Spaceflight Now | Space Station Mission Report | Space station could be abandoned in November.
Spaceflight Now | Space Station Mission Report | Space station could be abandoned in November
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Category Archives: Space
Something special in the air
While down in Lexington Kentucky having my brain destroyed working long days in impossible conditions, an event occurred that almost slipped by me.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completed its first captive flight connected to the Eve mothership. Funded by Sir Richard Branson and designed by Burt Rutan, SpaceShipTwo is poised to become the first commercial spacecraft when it goes into service in 2012.
Tickets will cost you a mere $200,000 and you can reserve now with only a $20,000 deposit. If I only I could afford it.
2 am lightshow
Tuesday morning at 2am sounds like a fine time to be outside looking up.
The annual Leonid meteor shower starts tomorrow night and peaks a few hours later. This graph available here shows that that 2:28am EST is my best time. Sounds great but I really doubt that I’ll be awake for the show.
Cosmos
With a couple of days of vacation before heading off to Switzerland for business, I looked around for something to watch online while doing some work on my mother’s estate.
I was amazed that the entire 13 part series of “Cosmos” was available at YouTube. User Dutchdrummer99 has a done a superb job of putting everything up and tagging them correctly. YouTube only allows 10 minute clips so keeping them in order is a monumental task.
For those too young or with failing memories, Cosmos was presented on PBS by Dr. Carl Sagan in 1980 with episode names like “One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue” and “Blues for a Red Planet”. It was a groundbreaking introduction to astronomy and a fascinating view of the universe.
What is truly surprising is how well the series stands up with it’s then cutting edge special effects. Dr. Sagan, who passed away in 1996, was a wonderful teacher.
You can subscribe to the entire series here. It’s well worth the time.
Stunning photos of our solar system
Smithsonian.com has incredible pictures from the last 10 years of space missions. This picture, for example, was taken by the Cassini spacecraft while orbiting Saturn.
Today in aviation history – September 15, 1991
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is launched during the Space Shuttle mission STS-48 carrying the Canadian designed Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) which measures wind, temperature and emission rate from the aurora. The satellite was decommissioned in 2005 but continues to orbit.
Separated at birth?
Watching NASA TV this morning and they had a briefing on yesterday’s events from the lead of the “Orbit Three” group at Mission Control. Royce Renfrew is the man’s name. He was wearing glasses and I thought I was looking into a mirror. Couldn’t find a more recent picture but his beard is turning grey.
Spooky.
UPDATE: Got a screen grab this morning
Now do you see the resemblance?
Bjarni Tryggvason
Working at the Waterloo Air Show yesterday I had a chance to meet Bjarni Tryggvason, former Canadian astronaut and pilot of the replica Silver Dart that will be coming to the Canadian Air & Space Museum later this year.
Bjarni flew on the space shuttle STS-85 as a payload specialist from August 7-19, 1997 where he conducted fluid dynamics experiments designed to examine sensitivity to spacecraft vibrations. He flew 4.7 million miles in 284 hours and 27 minutes.
This year, Tryggvason has been travelling quite a bit slower. The Silver Dart replica has been flown 4 times. In between, he’s been flying as part of the Harvard team and teaching at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
To Bjarni’s left is Rod Jones, a member of the museum’s Board. We talked for a few minutes about the flying conditions and some ideas about how to coordinate all the events across Canada like the Waterloo show and our own Wings & Wheels.
Thanks to Bob Bourke, fellow volunteer, for taking the photo and sharing it with me.
Today in aviation history – August 26, 1982
The Anik D1 satellite is launched by Telesat Canada to provide television signals across the country. A Hughes Aircraft HS376, Anik (which means “little brother” in Inuktitut) D1 was retired in 1991.
Telesat Canada launched a number of Anik models between 1972 and 2007 with 3 still in operation. Launch vehicles included Delta, Ariane and Proton/Breeze-M rockets and 4 were launched from the Space Shuttles – Discovery, Challenger and Columbia.
Moving history
A rare opportunity. Big preparations today at the Canadian Air and Space Museum for tomorrow’s press conference and announcement timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.
Our special guest, of the aircraft variety, is the Silver Dart replica. Built to honor the 100th anniversary of powered in flight in Canada, she flew on February 20th on the same frozen lake on Cape Breton Island. Dedicated volunteers spent thousands of hours building the replica and we’re so very happy to have her on hand for our celebration. Watch for some big news!
I was really lucky to spend some time up close before we moved her to the big hanger. Very surprised to see this modification. Pretty sure it wasn’t on the original but I’m sure it comes in handy when you’re sitting in a completely open cockpit on a windswept lake in February.