Happy Birthday NASA

What an occasion...to celebrate a milestone anniversary of an agency that has done great and amazing things. What is the right thing to say to recognize NASA and the fruits of its labor? Many words have already been spoken by those wiser than I. So I won't try to be clever or profound. I'll just think over my memories of NASA, which date from very early in my life and are responsible for the fact that I now work for this great organization. How far NASA has led us, from a simple sub-orbital flight to the surface of the moon and beyond. Even where people can't currently travel, NASA still sends robots, and peers into the depths of the universe. And it's not only the places they've gone and the things they've seen, though those are unspeakable achievements on their own, it's also what NASA has accomplished on this planet, for let us not disremember the many technologies that pervade our lives which NASA helped distribute from their halls to ours.

But, to take the view of NASA's current administrator, Michael Griffin, there are many ways to justify NASA's existence and programs. However, at the heart of it all is the basic human desire to explore and to know. This NASA has accomplished as the acme.

And so, to be succinct and, above all, not to become maudlin, I end this post with an enormous salute to all the men and women who led the way, and now keep that path open, to the stars.

Wonderfully Stunning

What an image. As one of my good friends says, it doesn't look real. Saturn and its lovely rings seen from above, image taken by the Cassini satellite. Oh, Cassini? Well, he was a mathematician and astronomer born in the 17th century. You can read about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Domenico_Cassini

And you can read so much more about the Cassini satellite and its mission and enjoy a ton of other amazing photos.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/index.html

Twin shuttles

An historic moment Saturday morning. For only the second time in the shuttle program, two shuttles sit on pads A&B simultaneously. Atlantis is on pad A in the foreground and Endeavour is on pad B in the background. Atlantis will be launching 12 October for the final Hubble servicing mission. Hubble is in a different orbital plane than the International Space Station. Hubble is about 27 degrees inclination and ISS is abut 57 degrees. Changing orbital plane is not as simple as changing altitude. It costs a great deal of energy, read fuel, to make such a change. So in the unlikely event that Atlantis might have to seek safe harbor before a landing, going to ISS is out of the picture. Therefore Endeavour has been set up as a rescue vehicle. If needed, it could launch and pick up Atlantis' crew and Atlantis could be brought down by remote control. All that would be very cool, but not what we want to see happen. This is the reason for the double shuttle lineup. A wonderfully cool photo it makes, and something we are a lot less likely to see again this late in the shuttle's career. That is part of what makes it so historic. As neat as it would be to have two shuttles in orbit at the same time, I find it highly unlikely, and not what I really want to see. Go Atlantis go. Endeavour, you'll have your chance later on down the mission list.

Sidebar, 21 Sept was my 27th anniversary with NASA.

The NASA Art Program

Here is a link. A very interesting link.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/NASAart_book/

What many...most people don't know is that NASA administrator James Webb instituted the NASA art program in the very early day of the agency. He had the foresight to see not only how significant the space program would be, but also how much it would and could influence our society and culture. Professional artists were invited to NASA facilities and to launches, and they produced magnificent art work which the majority of the public has never seen or is even aware of the existence. This link takes you to a site that has a very small sampling of this wonderful collection. As evocative and beautiful as these selections are, it is only a peek at the rich heritage that art has left us, giving the artist's unique interpretation of that which is reported so precisely and mundanely in the news media. In October 2008 a book will hit the stands which is entitled, "NASA/Art: 50 Years of Exploration". It's a 176 page presentation of the history of the NASA art program accompanied by a larger look at the collection. No, this is not a commercial for the book, or even for NASA. This is a desire to share the unseen human soul of NASA and of the men and women who have plumbed the depths of it and of their own souls to find the place where humanity, art and science meet.

Quite interesting are people

Have you ever seen a person transform before your eyes? I don't mean something as simple as changing their mind or going from frown to smile. I mean a deep, significant change, and you see it happen as you watch this person? Well, I have. And it was one of the most fascinating things to see.

A close friend of mine, George, is a clown. He will do anything for a laugh. Even when the subject is serious, he injects humor; not to make fun of the subject. It's a natural ability he has to be able to bring humor into situations without seeming to make light of them. Watching him talk politics, however, is a thing unto itself. He can get himself stirred up so quickly and so considerably with a rant that isn't just a rant, but shows his frustration and concern and makes good points. But he does get stirred up and can't be still or keep his voice down. Everyone in the building hears him. He's hyper anyway and that just doubles it.

Well, the congressman from our district is retiring. It was never in George's mind to get involved in politics, at least not as an office holder. As an informed citizen in dialogue with elected officials...always. However, several people around him urged him, and he, to my very great surprise, decided to enter the race.

So, on Sunday morning while he was talking strategy and trading information with his strategist, that's when the transformation took place. George came in with his usual bluster, but when he and Dennis began to talk...this hyper, voluble, tornado of a man became a settled, orderly and incisive speaker and thinker. His usual level of inform and knowledge was and always has been present, and yet it packaged itself up into a person who could run and could be elected, from the wacky clown who usually greets me with a deafening GOOD MORNING!!!! and a crushing hug. This was a congressman now, not a clown. No ranting but real discussion and exchange of information. An entirely different man, and yet the same. I've heard people speak of instantaneous transformations and I always nodded and basically ignored it. Until now. I've seen it, and it was an amazing sight to see. Even when (not if) he shifts back to wacky mode, I'll never forget what I saw and the impression it made on me. Beneath the thin nutty surface, there is a deep passionate man who truly cares and understands.

Yeah, I know...

I said I was going to quit. But I saw something so interesting last night that I have to mention it.

Hey blog, guess what! Last night I saw the ISS and the ATV simultaneously. The ATV was leading the station and was a lot smaller and dimmer, but there was no mistaking it once the motion was caught. The ATV is the Automated Transfer Vehicle. The first one is named Jules Verne. It's to take cargo to the ISS for supply. It's 32 feet long and about 15 in diameter. That's kind of small when you think about how high up it was in the sky, and yet it was visible to the naked eye. Being lit by the sun definitely was advantageous for seeing it. Because it was small, I didn't catch it when it first came up over the horizon. I missed it entirely. However not far behind was the space station...and that is hard to miss. It's so big and bright now, brighter than Venus. Once I caught sight of that, it was easy to find the ATV. And then we stood and watched them both speed across the sky. I had not before seen two objects simultaneously that were not docked. It was fascinating, to me at least. I loved every minute of it. The ATV was lost quickly as soon as it began to move out of the sun's light and dimmed. But the ISS was visible from horizon to horizon, about a 5 minute pass. And we stood and watched it the entire time. A wonderful, wonderful show. A grand dance in the heavens with ISS chasing ATV through the constellations and to the horizon. Wow...

Enjoy

I found this at www.wunderground.com. A very cool picture, and serendipitous timing.

Wow

The EVAs have been great fun to watch. Dextre is working fine, thank you very much. This picture is amazing. It may be hard to appreciate it, but looking at those solar arrays, knowing hard far away that is... This station is getting huge. I saw a video during the last shuttle mission that was instructive. One of the astronauts was floating through the station with a video camera. It was a tour. Not a talking, showing everything tour, but just a float through of all the inside space of the ISS. It gave a much better perspective of just how much room they have inside now. It was impressive and amazing to me, since I didn't really have a good concept of the inside. With the fixed camera views inside the ISS, it's very difficult to appreciate what it's like inside. I hope that NASA posts that video on their web site. There are some great videos there, some of them are HD. It's worth a look.

Yes, I do get all excited and carried away and talk a lot about the shuttle and ISS especially during a mission. I also know that a lot of people just don't care. But I also know that a friend of mine mentioned seeing a program about the ISS over the weekend. Many things were mentioned that made it interesting to her. She realized things she didn't know. And it was very interesting to her. So if one only takes the time to find out and understand, one can see why this is so great and exciting and, well, interesting. People need to try to get outside themselves for a while and see what is going on up there. If you think it has no bearing on you or is something you can't relate to, that is just because you haven't taken the time to have a look or listen. This is relative to everyone every day. It takes a willing and open mind to want to learn and find out.

102 and rising

Such a lovely weekend. After the other fun I've had, the doc told me on Friday that I had bronchitis. I only had a temp of 98.2 then when his nurse checked it. But the bottom fell out fast and by Saturday I was way far out of it...with a temp of 102+. But thankfully and with lots of prayers for relief and these newfangled wonder drugs, I am on my feet and at work on Monday morning, not feeling very bad at all. It figures...mess up my weekend instead of my work week.

However, rather than dwell further on what is past and rotten, this morning brought a brisk, breezy morning. The sky was clear and I found Jupiter right away. He was bright and jovial, smiling down on me as I drove to work, a good companion. It was not until I got onto the arsenal, however, that I was far south enough to have the "mountain" out of the way and I got the most wonderful surprise. There was the very old moon (4 days away from new), low in the sky, not far above the horizon. He was bright orange and very slim, almost unnoticable. If I hadn't looked up once more to peek at Jupiter, I never would have seen it. Jupiter was not far above the moon. A handsome pair, and quite the treat to see them together like that. It was enough to motivate me to pull over after I'd made the turn to my building and just watch for a long moment. Most wonderful and lovely. That's when I spotted the security guard who was just watching and apparently had already been parked. Time to move on before he began wondering who was sitting half way out in the road at 5 am. But that moment was a great one. For me (yes, geeky me) it was a wonderful way to start the day and the week. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Psalm 19:1

Just had to come back and edit to note that I just looked up from the computer and out the window near my cave. I can see the moon high in the sky now from my desk. Cool that I saw it just rising and now can see it from my desk. Cool to me anyway.

Very cool pic!!