After more than a month of problems and delays and five previously aborted attempts the shuttle Endeavor finally launched Wednesday evening. The launches had been delayed by an array of problems including hydrogen leaks and bad weather that hindered their launch abilities.

During the launch the shuttle was hit by pieces of debris that broke off from the fuel tank as Endeavor took off. Initial observations made by the ground grew when Endeavor made its launch made a quick assessment of the perceived damage which they do not believe is as severe as the damage that occurred during the launch of the last shuttle. However, they will be spending the next day or so going over all of the photographs taking of the launch to get a better idea of the damage that may have been caused to Endeavor and shuttle integrity.

The damage, which occurred just a couple of minutes into the lift off, appears to be near the right wing where it connects to the fuselage. This area appears to have been struck by at least a couple of the 8 to 9 pieces of the foam that insulates the fuel tank on the exterior of the shuttle. A similar incident is what led to the 2003 disaster that took the lives of the crew on Columbia. The same type of foam that struck Endeavor pierced a hold in the wing of the shuttle Columbia leading to the accident. Policy changes made since the Columbia disaster means that the crew of Endeavor will not be conducting an inspection of the ship and its thermal shielding to further determine the extent of the damage and to ascertain whether or not it will present a problem upon re-entry of it the hull integrity will hold for the return flight.

They will carry out the inspection using a 100 foot boom that includes a laser tip will be used for the inspection carried out by the astronauts. Further details are expected when the shuttle reaches the International Space Station on Friday. Once there, the crew of the space station will be able to take multiple photographs of the shuttle with a powerful zoom as the shuttle is docking. This will give them a better idea of the extent of the damage. The crew of Endeavor is equipped with a repair kit should minor repairs be required before their return. Once they get a better look at the shuttle, if the damage is deemed to be too extensive for repairs at the space station for the crew to return safely, they could make the space station home for an extended stay until a rescue shuttle could be sent to retrieve them.

Endeavor will be docking at the International Space Station on Friday and plan to remain docked for around two weeks or so, this would give them plenty of time to repair any minor damage that may have occurred should the need arise. Mission control has assured everyone that the first priority is to get the crew of the Endeavor home safely.

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For those of you who believe that man has walked on the moon, NASA will today unveil enhanced footage of Neil Armstrong’s famous moonwalk where he uttered the famous words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” before his hair burst into flames on the set of the Pepsi commercial. What? Ohhh, the other moonwalk… Sorry, just not over the King of Pop yet. According to NASA the new footage will feature 15 scenes from the famous Apollo 11 mission, which included astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The footage is being released to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon mission, which took place July 20, 1969. NASA had to dig around in the archives to find some of this stuff, which hadn’t been seen in 40 years. The footage has been digitally enhanced removing many of the pops and jumps and cleaning up the graininess of the old videos. Because he is a liberal communist who hates his country, Armstrong, 79, will not be in attendance. More footage will be released as the project moves along. If you don’t know, many people suspect NASA of faking the whole moon thing by filming the famous scenes in an Area 51 warehouse in Nevada where they keep the aliens from Roswell. I believe we got there, why not? The world is a better place with Neil on the moon, plus, I shot a rocket 400 feet in the air with nothing but a water pump, so I think the big boys could do the real thing, so snap out of it Web freaks.

NASA, in an effort to study the long

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term effects of low gravity on humans has been using paid human research volunteer “pillownauts” who spend months, face up, lying in a bed tilted to 9.5 degrees, with their feet placed firmly against a panel. This setup puts roughly the same gravitational stress on the pillownaut’s feet as the moon would. Ronita Cromwell, a NASA senior research scientist heading up the project explains that “What we’re doing is removing some of the effects of 1 G and achieving one-sixth G along the long axis of the body.” One of the pillownauts, Heather Archuletta, has blogged about her experience here. It’s not a bed of joy, frankly. Sure, they spend a lot of time reading, blogging, surfing the ‘net, working on crafts or hobbies—but they also spend all their time on their back, in bed. And yes, that means a bed pan. There have been several articles about the pillownauts in Wired, and Popular Science. The pillownauts are all in one ward together, and have rather understandabley developed a bit of a support community for each other—especially after Hurricane Ike forced the study participants to flee the research site in Galveston. If you think spending months flat on your back, for $160.00 a day, sounds like a job, NASA is still looking for more research participants.

UFO sightings are at an all time high, as reported by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense. A total of 231 so far in the first 6 months of the year rivals every end of year total thus far, which have been steadily increasing. In 2008, 285 total sightings supported with video or photos were submitted to the MoD.In reporting on a spring 2009 Atlantis mission, Fox News shows some clear footage of “space debris” flying alongside and just below the space shuttle as it attempts to return to Earth. Clearly, the debris appears to be three UFOs flying close enough for cameras to record their observation of the space shuttle. The following attempts of NASA personnel to dismiss the footage as inconsequential are trite and unconvincing. There seems to be enough pilot and astronaut testimonies from all over the world, not to mention the photos, videos, and sightings of civilians to substantiate the simple and resonable fact that we are not the only intelligent life. NASA footage, de-classified government reports, and open investigation and recognition of UFOs and intelleligent extraterrestrial life by other countries in South America, France, Belgium, Turkey and the U.K.leave one to wonder why the United States government is still playing the cover up game?No, we are not alone and yes, we can handle it.http://www.disclosureproject.org/http://www.cseti.org/  

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Crashing hellishly expensive equipment into the moon at 6,000 miles per hour doesn’t sound like such a great scientific move to me, but apparently NASA thinks it’s a good idea. Right now, two robotic probes are careening wildly to the moon on a mission that will supposedly help mark future “human camp sites.” I guess the U.S. National Park Service has become too dull for us humans. Long have we ogled the bear, the moose, the Grand Canyon; they have lost their allure. We now ache to carry home chunks of moon rock in our pockets rather than sea shells and arrow heads from our adventures. These probes, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, were sent from Florida Friday night for a $580 million mission that NASA calls the “first step in a lasting return to the moon.” Wait a second. Lasting return? That sounds sort of permanent, NASA. Are you planning on colonizing the moon? Maybe creating a new tourist attraction? Actually, NASA has a goal set to have a base on the moon by 2024. Seriously. The mission’s purpose is supposed to be getting the most precise measurements of the moon’s topography as possible. LRO will be surveying the moon’s surface for several years, hovering over it at an altitude of 31 miles like a lunar voyeur.  And in typical “Let’s destroy this to see what it’s made of!” fashion, LCROSS will crash into the surface in October, sending 350 tons of moon stuff flying and beaming readings of it all back to Earth. Scientists are hoping that these readings will include ice or water vapor. Ice or water vapor sure would make hosting a moon-base a lot easier, right? NASA is hoping to have the permanent base for the purpose of sending year-long missions…to Mars. And the target year for actually landing on Mars is 2037. You read right, boys and girls—we’re finally going to try to set foot on the red planet. Why? Exploration in the name of “science” may be toted as the reason, but my guess is that bigwigs know they can’t stop the global warming they’ve helped cause, so they decided to take life on Earth to the next level—that is, to the next planet—before humans are wiped out by ourselves. A panel set up by President Obama are reviewing the blueprints and deciding whether or not NASA truly has its ducks in a row before further progress is made, so don’t get your hopes up for moon life just yet.

Holy rocketships . . . This is perhaps the most stunning picture ever published of the International Space Station, from SpaceWeather.com. You’ve just got to see this photo, taken by Yaron Koler in Israel:

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Charles Bolden, a rather dapper looking former NASA Astronaut, has recently been named as Obama’s Space Agency Chief.  If confirmed, Charles Bolton will be only the second astronaut to hold the position. There is, however, a possibility that Bolton will not be nominated, as he has lobbied for rocket companies. According to the BBC, his biggest challenges as chief if he is confirmed will be the budgetary restraints imposed by the current financial crisis. Apparently, the United States is now dependent on Russia to fly us into orbit, a situation that I’m sure many never saw coming. To shed some light on the current  situation, Science Magazine relays that, “An expensive new launcher is now in the works to replace the space shuttle, due to retire next year, but its projected costs are rapidly rising.”A few days before the announcement, President Obama spoke to the astronauts on board the Space Shuttle about the future of the Space program, saying, “But I can assure you that it’s a high priority of mine to restore that sense of wonder that space can provide and to make sure that we’ve got a strong sense of mission, not just within NASA but for the country as a whole”.Reactions from Space magazine’s readers appear to be mixed. Most seem to be happy with Bolden, but unhappy about the second-in-command appointee, Lori Garver. There is also speculation about what Bolden’s specific position on Ares will be and whether or not this choice was more politically than technically motivated.

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One small sip for man, one giant sip for mankind. No, that’s not beer they’re toasting with, but “Recycled Urine”……kind of makes you thirsty, doesn’t it? Imagine how different the tv shows Gilligan’s Island and Lost would be if they had this capability. I mean, seriously. What up with this? In a quote in Space magazine, Michael Barratt said,”We have these highly attractive labels on our water bags that essentially say ‘brought to you by ECLSS,’ and ‘drink when real water is over 200 miles away,’”That’s pretty funny, but the price tag of the “Operation Urine” is not quite as funny: $250 million. Not cheap. On the flip side however, the article points out that:” Having recycled water available also lightens the load for Russian resupply ships.”Which I guess is pretty good, but who would have ever guessed that we would have been trusting any Russians for any drinking  water?In another article:”This is an important milestone in the development of the space station,” said Kirk Shireman, International Space Station deputy program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This system will reduce the amount of water we must launch to the station once the shuttle retires and also test out a key technology required for sending humans on long duration missions to the moon and Mars.”In time, Recycled Urine may surpass bacon as an important compliment to every meal. Think of how tasty and delicious it sounds. Not working for you? Then consider how useful it would be in either the case of a natural disaster or an all-nighter pulled in a fast-moving car when you are too lazy to step into the gas station and purchase your own water. However, as they say, seeing is believing and I think you should check out the video of the astronauts themselves and see what you think.  

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Sex in Space!!!!A topic that’s out of this world! Consider the possiblities, and then consider the problems.Possible problems:Gravity or the lack thereof. You might need special harnesses to tether yourselves to the wall and to each other, so that you don’t detach from your partner during the act. Or, at the very least, you need acrobatic abilities, which might give you a chance to shine as you try to “choreograph” your sexual movements?  Also, what happens to all of those bodily fluids? Do they just fly right out? Is there a spooge-wall hanging out there? Of course, according to an earlier MSNBC article, a Romance/Cyberspace novelist believes that the increased perspiration in space will somehow be a bonus. Say what? I’m thinking that Bonta, the novelist in question , is smoking the not-so-proverbial crack-pipe. Since when is the idea of free-flying perspiration considered to be erotic? She does, however, have a few valid points about the tragic possibility of penis shrinkage and  then, about the difficulties of motion sickness:”Although zero-G could be a boon for saggy body parts, Bonta said males might notice a “slight decrease” in penis size due to the lower blood pressure that humans experience in microgravity.”I don’t know about you, but most men I know would be terrified by the idea of a “slight decrease” in penis size. Why is that never mentioned on the cute NASA videos about people eating and hanging out in zero-gravity? Probably because no man would ever ever volunteer to go to space on any mission where there was a woman……Space-sickness would also tend to suck ass during the moment. There’s nothing like a little puke to quell even the hottest of moments.  I’ve been sea-sick with the double-whammy and couldn’t even imagine looking at another human being, let alone being intimate with one. Human Nature and the Future of the Human RaceA Wired Article makes a very different point, claiming that people in Space are going to have sex with each other, regardless of who they are or the differences they may encounter.  The same way people on a ship or in prison will, simply as part of human nature.  Both articles further speculate how sex in space will shape the future of the next frontier, space colonization. It’s difficult for me to imagine, but somehow or another, the future of the human race may very well depend on it.