Storytime.

I started this yesterday and ended up getting distracted by an aircraft emergency probably something shiny. Therefore...

Today is Yesterday was Paul Desmond Scully-Power's birthday.
Besides having a cool surname that pays unintentional homage to The X-Files, Scully-Power was party to a pretty heated diplomatic incident.

Scully-Power was a crew member aboard Challenger for STS-41G.
STS-41G was memorable for a couple of reasons. First, it was the very first time that astronauts had taken an IMAX camera aboard the shuttle to film. (The Dream is Alive was released the following year. I might have seen it once or twice. Or thrice.)

But here's something you might not know.

On 10 October 1984, the Evil Empire (the one not created by George Lucas), enraged after seeing this Wendy's commercial*



flipped its hair, stomped its feet, and fired a "warning shot" at Challenger from the Terra-3 laser complex, which caused onboard systems to fail and caused temporary blindness in the crew.
Fortunately, the problems either fixed themselves or were easily repaired.

As you can imagine, this resulted in a fairly substantial diplomatic protest.

The laser bit didn't make the movie. However, if they had put it in, I'll wager The Dream is Alive would have grossed 18 kajillion bucks and solved NASA's funding problems for a hundred years.
If the crew of Challenger had fired back, we'd be driving flying cars on Saturn by now.



*Probably

Somebody call Steve McQueen.

Seriously? A BLOB?
Wow. Didn't see that coming.

This problem is about to get a lot worse with three additional bodies.

This International Space Station is a Pig Sty!*


* I am constantly looking for an opportunity to link to this piece.

As a cat-fancier...

I am saddened.

Someone is in BIG trouble.

Once, I lost Dad's screwdriver and got the business.

Someone is going to be grounded forever for this one.

Charlie Bolden gets the nod

President Obama has tapped Charlie Bolden to be the new NASA administrator. Bolden is a strong supporter of Project Constellation, and he has a proud history as an astronaut and a Marine.

Charlie flew on the STS-61C Space Shuttle Columbia mission, during which flight crew members deployed the SATCOM KU satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing. The mission ended shortly before the launch of the Challenger in 1986.

He also flew on STS-31, Space Shuttle Discovery, which launched on April 24, 1990, and deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

Then, on STS-45, Bolden commanded a crew of seven aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. During the nine-day mission, the crew operated the twelve experiments that constituted the ATLAS-1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) cargo. ATLAS-1 obtained a vast array of detailed measurements of atmospheric chemical and physical properties, which contribute significantly to improving our understanding of our climate and atmosphere. In addition, this was the first time an artificial beam of electrons was used to stimulate a man-made auroral discharge.

Finally, in 1994, he commanded a crew of six aboard Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-60), the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle mission involving a Russian Cosmonaut as a mission specialist crew member.

He's got the cred.

However, he also lobbied for ATK, which manufactures the shuttles' solid rocket boosters, and I don't much care for lobbyists being put in charge of billions of dollars of taxpayer jack.

Bolden is a fan of manned space flight, which I think is a good thing. But I don't think manned space flight at the expense of unmanned, robotic missions is necessarily a positive position. I don't see why both can't remain an intrinsic part of our space program. Spirit and Opportunity, the two Mars "droids" have done an amazing job of imparting information over their lifespans, as have the various probes we have launched toward Pluto, Jupiter and the outer reaches of the solar system. And Constellation, which I support, is billions of dollars over budget.

And while I emphatically agree with the position that manned space flight is a necessary and important policy, I do see the need to get the costs under control. I have no problem with spending billions of dollars on the space program. I have a serious problem with allowing contractors to go billions of dollars over budget with no consequences.

All that aside, I think Bolden is a good pick. It can't hurt to have a former astronaut in charge of NASA.

Friday Song Bonus

One of my favorite songs ever, and one of my favorite videos ever.
(I still say he should have asked the ISS crew to dance a little, too. Of course, then it wouldn't have been "Where the hell is Matt?".)

Fun fact: The beautiful Palbasha Siddique was a 17-year old high school student in Minnesota when she sang "Praan."



And here are some dancing outtakes. Most are hilarious. A couple are terrifying.

Friday Song

By request of one of the sisters: Jack Johnson's Constellations



Apparently, Jack was stalking my family back when we lived in the beach house. Because this is obviously about us.

Thanks, Daddy.

The light was leaving
in the west it was blue
The children's laughter sang
and skipping just like the stones they threw
the voices echoed across the waves
its getting late

It was just another night
with the sun set
and the moon rise not so far behind
to give us just enough light
to lay down underneath the stars
listen to Papa's translations
of the stories across the sky
we drew our own constellations

The west winds often last too long
but when they calm down
nothing ever feels the same
Sheltered under the Kamani tree
waiting for the passing rain
clouds keep moving to uncover the scene
stars above us are chasing the day away
to find the stories that we sometimes need
Listen close enough
all else fades
fades away

It was just another night
with the sun set
and the moon rise not so far behind
to give us just enough light
to lay down underneath the stars
listen to all the translations
of the stories across the sky
we drew our own constellations

Going to the bad in Silver City

I probably shoulda waited, because Cathy can do this post better and funnier. But I am so excited. This year's Leonid meteor shower is supposed to be a "half-storm," meaning 500 meteors an hour as opposed to 1,000, which would be an honest-to-God "full storm."

So Cathy and I were chatting, and we decided to go to Hawaii to watch it. Then we decided that would be frightfully expensive, so we started looking around. And we found this: www.casitasdegila, a five-cabin "resort" in the middle of No-Freakin'-Where, New Mexico. So Cathy called Mary, who said to her husband, "What if I went to New Mexico for the Leonids?" Her husband, being the smart guy that he is, responded,"Let me guess. Janet and Cathy?"

So the three of us, along with whatever sisters and Honorary Ward Sisters we can talk into it, will be in Gila, NM, for what we all hope will be the experience of a lifetime, meteor shower-wise.

Gila is butt-up against the Gila National Forest, and far, far away from any light pollution. It'll be cold at night (well, not just cold but COLD), but, like Mary said, we won't need a cooler for our champagne.

It is also 30 miles from Silver City, which figures prominently in Billy the Kid: When Billy the Kid was a very young lad, in old Silver City, he went to the bad."

There are no televisions and no cell phone access in Gila, but there is WIFI, so maybe we'll blog a bit during the five days.

ISS astronauts toast with recycled urine.

Big whoop.

Once when I was in the Coast Guard, I drank a 40 of Schlitz Malt Liquor and chased it with a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill.*


*Yep. I hurled.

Oddly enough, I'm *not* the one who looks psycho in this photo.