http://www.youtube.com/show/thisweekinspace?s=1
For anyone who wants to be up to date with the latest space activities, here’s a short video that’s updated weekly. Once the shuttle retires Im sure there will be a different focus but right now most episodes track the progress of the last few shuttle flights and the ongoing mission of the International Space Station.
Enjoy!
The comic called xkcd recently posted a strip referencing the ISS. For more information to get the punchline click here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geolocation_software)
NASA has published a tool to more accurately predict the sighting opportunities for the Shuttle Discovery along its landing path tomorrow morning (20 Apr 2010). The instructions are here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts131/news/13…
and you can access the tool from this link: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaS…
Enjoy!
My most favorite memory of the NASA shuttle program to date was sitting on the roof of my Dallas home watching the shuttle orbiter streak across the sky on it’s way to a landing in Florida. The florescent trail streamed across the sky as the vehicle pushed through the superheated plama. I was amazed as I watched the ground track on the televised coverage and knew that inside that fireball were 7 humans returning from their mission in space.
It has been a while since NASA has allowed the public to witness this spectacular sight due to the risk of debris that would fall to the ground in a catastrophic event like the Columbia accident. After implementing the risk reduction suggestions, it looks like NASA is again allowing the orbiter to reenter over the continental US. With a clean bill of health after the focus inspection of the heat shield tiles, Discovery was cleared for landing on Monday.
