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November 19, 2008

Space Oops

Watch out for falling tools.

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Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper watched helplessly as the kit drifted away from her as she serviced the solar array system on the orbiting platform.

The briefcase-sized tool bag is one of the largest items ever lost on a spacewalk.

The event occurred during the first spacewalk of the latest shuttle flight to the ISS, which is intended to give the orbiting platform a major makeover.

How about a rope?  No rope in the NASA budget?  And the article states, "the briefcase-sized tool bag is one of the largest items ever lost on a spacewalk".  One of the largest?  What else are the losing up there?

Good thing her keys weren't in the bag.

July 18, 2008

Our Beautiful Planet

Earth, pictured from 31 million miles away.

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds.

"Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact extended mission, called EPOXI.

I just hope this guy isn't taking a peek.

Where is Sam J. Jones when you need him?

July 01, 2008

C-17 Globemaster III

I believe I saw one of those flying around Brooklyn Sunday afternoon.

It is a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and it was flying low in circles in the Lower New York Bay between 1:30 and 2:30pm.

 


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I don't know what it was doing but a huge thunderstorm was on its way in while the aircraft was circling.  Flying very low, it made about 7-10 passes then disappeared.  Pretty cool!

May 26, 2008

F-22 Raptor in Wow-O-Vision

My friend Boogs took his family to the Jones Beach Airshow yesterday and he got to see an F-22 Raptor in action.  I am officially jealous.

The F-22 was truly majestic, I wish that I had used an actual video camera to take that rather then the video mode of my Olympus, and much like a Korn concert, recordings do not do the engine of the F-22 justice!

Check out his blog for some video.