Playing with Slide - the onlne photo slideshow maker.

I want to read about the post-shuttle space capsule. Going back to more Apollo-like designs?

click to play

NASA footage of the launch of STS-116 - a night time shuttle launch. I like how the shuttle speed is 1,000 miles per hour, in what seems just a few short seconds after lift off.

Also great video at the end - there is a camera mounted to the external (hydrogen) fuel tank - it keeps running even after separation from the shuttle, so you get so see the shuttle above as the tank falls away back to earth.

Sad we missed this (we had to come back to Seattle on Sat morning) - but happy to see a successful launch.

We're having lunch today with Dr. Worden, director of the NASA Ames research center today.

Quoted: Ames Center Director, Simon P. "Pete" Worden. He and his wife Nancy reside in Placitas, New Mexico.

Deb and I are traveling to Florida this week to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle! Launch is scheduled for Thursday, Dec 7, 2006 at 9:33pm.

Quoted: Since it went into orbit in 1998, the space station has been running on a temporary electrical system. Lead Space Station Flight Director John Curry compared it to the way you might build a house on the ground – until your electricity is hooked up, you probably plug your saws into a generator. That's basically what the astronauts building and living on the station have been doing for the past eight years.
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But with the installation of two new electricity-generating solar array panels in September, all the pieces are now in place to switch to the permanent system. At your house, it would just be a matter of unplugging the saw from the generator and plugging it back into the wall. But in space, it's not that easy.
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"Everything will be fine – if nothing breaks," Curry said.
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The plan is to send astronauts out on two spacewalks, each devoted to rewiring half of the station. Though it sounds complicated, that part shouldn't be too difficult. Spacewalks are inherently dangerous and should only be done if there is no alternative, Polansky said, but as spacewalks go, these are pretty straightforward. The astronauts will head outside, wait for the team on the ground to send commands to switch off the power, and then unplug the power cables and plug them in new places. There might be the occasional stiff cable to deal with – that can happen in the minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit of space – and the process will likely be slow, but not especially complex.

I wasn invited to attend this launch. Looks like it may scrub, with launch windows stretching to July 19th. I get back on the 12th ... seems like an outside chance, but it might still be possible for us to go see the shuttle launch!

Quoted: Palm Beach Post - The Palm Beach Post newspaper, your top source for Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast news, plus national headlines, breaking news, weather, traffic and classifieds.

Gripping account of the 20-year-old Challenger disaster.

Quoted: What a Presidential Commission failed to learn, what NASA’s own investigations studiously ignored, what the contractors who built the shuttle knew, what no one wanted to even mention, what was too horrifying to acknowledge, was that the seven astronauts of Challenger lived from the moment of the explosion until they smashed at great speed into the sea.