Space

If you see a flashing light while looking at the moon, it might not be an optical illusion but an meteoroid impact; from 100 Explosions on the Moon (NASA): Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times. : “Even … Read more

The Phoenix Mars Lander has landed. Perfect landing. Congrats to the Phoenix Lander team… Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude. …and the Children of the Earth continue … Read more

Very neat… Europe’s ATV first automated docking. 3 April 2008 ESA PR 20-2008. ATV Jules Verne, the European Space Agency’s first resupply and reboost vehicle, has successfully performed a fully automated docking with the International Space Station (ISS). This docking marks the beginning of Jules Verne’s main servicing mission to deliver cargo, propellant, water, oxygen … Read more

I found two very cool videos (YouTube) of STS-123 night launch. Night launches are the coolest, with literally night becoming day. The two videos are from different point of views and distances of/from the launch pad. The cracking sound from the solid rocket boosters (and main engines) is one of the cool things to experience; … Read more

By coincidence today I saw the Space Shuttle and Station flying just over, at 12 o’clock. I immediately recognized then as potentially the Shuttle and Station; because of the inclination, they were as bright as I can remember seeing them, for a long time. Back to back flying over, close together. What an awesome sight. … Read more

I found this article about an iPod that was spotted on the Space Shuttle… I wonder if the iPod is experiencing single-bit soft errors. In space, unless the electronic equipment such as computers (or iPods!) is “radiation hardened”, using techniques such as single bit correction Error Correcting Codes (ECC), single-bit soft errors can and will … Read more

An interesting week on space-related activities… STS-123 The Space Shuttle STS-123 mission launched into its 16 day mission; and busy is the crew delivering pieces for the International Space Station (ISS). This is the the 25th shuttle mission to the ISS. It is pretty cool to see back to back missions. STS-123 launched at night, … Read more

Just noticed that Hoot Gibson, the former astronaut who gave me my Silver Snoopy Award many years ago is now Chief Pilot at Benson Space Company, one of the new private space companies in the space race (space tourism). The photo below is of Hoot Gibson handing and congratulating me on the Silver Snoopy Award: … Read more

I found this neat short video titled

Three days ago marked 436 years since the birth of Johannes Kepler. Born in Germany on December 27, 1571, Kepler was the first human being who was able to put together all the observations from others and himself, and truly see and understand, and define laws of planetary motion. For this he had to make … Read more