is no secret that Dr. Mitchell's Noetic Science Institute attracts those that believe in extraterrestrials..."

I think it's safe to say that this will be another one of those wild claims from a public figure that will disappear.

But who knows, maybe tomorrow aliens will walk out of Wright Patterson Air Force Base's secret underground lair blowing kisses and shouting "You got PUNK'd, Earth!!" Ashton Kutcher, of course, would walk out with them, donning that backwards hat of his.

A big shout to Steve for alerting me about this.

UPDATE July 24, 12:30 p.m. ET: Added information from Robert Pearlman of CollectSPACE.com, who has managed, I think, to meet just about every living astronaut out there. And their moms. Click here to see the signature Pearlman has from our source in question.

Photo: NASA

Comin' Up: Space Week!

July 04, 2008

When We Left Earth may have blown us away in full HD TV, but yet another series bound to keep us planted on the couch is coming up: Space Week!

The Science Channel puts this smattering of spacey shows together each year, and, being a huge nerd, you know I'll be tuning in.

A chap named Otto Gessler (right) will be hosting the event, and you can read his bio here.

What you might not know is that Nick Scalera (who blogs for Is This A Good Idea?) helped put together a cool Web site to kick off the event, which you can find here.

It's got a Solar Symphony Game, where you test your reflexes with a not-so-scale model of the solar system (be sure to crank up the volume). Need to brush up on your lunar history? There's a great slideshow you can check out. There's a lot more fun stuff I'm not mentioning, so check out the site.

As for the shows you can catch during Space Week, here is a full schedule (I'm especially looking forward to the Moon Machines premier). So pick up your remote and tune in, from July 6 to July 11. You know the space geek inside you has been waiting all year for this...

NASCAR Driver "NASA'd" Out of Big Ride

June 17, 2008

It sounds like a bad practical joke. Too bad it's true.

NASA offers Ryan Newman, NASCAR's Daytona 500 winner, a chance to drive one of the biggest vehicles on Earth -- the 6-million-pound crawler transporter -- today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (You know, the huge tank-looking thing that drives the space shuttle out to the launch pad.)

Then, roughly a day before the event, NASA informs Newman: "Sorry bud, you're driving the AstroVan."

The AstroVan? What a drag.

Not to hate on the AstroVan -- it's dutifully carried astronauts to space shuttle launch pads since 1981. But given the choice of commanding  a 27-year-old motor home or one of the biggest vehicles on Earth, I'd pick the big guns... wouldn't you?

Unless someone has already coined the word "NASA'd," I'll attempt to take credit now:

NASA'd [nas-uhd]: verb, transitive
    1. To deprive by bureaucracy: "they totally NASA'd him out of a crawler-transporter ride."
    2. To fail at generating public interest:   "they really NASA'd their media event today."

Dirty Jobs star Mike Rowe got to saddle up on the crawler-transporter last year, so why did Newman get NASA'd out of his chance?

Headquarters spokesperson John Yembrick told me on the phone that it was a matter of safety for the vehicle: They didn't want to expose the machine to unnecessary wear and tear.

Ok, sound logic there. We wouldn't want Newman breaking the shuttle's only ride out to the launch pad and trashing the September Hubble telescope servicing mission.

But why organize the event in the first place and put out this release less than a week prior? The higher-ups within NASA's Office of Space Operations, Yembrick said, apparently decided against it at the last minute.

NASA has increasingly more to lose as inflation cuts into its flat  funding, but come on -- this is like giving a 16-year-old with a fresh  driver's license a tricycle when you promised him to let him back the Porsche 930 Turbo Carrera out of the driveway.

I think they could have afforded to give Newman a few minutes in the driver's seat. At the very least, they could have given our race-car-driving friend a chance to steer the astronaut's super-cool launch pad escape tank (see left).

Mean ol' NASA. But at 50, I suppose you might excuse them for being a bit cranky.

P.S. The crawler-transporter is big, but look at this thing, the MAN Takraf RB293 -- the largest vehicle on the planet. It's a coal-mining machine that weighs 91 million  pounds, or about 15 crawler-transporters, making NASA's rig the  second-largest vehicle ever.

UPDATE, JUNE 18: Newman did sit in the driver's seat of the crawler, as this News-Journal story describes, but didn't drive it. So NASA let the 16-year-old in my previous analogy climb into the Porsche 930 Turbo Carerra (that goes 1 mph), but without the keys. Thanks to Free Space blogger Irene Klotz for the link.

Photos - top/center: NASA; bottom: ThyssenKrupp