Space Shuttle Endeavour Approaching The ISS (Image:NASA)
Welcome to another edition of the GeekDad Space Report! We have a quiet week coming up with no launches scheduled. The three launches scheduled last week all made it off the pad with a 1 day delay for the SDO launch due to high winds. Lets take a look at what else is going on in space!
Interesting Hubble Observations
In many ways, all of the Hubble observations are interesting, but here is a list of some of the standouts in the coming week. A more complete list can be found at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) This Week On HST Website.
How Far Does H2 Go: Constraining FUV Variability in the Gaseous Inner Holes of Protoplanetary Disks
Direct Age Determination of the Local Group dE Galaxies NGC 147 and NGC 185
This is a small list of the overall observations. You may also see some of these observations popping up in other weeks as many observation programs consist of several observations over time.
Manned Spaceflight
It was a fun week for manned spaceflight. The Space Shuttle Endeavour rocketed skyward to the ISS, docking with the orbiting laboratory. The crews of Endeavour and the ISS worked together to install the Tranquility module and start bringing it’s systems online. Tranquility’s famous cupola was moved into position last night and will be opened for amazing views Wednesday or Thursday. Endeavour is scheduled to land Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility. To keep up with the latest on STS-130 be sure to check out NASA’s Shuttle Mission page.
An interesting note for the week in manned spaceflight. NASA used the song “The Ballad of Serenity” for a wake-up call to the crew of Endeavour this week for astronaut Bob Behnken. Using a favorite song for different astronauts is a common occurrence but this caught the attention of a lot of folks because of the Serenity link. This got a discussion going among some colleagues that work in the space business with me as well as space enthusiasts about what song they would want for their wake-up call if they were in space. Myself, I would want “Jupiter” from the Planets Symphony. I posed the question to @moonrangerlaura (a great space tweeter if you’re not already following her) and she said she would want either “The Ballad of Serenity” or “Rainbow Connection”. I also had the great fortune of meeting Felicia Day (@feliciaday, as if you weren’t already following her) this weekend. I posed the question to her, a tough question when asked out of the blue, and she said that she could not narrow it down to a particular song but that it would probably be something by Jimmy Hendrix. What song would you want for your wakeup call?
Have a great week everyone!
