Tag: nasa

Enterprise barging

The barge will depart the Weeks Marine Greenville Yard enroute to the Intrepid Museum at Pier 86 around 9:15 on Wednesday, June 6th. The Weeks 297 will be off Liberty Island around 9:50 for a photo shoot. Estimated arrival time at Pier 86 is 11:15 for offloading later during the day.

Life aboard the ISS

The onslaught of apparent days and nights would play havoc with astronauts’ body clocks, so a shutters-down and bedtime schedule is imposed by mission controllers. Each of the crew has a closet-like cabin where they can hook a sleeping bag to the wall and settle down for the night. Some strap pillows to their heads to make it feel more like lying down. The lights don’t go out completely, though. People dozing in orbit see streaks and bursts of bright color caused by high-energy cosmic rays painlessly slamming into their retinas. Fans and air filters add to the distractions, so some astronauts wear ear plugs to block out the constant hum.

Interesting story

Space shuttle


A most amazing picture. Consider the distances involved. The space shuttle is about the relative size of Earth.
2012-04-27:

2012-10-13: Amazing swan song of the Space Shuttle program: you cost so much yet achieved so little.

A Space Shuttle on the Streets of Los Angeles The space shuttle Endeavour is on its last mission today, a 20 km creep through Los Angeles city streets on a 160-wheeled carrier. It is passing through neighborhoods and strip malls, headed toward its final destination, the California Science Center in South Los Angeles. At times, the shuttle has barely cleared trees, houses and street signs along a course heavily prepared for the trip. The move will cost an estimated $10m.

Kepler mission


Launched today. Will search an area of 3000 light years in our neighbor arm, the sagittarius arm, for earth-like planets. Expected haul, 500.
2010-07-26: After finding more planets in the first year of the Kepler mission than all previous efforts combined: “earth-sized planets are common in the galaxy”

2011-02-01: Transit requires the right inclination for detection, and is quite unlikely, which means there should be 10k as many planets out there than they found. about 12M.
2013-11-23: Using a solar sail approach. Clever

NASA outlines ingenious plan to resurrect the Kepler planet hunter. “K2” mission would use its solar panels as a pointing device.

2015-12-15: Really awesome visualization about all the solar systems yet discovered.

2021-10-27: The final haul was 2662.