Can’t see the video below? Click here. Check out this powerful and dramatic video showcasing highlights of the STS-135 shuttle mission, up to and including launch and booster separation. If this doesn’t stir some emotions in you, you’re made of tougher stuff than me. Credit: NASA TV
Tag: NASA
Thank You, Atlantis
“Thank you for your 12 missions helping build the ISS.” – ISS Expedition 27 Engineer Ron Garan NASA astronaut and Expedition 27 Flight Engineer Ron Garan captured this amazingly beautiful image of Atlantis from the window of the Space Station after the shuttle undocked on July 17, 2011. It was the final visit of a shuttle…
Dawn: Orbit Established!
It’s confirmed: Dawn has entered orbit around the asteroid Vesta! The spacecraft, which launched in September 2007, has been steadily approaching the giant asteroid for several months. Its mission is to orbit Vesta for a year, studying its surface and composition, and then push off toward the even larger asteroid Ceres. Actually classified as a…
Reflections on a Tweetup
It’s been over a week since the NASA Tweetup (note: these are now called “NASA Socials”) and I’m still thinking about it. For good reason, of course… it was awesome. Over the course of two days I saw a capsule that had been to space and back, talked with five astronauts (one currently in orbit!),…
From the LITD Archives: Face to Face
Remember the photo of the mysterious “face on Mars” taken by the Viking spacecraft in 1976? Well here’s the same landform, imaged by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Just goes to show that things aren’t always what they seem. The surprisingly human-looking “face” was really just a trick of the light combined…
The Final Countdown: A #NASATweetup Journal
Part 6: The Launch! By now, we all know that Atlantis launched successfully today, June 8, 2011 from Canaveral. There was some time there where it looked like it wouldn’t launch due to weather, but with the clock continuing to count down and the skies gradually clearing, it was decided to push forward and light…
The Final Countdown: A #NASATweetup Journal
Part 5: On site! Well I’m here! I have spent the past 24 hours in and around Kennedy Space Center, getting the VIP tour and seeing things that I have only dreamt of… the Vehicle Assembly Building, the Crawler-Transporter, the Causeway…and, of course, the launch pad with the final shuttle, Atlantis, ready and waiting for…
‘An Incredible Vehicle’
More photos of Atlantis – the final shuttle – can be seen on Universe Today here. Photographer Michael Deep is on location at Kennedy Space Center covering the launch, slated for Friday, July 8. (Oh, and I’ll be there too.) 🙂 “For those of you who have ever had the opportunity to just stand underneath…
Our Future in Space
Just because the shuttle program will soon come to a close doesn’t mean the era of human spaceflight is over…
The Final Countdown: A #NASATweetup Journal
Part 4: Fueling the Anticipation The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis is less than a week away, and with it the NASA Tweetup event of a lifetime. (Well, my lifetime anyway!) But it’s not just me who’s been having visions of shuttle plumes dancing in his head… there’s 149 other space tweeps (yes, that’s…
More Hope for Life on Enceladus?
Researchers on the Cassini mission team have identified large salt grains in the plumes emanating from Saturn’s icy satellite Enceladus, making an even stronger case for the existence of a salty liquid ocean beneath the moon’s frozen surface.
The Coming of Dawn
Can’t see the video below? Click here. After traveling almost four years and 1.7 billion miles, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is less than 100,000 miles from its first target: Vesta, the second-largest asteroid in the solar system. Vesta resides in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is believed to be the…
Lights in the Dark 