Live Space Shuttle Feed

Astronaut didn't change underwear for a month

Story HERE.

Moon Pie for the Sky

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - NASA is celebrating the 40th anniversary of man's first steps on the lunar surface with a giant moon pie.
The concoction of marshmallow squeezed between two round graham crackers and dipped in chocolate is normally made in a hand-sized portion.
NASA's oversized treat will be available a slice at a time to visitors Monday to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral.
The anniversary moon pie is 40 inches in diameter, six inches high and weighs 55 pounds. That includes six pounds of chocolate and 14 pounds of marshmallow.
source

40 Years Ago Today

"Walter Cronkite seemed to enjoy the highest of ratings. He had a passion for human space exploration, an enthusiasm that was contagious, and the trust of his audience. He will be missed."
-- Neil Armstrong


One of the most famous moments in the storied career of Cronkite, 92, who died Friday, came with the Apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969.
A fan of the future, Walter Cronkite relished the adventure of space exploration, say astronauts, scientists and historians, marking his passing just three days before the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.
more HERE and HERE

NASA is broadcasting the real time audio (40 years delayed) HERE
History.com has the CBS coverage on the landing online

Surface by Satellite

The most complete terrain map of the Earth's surface has been published.
The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry.
The images were taken by Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) aboard the Terra satellite.
more HERE

Volcano Eruption Viewed From Space

Stunning pictures of the volcano that blew a hole in the sky as astronauts witness eruption from International Space Station
more HERE

Sun Spot Shuttle

click pic for original pic

Award winning astrophotographer Thierry Legault wanted to image the Hubble Space Telescope and space shuttle Atlantis traveling together around Earth. But how? The pair wouldn't fly over his hometown in France during the ongoing servicing mission. To catch the rare meeting of spaceships, he decided to do some traveling of his own all the way to Florida. On May 12th, from a location near the Kennedy Space Center, he pointed his solar-filtered telescope at the sun and voilà!--there was Atlantis.
more HERE
more shuttle info at NASA

Space Shuttle Scratched...Not Scrubbed

Astronauts discovered a long stretch of nicks along the right side of the space shuttle Atlantis when they were inspecting their ship Tuesday for signs of launch damage.
The 21-inch stretch of nicks that spanned four or five thermal tiles where the right wing joins the fuselage and was most likely caused by debris that came off the fuel tank two minutes after lift-off.
more HERE

NASA Obviously Underestimated Colbert

NASA obviously underestimated the awesome power of the Colbert. In online contest to name a new module for the International Space Station, NASA suggested a few names, but then provided the possibility for write-in suggestions. Comedian Stephen Colbert won in a landslide, beating out NASA's obvious top suggestion, Serenity by over 40,000 votes.
more HERE

NASA Spacewalk LIVE

see it HERE

Bat Attempts Space Travel

A bat that was clinging to space shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank during the countdown to launch the STS-119 mission remained with the spacecraft as it cleared the tower, analysts at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center concluded.
Based on images and video, a wildlife expert who provides support to the center said the small creature was a free tail bat that likely had a broken left wing and some problem with its right shoulder or wrist. The animal likely perished quickly during Discovery’s climb into orbit.
more HERE

Armageddon's Near Miss

Sky-watchers in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands welcomed a surprise guest Monday: an asteroid that passed just 41,010 miles (66,000 kilometers) above Earth.
Discovered only days ago, asteroid 2009 DD45 zipped between our planet and the moon at 13:44 universal time (8:44 a.m. ET). The asteroid was moving at about 12 miles (20 kilometers) a second when it was closest to Earth.
more HERE
NASA Asteroid 2009 DD45 Orbit Diagram HERE

Here Comes the Mini-Sun

The Sun is now in the quietest phase of its 11-year activity cycle, the solar minimum - in fact, it has been unusually quiet this year - with over 200 days so far with no observed sunspots. The solar wind has also dropped to its lowest levels in 50 years. Scientists are unsure of the significance of this unusual calm, but are continually monitoring our closest star with an array of telescopes and satellites.
more HERE

Wood On Mars?

An image sent back from the Red Planet has revealed an object bearing an uncanny resemblance to a wooden log. It was captured by the Mars Rover near the Endurance Crater.
The find has excited conspiracy theorists on blogs and websites who claim it is evidence there are vast forests on Mars that have been kept from the public.
It is more likely to be a case of pareidolia - where a random stimulus is perceived as having significance, be it a symbol seen in a cloud or a face on a piece of toast.
Scientists theorize the phenomenon occurs because humans are hardwired to recognise familiar objects as a survival technique.
more HERE

Astronauts Busy Collecting Urine

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — With just two more days together, the astronauts of the linked space shuttle and space station busily collected as many recycled urine samples as possible from a machine that they coaxed into operation.The device for turning urine into drinking water — a critical part of the space station's new water recycling system
more HERE

Lost in Space

The briefcase-sized tool bag drifted away from astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on Tuesday as she cleaned and lubed a gummed-up joint on a wing of solar panels on the space station. She and fellow astronaut Stephen Bowen were midway through the first of four spacewalks planned for the mission. The tool bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalker.
more HERE

Space Station Astronauts to Drink Urine

NASA plans to double the size of the space station crew from three members to six next year. The shuttle carries two new sleeping compartments and a water recycling system that will enable the crew to purify urine and other wastewater for drinking.
"We did blind taste tests of the water," said NASA's system's lead engineer. "Nobody had any strong objections. Other than a faint taste of iodine, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water."I've got some in my fridge," he added. "It tastes fine to me."
more HERE

Mar's Probe Ends Mission

Nasa says its Phoenix lander on the surface of Mars has gone silent and is almost certainly dead.
BBC report is HERE

First Rock from the Sun Part 2

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, launched in 2004, completed its second flyby of Mercury early Monday morning, passing within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the planet’s surface and snapping striking photographs of never-before-seen terrain. more HERE
Images from the latest flyby are available at the mission Web site.

NASA remembers 9/11

click the pic

This image is one of a series taken September 11, 2001 of metropolitan New York City by the International Space Station's Expedition 3 crew that shows a plume of smoke rising from the Manhattan skyline.