Sky This Week

Mission Accomplished

John Grunsfel and Drew Feustel completed the last of the Hubble repairs/upgrades yesterday. Today, at roughly 8:30 am, the Atlantis crew put that baby back into space. Technicians from the Goddard Space Flight Center had made special tools to be used in the repairs/upgrades. Those tools will probably soon be adapted into new Gator Grips or other "only-on-television" tool offers that will make gardening/cooking/home repair/ ice cream sundae making easier. This is why we need the space program; not because it gives us a sense of accomplishment, though it surely does; and not because it shows us that we are a small speck in the universe, though it does that, too.

We need the space program because it gives us a small picture of the possible.

And it offers the best and the brightest among us a place to make a difference. Even those who are nameless and faceless but whose intelligence and common sense make it possible for those of us without a whole lot of either to feel some pride in their work. The astronauts are the ones who risk their lives every time they go into space. But it's the people on the ground, who will never sell their autobiographies and never have a street named after them, who do the heavy lifting.

This blog reflects our devotion to Garrett Reisman, The Coolest Man In The Universe, and all the astronauts who have gone before and come after him. But today, at 8:30 am, I was thinking about those people, sitting in mission control and at the Telescope Center in Greenbelt, Md., and saying a silent "Thank You." Because without them, we wouldn't have any astronauts to idolize.

How did I miss this important news alert?

NASA assigns STS-132 crew

Congratulations, Garrett!

I guess my threatening letters* ("As God is my witness, NASA, I'll never buy Tang again if you don't give him another flight assignment immediately.") paid off, huh?

You're welcome.

*That's a joke. I'd never send anyone a threatening letter.
I'm a modern gal. I use e-mail.

Mike Massimino on looking at Earth from space.

I felt like I was almost looking at a secret - that humans weren't supposed to see this. This is not anything you're supposed to see. It's too beautiful. There are no words to describe how beautiful things are out there. I actually turned my head. I thought, 'I'm not supposed to be looking at this.' This was too much to see. It was a day pass and I could view the Earth very clearly. It was right there. And my first reaction was to look away from it. That it was so beautiful, people weren't supposed to see it.

What poetry! What an astounding way to describe it.

It seems that Mike Massimino is suffering from a severe case of Overview Effect.

And it's just lovely to read.

O'Hare Astronomy Exhibit

As part of the International Year of Astronomy, the fabulous Adler Planetarium and the less-than-fabulous O'Hare International Airport have teamed up to participate a worldwide exhibit of astronomy photographs. From Earth to the Universe looks like a swell way to kill some time, even though it has a really silly name.
Today, visit From the Earth to the Universe.
Later, check out From my Bathroom to my House, and From Times Square to New York City and From an Empty Cranium to Paris Hilton's Head.
Anyway.

At O'Hare, the photos are located in the pedestrian tunnel near the CTA platform.
Hey, that's, like, 50 feet from my desk, y'all!

Find out if your town is involved by clicking here.

UPDATE: Well, I went to take a look at the exhibit. It's fabulous - really, really great photos and a little bit of info on each object.
As a bonus, I got to come back and tell the guys I work with, "Hey, they've got a big picture of Uranus down by the CTA platform."

Sorry, Mom.
Apparently, I'm never going to grow up.

Friday Song

The inaugural "Friday Song" is a catchy tune by Jerry Engler and the Four Ekkos called
Sputnik (Satellite Girl).

This song came out RIGHT AFTER Sputnik 1 was launched. Ol' Jer must have had the song ready to go and just been crossing his fingers that they'd name it something with two syllables so it would fit into the chorus. Jerry Engler was the first American* to have a Space Race-themed song. Dozens upon dozens would follow.

Not only is this song fun to dance to, it also contains a prophetic opening couple of lines:

The fun has just begun
We're on Sputnik Number 1.

You have to hand it to Jerry Engler. At a time when the mere mention of reds in space would send schoolchildren ducking and covering and otherwise sane people into pork n' beans-laden homemade bomb shelters, Jerry was all, "WOOOOOOOOOO! SPAAAAAAAACE! FRICK YEAHHHHHHHHH!"

Enjoy.

*And the last American to correctly pronounce "Sputnik."

The only WW1 flying ace to ever become an astronaut.

May marks the 40th anniversary of Apollo 10, which featured the Snoopy lunar module and the Charlie Brown command module.
According to Charles Schulz's son, the selection of those two names for such an important piece of American history was "one of the all-time highlights of his career."
Several people warned Schulz about including the names of his two most popular characters in what, if things went wrong, would have been a great American tragedy.
Do you know what Charles Schulz said?
"If the astronauts can risk their lives, I can risk my characters."
Here's to Charles Schulz.
Not only did he create the most adorable, hilarious, timeless cartoon character ever - he had quite a bit of character himself.

Below: A mission control console during Apollo 10. And possibly Charlie Duke? Hard to say.



The son of Charles Schulz at the Snoopy statue at KSC.




The Snoopy LM, as photographed by John Young aboard Charlie Brown.

Like Icarus, minus a few million miles.

Astrophotographer extraordinaire Thierry Legault snapped a killer image of Atlantis and Hubble transiting the Sun yesterday.
Wow.
(Click to enlarge, natch.)

A fond farewell...

...to the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, otherwise known as WFPC2, otherwise known as "wiff-pik-too."

WFPC2 not only saved the Hubble after a disastrous beginning


,it went on to bring us almost all of the HST's most spectacular and memorable images:

The Spirograph Nebula

The Crab Nebula


The Hubble Deep Field


The Pillars of Creation



the Shoemaker-Levy collision with Jupiter



and finally, the last official "pretty picture" from WFPC2 - Planetary Nebula Kahoutek 4-55, located in Cygnus.

University of Chicago grad to once again repair telescope named for University of Chicago grad.

I'm looking at you, Ivy League snobs.