Recorded on the International Space Station.
“Ground Control To Major Tom”
May 12, 2013
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Like I said… I love living in the future!
January 4, 2013
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Joining an internet meme
October 10, 2012
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So full fledged Internet meme participation… “I love living in the future!” This image is a screenshot off my laptop computer, of video on NASA TV, beamed to Earth from the International Space Station. Here the Dragon spacecraft has been grappled by the robotic arm, getting lined up to be berthed to the bottom side of the orbiting complex. (“bottom side of the orbiting complex” was just now stolen by me from the NASA TV audio feed!)
12 year old Space Cadet JimmieJoe is green with envy over all the cool stuff in grown-up JimmieJoe’s life. While all the computers are neat, I think he’s most impressed by the iPhone, which lets me watch things from outer space live on a hand held device, even in the basement dispatch center that was built to be an atom bomb/fallout shelter. Most of the stuff grown-up JimmieJoe takes for granted these days has Space Cadet JimmieJoe beside himself, barely able to contain the giddy joy of life in the future.
He does give me a strange look now and then, though…
I know what he’s thinking. (of course I do. He’s me.)
It’s that whole flying car thing.
You’d think we could let that go, but… no. We were promised, dammit!
Space Station passed over my house last night
August 4, 2012
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Go to full screen to glimpse the station.
Space Geek: Another private spaceship begins testing
May 31, 2012
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Dream Chaser took to the air for the first time, in what is called a “captive carry” test. Designed to test hardware, facilities, and ground operations, the test was conducted at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Jefferson County, Colorado. A heavy-lift helicopter… lifted it. Eventually, they’ll let it go, and see if it can fly!
This one sure looks more like a spaceship than the Dragon, which just successfully docked with the International Space Station, and splashed down today in the Pacific Ocean. Of course, the Dragon is a working system, based on tried and true technology. The Dream Chaser is following in the footsteps of the Shuttle, a very much more complex design. I’m crossing my fingers.
Orion, Aurora Australis,ISS, and Home Sweet Home
September 15, 2011
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Taken on September 14, 2011, from the International Space Station.
Click to see the Bad Astronomy post, and the picture full size.
Atlantis lands, Shuttles retired, NASA’s next mission is… what?
July 21, 2011
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Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the pre-dawn hours of July 21, 2011. 42 years and one day after Apollo 11′s Eagle landed on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, the last shuttle to fly touches down on KSC’s runway 15.
It’s appropriate that this image shows the shuttle touching down in the dark, because the United States now has no manned access to space.
End of an era: Last Shuttle launch
July 8, 2011
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An era ends. The last Space Shuttle lifted four astronauts and tons of supplies into the Florida sky today, enroute to the International Space Station. The first Shuttle launch, of Columbia, occurred on April 12, 1981. That launch was a mere 20 years to the day after the first manned space flight, by Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union. In those 20 years, we went from the first dangerous launches on modified ICBM rockets, to the Saturn 5 that took us to the Moon six times, to the “space truck” that is the Shuttle. The last Shuttle mission, flown by Shuttle Atlantis, is scheduled to land on July 20, the 42nd anniversary of Apollo 11′s landing at the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.
Once Atlantis lands, the United States has NO way of launching astronauts into space. We hope to have private industry doing so “soon”, but that “soon” could be a decade away. In the meantime, we buy rides on the Russian Soyuz. “TAXI!”
Space Cadet Makes Momentary Appearance
March 10, 2011
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It happened again. On Monday the 7th, the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station flew overhead just after dark. I went outside to watch, expecting only the Space Station, and was jumping up and down (at least internally. I doubt anyone driving by noticed) when I realized I was getting the double lucky view of the shuttle leading the station in the same orbit, just miles apart from each other. The Discovery had undocked from the station earlier that day, and was slowly increasing the distance between it and the orbiting outpost with each moment. Tonight, the shuttle is on the ground, but ISS is still up there, and still gliding majestically across my sky from time to time.
Photo: NASA
Space Cadet Jimmie made a sudden appearance Monday, and again today. He’s someone I don’t get to visit very often these days, but maybe… just maybe… he’ll come around more often.
The future just keeps getting better, one Tweet at a time!
January 5, 2013
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So you think an actor would be all cool about something like this… you know, talking to someone famous. Yeah, sometimes not so much!
And of course, being the Star Trek/NASA/Space Cadet I am, I had to jump in, even if none of them see or notice my Tweet!
If any of them respond, you’ll probably hear the squee from anywhere on the planet or in nearby space.
Update: Scrolling through the Commander’s Twitter feed, I came upon this gem:
I took a lot of grief when I was young about my fascination (to coin a phrase!) with Star Trek. My, how times change!
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