Category: Uncategorized

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NASA’s space observatory, the Hubble telescope is twenty years old. It was sent into space on April 24, 1990, launched from the space shuttle Discovery. It is possibly the most educational, entertaining, and useful NASA project of them all, more important than the moon walk, in that it has brought, and continues to bring outer space right to our computer screens. We have had twenty years of incredible, awesome images of stars, and of worlds, and of  objects beyond out planet  — data to scientists — a delight to layman, in every part of the world.On Hubble’s 20th anniversary  NASA  reminds the public that, “Hubble discoveries revolutionized nearly all areas of current astronomical research from planetary science to cosmology. To date, Hubble has observed more than 30,000 celestial targets and amassed more than a half-million pictures in its archive. The last astronaut servicing mission to Hubble in May 2009 made the telescope 100 times more powerful than when it was launched.”

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I have always found pictures of the objects in outer space very interesting. This morning,, on the net, something new appeared: the first pictures of the sun taken by NASA’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory, a satellite sent into space to collect info on solar activity. The new satellite is to provide scientists with the data that they need to help them to predict solar storms that can cause serious disruption in earth communications. Also, to delight us of the post Star Trek generations, the satellite provides photo and video images to nourish our curiosity for what’s out there, and to keep us in tune with NASA, when it’s NASA budget time.See the video below, notice that big solar flare-up exploding from the sun’s surface. The flare looks like a big loop of a solar storm. Scientists say that loop is bigger than one hundred earths. And if a solar storm like that one had been aimed at us on Earth, it could have caused “spectacular light displays” on our planet, and been a serious bummer to our electronics. 

Space shuttle Discovery returned to earth this morning, April 20, 2010, with a routine landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hardly even knew that she was gone. The US space shuttle was away, fifteen short days on a  mission to the International Space Station. Lift off, return and the flight itself in so hum drum..The only bit of shuttle  news is that there are only three shuttle space flights left, then the shuttle will be retired, and US space folks have to rely on the Russians or others or stay earth bound, until when? Whenever, the next US ships are ready to go. Also the returning flight flew over a large part of the US, giving the tax payers who watched, a nice show..The  Atlantis is the next shuttle schedule to take a flight to space.  Liftoff is targeted for May 14.Yes, so the Space shuttle Discovery return was routine?  Routine is good.New Source: LA Times

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Star Trek’s Data is no longer a pale sitcom character. Nasa’s Robonaut 2 will fly out in September with the Discovery shuttle and work alongside astronauts in the International Space Station. Built to work alongside humans, like a human – Robonaut 2 was developed by General Motors and NASA to be a complimentary companion, not a replacement, for astronauts. With dexterity and humanoid hands and arms, the robot is able to use all of the same tools and perform must of the same functions as its human counterparts, in terms of the space station.R2 will be monitored closely during its first anti-gravity field trip in September of this year, as machinery does not hold up or operate as expected in space, much like humans.Currently, R2 is undergoing rigorous training and testing for its first space expedition. Work it on out!Read more about R2 at NASA.GOV

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President Obama is facing pressure from most of the NASA community not to cut any space programs. Space is a high tech jobs program and NASA has contractors in every state keeping up the political pressure to keep up the spending to keep the highly trained workers employed. As a member of the post-Star Trek generation my heart is with those at NASA who want go to full-speed ahead with the whistles and the bells. That means a yes to every toy a space engineer can dream up.In the Star Trek universe money has been abolished so Star Fleet doesn’t have to worry about funding. In the real world, space work and space toys cost money. The USA has to set priorities on how and where to spend its scarce money. And when it does spend its money and other  resources the USA need to spend where the need is the greatest. The USA does need to go full-speed ahead with smarter space programs, that will provide continual scientific research and technological development. This could be done with unmanned vehicles. Maybe it could be done using private contractors. In any event, to loosely borrow a little Mr. Spockism — if the human race is going to “live long and prosper” as the human race, we are going to have to keep going into space. And like Spock, we have to be wise, prudent and logical.

The Herschel Telescope captured this gorgeous image of one section of the Rosette Nebula, showing new stars. You can read more here. Click the image for a larger version. 

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   Image credits: Credits: ESA/PACS & SPIRE Consortium/HOBYS Key Programme Consortia

NASA’s Goddard Space Center

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has been accumulating incredible high resolution images of Earth and then using post-processing software to “stitch” together many small images into detailed high resolution images of the entire planet. Goddard scientists and data specialists have stitched together months of observations in 2001 of the entire planet into a rotating mosaic of every square kilometer. They’ve even established a Flickr account to display these images, images and research paid for with all of our tax dollars and already being used to track resources, locate lost cities, and research atmospheric changes. You can find the NASA Blue Marble Flickr account here. I’ve linked to sample image in this post; click it for a larger version, and don’t forget to enjoy the animation below. 

International Space Station Flight engineer Soichi Noguchi has been

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posting or rather Tweeting pictures he’s taken in space using his cell phone while serving on the space station. This week he posted a picture of the pyramids while flying over Egypt. You can see his picture below; click for a larger version. 

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The landing of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, with its six astronauts, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, late Sunday night, marked the end of  twelve years construction, costing one hundred billion dollars, for the sixteen nations owned, International Space Station. The Endeavor  carried the station’s final connecting  hub,  a new life support module, which includes a toilet, a water-recycling system,  an oxygen generator,  an air scrubber and an exercise equipment, and of course,  to make the station a comfortable and inviting place for Star Trek fans  — an observation deck with seven windows, so  that astronauts — or  future space tourists can gawk at the view?Links : NASA , The International Space Station page –, Live Space Station Video  from The International Space Station –, NASA YouTube Videos –.

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Last December, The British Ministry of Defence suddenly  shut down its UFO reporting phone hotline and email address,  and told the public, not to try to call the Government, if one spots a UFO, because the MoD is not going to investigate anymore UFO reports from the public, period!  And as far as some of these UFOs being extra-terrestrial,  don’t ask the Government, because the British Government has no opinion on UFOs, period! But don’t worry, as far as we know no UFO is  threatening the UK– so just shut up about UFOs!  Not  taking  your UFO reports will save your Government money,, so shut up, will you?In response to Freedom of Information requests, the MoD  began releasing lots and lots of UFO reports, released a batch last Thursday– 6000 pages of sightings– some credible accounts from air traffic comptrollers, pilots, policemen, compiled by the Ministry of Defence between 1978 and 2002. These reports and the British Government’s decision to shut its doors to reports of  new sighting from the public should be a concern to everyone. What is happening here? Maybe the reasoning inside the British Government is,  if the MoD stops taking public reports, it won’t have to release any new reports to the public under the Freedom of Information Act? Duh!News Source:,.