What all the cool kids are wearing these days.

Stay Tuned!

We are about to have a Q&A with Garrett on this blog. If you are looking for the answers to questions like, "What's it like in space?" this will not be the Q&A for you. I have way too much respect for Garrett to do that kind of thing. Plus, Garrett is way too cool for that. So, if you are interested in the minutiae of Garrett, stay tuned. If you want to know what it's like in space, go to NASA's website. I mean, how many times can you say, "Well, there's that gravity thing"? Seriously.

Meanwhile, the NASA channel is re-showing all the stuff it did last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo. Watch it. It's very cool.

Also, the blog's friend, Todd Leopold, who is an entertainment editor for CNN, is doing a piece on "The Romance of Space" and how we've kinda lost it. Garrett will be featured prominently. I will post the piece here when it is posted on CNN.

The JWST: Hubble Times Two.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is set to launch, God willing and the creek don't rise, in June 2014, thus overlapping with the Hubble, which should cease transmission (RIP) some time that year. The telescope has a 21-foot-diameter primary mirror, making it the world’s largest orbiting observatory in any wavelength when it begins operations. It also will be the largest infrared (IR) telescope in existence.

More than 7,000 astronomers who have been involved with Hubble over its two decades of service are expected to use Webb. The difference between the two: Webb’s IR range will allow it to see objects 10-100 times more faint than Hubble can, opening the door to the universe’s earliest days. The Webb’s greater resolving power in infrared, and that wavelength’s ability to see past dust that obscures light from the universe’s earliest days, is expected to give astronomers images of events just 250 million years after the universe was born, in other words, when the universe was pretty much still a toddler.

According to NASA, "seeing that far back will reveal clusters of the Universe’s earliest objects as they were being formed, says JWST Senior Project Scientist John Mather, a Nobel Laureate at Goddard. Astronomer Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona expects to see disks of matter becoming planets around stars."

This is more NASA: "Observing the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems and their potential for supporting life are among Webb’s major goals. The telescope should be able to see relatively small planets—a few times the size of Earth—that Hubble cannot, says Gardner. But it also will have greater sensitivity to the atmospheres of stars closer to Earth. It even can provide close-ups of planets within the Solar System, so long as they are the duller ones like Mars, not bright Venus or Mercury, which would overpower its optics at so close a range."

The Webb dwarfs previous telescopes. After the vibration of launch, the mirror assembly must be unfolded into what the design team calls its “rough shape.” That process involves lifting each of the 18 primary mirror segments free of its launch hooks. Each of them is computer-controlled in six degrees of freedom, plus a seventh that pushes or pulls the center of the mirror for radius curvature adjustment. Each mirror has its own actuators to control these movements. After the mirrors are unhooked, the actuators must achieve a “wave front” alignment for each one to a tolerance of 20 nanometers—1/5,000th of a hair.

A full-sized mock-up will go on public display June 1 at the 2010 World Science Festival in New York City’s Battery Park.

Garrett Comes Home. Oh, and Those Other Guys

Okay, a day late and a few dollars short. But Atlantis came home beautifully. Some interesting things I learned on my trip to Florida (I am going by what Mary told me, so if any of this is wrong, blame her. Although she does know her stuff):

The BIG (as my brother-in-law, Jon, calls the VAB or Vehicle Assembly Building, is so big that it has its own climate.

The path that the shuttle rides on from the BIG to the launch pad is paved with stones from some river in Tennessee. Why? Who knows? Mary says it may be one of those low-bid deals from the contractor who built it. I do know they are pretty stones, and it's a loooonnnnggg path, so I guess some river in Tennessee is a bit deeper than it used to be.

Cool stuff at KSC, including launch pads, is not very well marked. And KSC (or rather, Canaveral Air Force Station) is very big. So if you don't know where you are going, you can spend a bit of time trying to find what you are looking for. And they don't have maps. So you drive on ICBM Road and Titan Road and Saturn Lane and Moonwalk Court (I made up some of those), and hope you find what you are looking for. We did, eventually.

For you birders out there, the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, right next to KSC, is a wonderful place to be; partly because there are driving paths and you don't really have to get out of your car to bird-watch, although, if you're like us, it's a constant "Oh! Stop the car! Stop the car! I think I just saw a (spoonbill, hawk, avocet, gator, willet, glossy ibis)!" You know you are jaded when you say, "Oh! Wait! Wait! Never mind, it's JUST a great blue heron." We did see a juvenile cottonmouth chow down on an unfortunate fish. Best thing (aside from the wildlife) is you can look in the distance and see KSC.

Some people are stupid. Mary and I stopped numerous times along the road out of the refuge to pick up plastic McDonald's cups, beer cans, etc. Who is insensitive enough to toss that kind of trash out in a wildlife refuge?

Watching the NASA channel during a mission is pretty cool. Mary and I were driven indoors because of a Biblical plague of lovebugs and turned on the teevee. Someone on the ISS was asking someone at Mission Control how to find the scissors. The question was not "Where are the scissors?" It was "What is the location of the scissors?" The answer was a good five minutes long and involved stuff like "the right compartment, the second node," etc. But it was clear that the guy answering knew exactly where the scissors were. Now, why they needed the scissors is beyond me. I know Garrett did not need a haircut.

Nothing we saw the entire time we were there made us think we had made a mistake in creating this blog. Garrett is just one awesome dude.

Just A Lot of Pictures

From my trip to Florida:

This is a photo of the launch taken by Sam Vega, who drove 18 hours to see the launch when he got bumped off a flight in Arkansas:



This is the launch pad from which all the Apollo astronauts left earth. It is also where Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee died tragically. This is what Grissom said, "If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." Still, you cannot be there without thinking of the amazing courage of those men. They went into space at a time when few had done it before, never knowing whether they would come back. And I'd like to say a word about their wives, who didn't have all the scientific knowledge their husbands had but still supported men who were part of the space program, men who were doing things that had never been done with no assurance that they would live, let alone be successful.

If you look at the photo below, you can see a Delta rocket in the background being readied for a September launch. Also, you can see three of the saddest words I have ever seen on the concrete post in the foreground: Abandon in Place. Wow.



More of SLC (Space Launch Complex) 34, Mary at the site:



This is one of Mary and me and a lifesize cutout of Garrett. My husband says someone should make a bobblehead of Garrett:



And this is Mary and me in front of the shuttle launch pad:



The Mercury 7 memorial. It honors all seven original Mercury astronauts, four of whom took flight from the launch pad behind it. Buried here is a time capsule that is to be opened in 2464 (500 years after its burial) that has the flight plans of the Mercury missions. The phrase, "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice," is engraved here. The epitaph of Christopher Wren, the architect who built St. Paul's Cathedral in London, it means, "If you seek a monument, look around you."



The Vehicle Assembly Building, one of the largest buildings in the world, was originally built for assembly of Apollo/Saturn vehicles and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations. It is known as the VAB, but my brother-in-law calls it the BIG.

Garrett and Piers Sellers Install a Closet and Garrett Takes a Nice Picture

Well, Atlantis took off on schedule, and we were right there, waving goodbye. The launch was spectacular, as launches always are. Yesterday, Garrett and Piers Sellers completed the mission's first spacewalk, having installed Rassvet, the Russian-made module that will provide additional storage space (those Russians on the ISS just brought waaayyy too many shoes). Actually, Rassvet is also a docking station for future Russian spacecraft.

Above is a picture Garrett took of himself (more or less) during the EVA. Also, if you are not watching the NASA Channel during this mission, you are missing some fun stuff. For instance, we just heard a request for "the scissors," as in "What is the location of the scissors?" Not "Where are the scissors?" Anyway, the answer was five minutes long, but clearly the person answering knew exactly where the scissors were.

Garrett Leaves and Drew Arrives

It's beautiful here, and, if Atlantis doesn't go today, it shouldn't be because of the weather. Meanwhile, Drew made his appearance at 9:05 pm -- eight pounds and 21 inches long. He just had to make it in time to see the launch. Smart baby.

We Are Here!

So Mary and I have arrived at Club Veg, also known as Mary's backyard, to prepare for the launch, which we are doing by drinking copious amounts of vodka and lazing about in the pool. Looking forward to meeting the wonderful Simone and Garrett's family tonight. We are also awaiting word on Cathy's delivery, which is late but should happen today. We wish she were here, but we know she is happy trying to push a reluctant Drew out of her body.

Building the ISS

This is a cool little thing I came across today.

What the Cool People Will Be Wearing This Summer

Garrett's wife has designed some pretty great T-shirts to commemorate the Atlantis launch. If you want one (or two or 20), you can order it (them) here or here. Below are the hilarious images on the backs of the shirts.






I am personally outfitting the Ward sisters and Cathy's toddler and yet-to-be-born son, Drew. It's, after all, what the best children are wearing this year!

Meanwhile, if your remote finger tends to automatically stop on the NASA channel, as mine does, check the schedule to see when it is re-running the pre-flight interviews, which you can also read here.