May 2010

NASA Eye Candy

One of the things of the many  that NASA does well, and perhaps it is one of the most important things that NASA does,  is to provide us earthbound land lubbers beautiful pictures, images and video of outer space, of  the sights around our world, and of the sights around worlds and stars beyond ours.  The pictures are better than science fiction, because they are real, and often times they are much better than what we can imagine.

This morning , Sunday, May 16th, the Space shuttle Atlantis, on its final voyage, arrived and  docked, at the International Space Station.  NASA provided the video feed. See the video. These images  are just the latest eye candy from our space uncles and aunts at NASA. The Atlantis and its crew of six are expected to stay at the station for a week long visit, and feed us more of this wonderful eye candy.

Yawn, Another Shuttle Flight

Yeah. Yawn. An era will be soon coming to an end.  The Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off today. Okay. Is on its way to orbit for the last time. Yeah.  Atlantis and an experienced crew of six blasted off  this afternoon, Friday, May 14th. Yeah. The shuttle is bound for the International Space Station. And?  It should reach the orbiting complex Sunday. So what? Routine, right?

Houston, there's a problem, report finds

Yesterday, the New York Times. reports that the National Research Council, (NRC), the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences,  issued a report on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (NASA).  ten  research laboratories, and concluded that the labs were merely 'marginally adequate.' The NRC reports warned that the decline of basic research at the NASA facilities, and the underfunding of  research, jeopardizes the agency’s ability to study and to explore the cosmos.  Joseph B. Reagan of NRC  told the Times. that if NASA continued as it is "going at the current rate, in five years the research community would not be able to support NASA’s long-term goals.” Mr.

Herschel space telescope

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On the net this morning , May 6, 2010, are new and interesting pictures from the Herschel space telescope. The Herschel  was launched one year ago, to make it possible for scientists and for us lay people to learn more than ever about stars and about the formation of stars, so to provide a clue to what may have happened when our sun and the planets of our solar system were formed almost five-billion years ago.