Falcon 9 May Launch Friday, June 4, 2010

UPDATE: LAUNCH WEBCAST LIVE set Friday at 10:40 AM

The SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket has a tentative first test launch date of Friday, June 4, 2010 between the hours of 11 AM and 3 PM at the earliest from the dedicated commercial launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

The NewSpace company was hoping to have gotten a test flight in by now, but their work was pushed back several times, most recently because of delays with the launch of a Delta IV rocket earlier in May after four failed attempts.

If the Falcon 9 test proves successful, SpaceX will continue with a launch manifest to the International Space Station in the spring of 2011, months later than originally anticipated by NASA, [SpaceNews] but long before the space agency will have any likely government alternative.

Under the leadership of Elon Musk, SpaceX won a $1.6 billion NASA contract to launch more than a dozen Falcon 9 booster rockets to resupply and carry cargo to the orbiting International Space Station. The firm envisions carrying astronauts to the orbiting laboratory by mid-decade with the Obama Administration betting on commercial space launch providers -like SpaceX, for space policy success.

Soyuz TMA-19 Readied for June 16 Launch

The Soyuz TMA-19 new crew expedition to the International Space Station is scheduled to rocket into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on June 16, 2010. The crew comprises Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia and two American NASA astronauts, Douglas Willock and Shannon Walker, [France24] will continue training for the mission the next two weeks in Star City, Russia.

While on board the ISS, the crew will receive the manned spaceships Discovery and Soyuz TMA-01M, and also three Progress cargo spacecraft. The crew is scheduled to walk out into open space on three occasions from the ISS. They will be a part of the ISS Expedition 24 and ISS Expedition 25 crews [Energia]. The trio will join Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson for the Expedition 24 segment.

Part of the current ISS crew, Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi, will end their stay on the International Space Station as Expedition 23 crew members Tuesday, June 1, 2010 aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 return spacecraft, making way for their coming replacements on June 16, [AP].

the devil and daniel johnston

a couple weekends ago i went to a music festival called all tomorrow's parties which was curated by simpsons creator matt groening (pronounced GRAY-ning, apparently).


interestingly, in order to get to the festival, we had to drive by a local power plant which i like to call england's "springfield."


as the curator, matt groening chose and invited all the bands that came and designed the programs. he made four different program covers... the one on the right features the strange-looking and energetic iggy pop and the left shows daniel johnston with his famous hi, how are you character, jeremiah the frog.


one of the most memorable acts for me was definitely daniel johnston.


i highly recommend the documentary film the devil and daniel johnston.



our crew...

clocky

clocky is an alarm clock that runs away from you and hides after you hit the snooze button. when the alarm goes off again, you are forced to get out of bed and find clocky, therefore making you less likely to snooze indefinitely.



this clever little device was invented by gauri nanda while she was a graduate student at MIT. she published the study and earned herself a 2005 Ig nobel prize! the Ig nobel prizes are awarded each year by an organization called improbable research to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology."

so, congratulations gauri... only a few years too late ;)

a plethora of condiments

the rose and crown pub in nottingham offers a plethora of condiments to choose from when eating in their establishment:


ironically, HP sauce, which is commonly called "brown sauce," has a blue packet.

i wondered whether the contents of the packets offered as wide a variety of colors as their containers. the answer is simply, no.



we considered doing a blind taste test in our office to see whether people could identify each condiment by taste alone. in the end, we didnt go thru with this experiment. the results didnt seem to be worth the flavours.

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Delta IV Heavy Takes to Space

A ULA Delta IV lifted-off on a satellite delivery mission for the US Air Force. The Delta rocket launched into the dark Florida skies on May 27, 2010 clearing the way at Cape Canaveral for the targeted Friday, June 4, 2010 launch of the commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 demonstration flight.

Log Slide Interpretive Photos and more

Just to finish up the pictures I took during my hike with Clare a couple of days ago, here is a shot of Sable Lake taken from the overlook.



The trail head sign informed us that the trail to the log slide is 2.7 miles. Since we went into the dunes and hiked north through the dunes before going west and walking back the trail, our total distance was over six miles. Of course, a mile of walking in the dunes is worth two miles of walking on a flat trail through the woods.



The trilliums are almost done with their blooms, but other wildflowers are everywhere.




In the last few years they have done a lot more on the Grand Marais end of the national park to add interpretive signs. At the log slide, they even built a building and have displayed a set of the big wheels as well as the logging sleds used 100 years ago to move the timber. The county and township in which Grand Marais is located were named after Alger and Burt, respectively.






Although I cannot see the sun set all the way to the horizon from my house due to trees in the way, you can still see the color over the water.



After watching the sun set, we then watched the full moon rise.

the turkey that ate st. louis

seth shostak is a senior astronomer at the SETI institute, but he used to make films when he was in graduate school. great to see old hobbies of well-known astronomers!



seth writes:
"One of the many doubtful activities of my youth was making films. I started doing this at age 11, and by the time I was a teenager, my buddy Jerry Rebold and I had already constructed a sound system that occasionally worked with our wind-up, 16mm camera.

In 1967, while in grad school, fellow student Bob O'Connell, Jerry Rebold and I made a half-hour film entitled "The Teenage Monster Blob from Outer Space, Which I Was." This parody of 1950s sci-fi films starred six pounds of Play-Doh.

The film bombed. It was, as O'Connell called it, "a turkey." This disgusting failure prompted us to change our cinematic strategy in two ways: (1) our next film was just going to be a trailer, rather than a complete film -- that way we could save money and just put in the good parts, and (2) if we were making turkeys, why not make a REAL turkey?

Ergo, this short "preview" film, shot mostly at Caltech and at that school's Owens Valley Radio Observatory. Observant viewers will note then-department chair Jesse Greenstein in the role of Walter Cronkite, and a few other astronomers too (including yours truly).

"The Turkey that Ate St. Louis" was entered in the Baltimore International Film Festival, and automatically inserted into the feature-film category, where it faced competition from major motion pictures from both America and Europe. Despite this uneven playing field, "The Turkey" lost.

"The Teenage Monster Blob" eventually became more popular. Too late."

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STS-133 Discovery next but no poster (yet)

STS-133 Discovery is the next human space mission to be launched by Americans but the crew has no mission poster or flight patch displayed just yet since the STS-134 mission was delayed from the original target launch date of summer.

The STS-133 mission is set for launch 16 September 2010, will be to the International Space Station. The mission will transport the Pressurized Multipurpose Module and the fourth ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the ISS. The mission will be the the 39th and final flight of Discovery and the 133rd and penultimate flight of the Space Shuttle program, which began on 12 April 1981.

The STS-134 Endeavour is now slated to liftoff in mid-November 2010 at the earliest. This is due to the ongoing design changes in AMS-02. There is a new STS-135 Atlantis mission now under active consideration for mid-2011 by the White House and NASA with a final decision expected late next month.

The Next Generation: Masten Space

As the space shuttle fleet winds down, the next generation of space vehicles is under development, in part, by Masten Space Systems. The XA-0.1B-750 rocket vehicle takes off, translates off the pad, boosts, shuts of the engine, then it relights the engine and comes back down to the pad. This is the first time a VTVL rocket has relight the engine in flight, ever, in the history of the planet!

The Space Shuttle Atlantis: 1985-2010

Atlantis pilot Tony Antonelli watched the orbiter being towed from the runway after the landing. "I hope it's not the last time they do that, but it might be, and it's a shame," he said. "She is so ready to get stacked and back out to the launch pad," he said. "You can tell that's where she wants to be."

Delay, Delay, Delay of Falcon 9 Cape Launch

United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) postponed Delta 4 launch of the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System 2F-SV1 satellite (GPS 2F-SV1) has pushed back SpaceX’s first test launch of the commercial Falcon 9 booster to no earlier than June 2, SpaceX confirmed May 26.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the Virginia commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is looking better to Elon Musk's overhead 'burn rate' with every single delay day in Florida? Virginia's 'Space Island' awaits SpaceX for Wallops to orbit!

NASA's Initial Point of Departure Plan

NASA's Initial Point of Departure Program plans were being discussed in Houston, Texas this week. The two-day Exploration Enterprise Workshop included several presentations that are linked to "A New Space Enterprise." The presentations are worthy of review to consider the new mission objectives.

Sand Dune Hike

Friend Clare and I took a 4 hour hike in the dunes yesterday. We went in on the Masse Homestead trail located about half way between Sable Lake and the Log Slide. We walked up the trail 7 or 8 minutes and then caught the path that accessed the dunes. From their we hiked northwest to the Log Slide and headed back the lake shore Masse Homestead trail. It was truly a glorious day.



We say 4 or 5 telegraph poles. One of these days I have to purchase a GPS so I can mark the coordinates of each and figure out how many there are. I would also like to find out when the telegraph line was installed to connect the lighthouse keepers at Au Sable Point with Grand Marais. If any of you know some of this history, please send me an email to Karen@agatelady.com.



Some of the views in the middle of the Grand Sable Dunes are spectacular. We certainly did some up and down hiking.



Each view from the dunes is a little bit different.



Here is a shot of Clare.

world cup build up

holy crap, i'm so excited!!

Atlantis Lands at Spaceport Last Time

Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center one last time with a double sonic boom-boom!

'Space Island' to Wallop w/Open House!

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is celebrating its 65th Anniversary with a public open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 5, 2010. Visitors can meet with researchers and see the Orbital Sciences Corporation's Cygnus spacecraft during an open house June 5 at the facility on the Eastern Shore, according to a NASA news release. Cygnus is expected to carry supplies to the International Space Station next year from the commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport next year after the space shuttle fleet is retired.

Exhibits, tours and demonstrations will be conducted during the event highlighting the many research activities by NASA at Wallops. Visitors will be able to go inside the sounding rocket payload facility, engineering and scientific balloon labs and the range control center. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport pads may be closed due to commercial space launch construction activities however.

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, that are performing in the Ocean City Air Show will be departing and arriving from Wallops throughout the afternoon. Gates will be opening at 9:30 a.m. Just take the 'Space Highway' Route 13 north from Virginia Beach, Va. if your coming from the South or flying into Norfolk's airport.

Hot in Grand Marais

Today the temperatures are supposed to hover around 80, but the past two days have been near 90 during the heat of the afternoon. It was hotter these past two days (in May!) than it was all last summer.

My friend, Clare Comstock, from the Denver area is here visiting. We decided to walk out onto the pier to try to get some relief from the heat. It was a bit better out there, but not as cooling as I expected since the wind was from the south. Here is a shot of the lighthouse at the end of the pier. Although it was not foggy, the fog horn was on when we first starting to walk out toward the lighthouse. I'm not sure how it operates these days, but the horn turned off as we approached.



It has been quite some time since I walked all the way out to the end. I was surprised to see damage to the concrete at the end of the pier.



Here is a shot taken from the end of the pier looking back toward the inner harbor lighthouse.



From the pier I took this shot of the coast guard station, which is now an office for the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore as well as quarters for summer workers.



Here is a shot taken from the pier looking west.



Next, Clare and I drove to Sable Falls and walked down to the beach. Here is a shot documenting the quantity of rock that is currently on the beach.



The mouth of the Sucker River is picturesque right now. The river is split and enters into Lake Superior by two different paths. Notice the "beach art" someone left for everyone else to enjoy.




This picture I took at a friend's house the other night. Last fall many of the apples did not fall from the trees. This shot documents last year's apples with this year's blossoms.

another one bites the dust

the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and i´ve been bombarded by birthday besitos already! me gusta mucho.

so far barcelona has proven to be a fascinating city to explore. from getting lost in the gothic neighborhoods to finding the modernista architecture, its certainly not a boring place to be! i´m going to walk around montjuic park today, and then try to think of something interesting to cook for my wonderful hosts for dinner.

i´m staying in the big city until friday, then i head off along the coast for the rest of my trip. happy happy joy joy.

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Atlantis to Land on Earth, Permanently.

Salute to Atlantis! The first landing opportunity for Atlantis’ planned final mission is Wednesday at 8:48 a.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., [NASA LIVE Webcast]. If Atlantis is unable to land Wednesday, additional opportunities are available at Kennedy on Thursday at 9:13 a.m. and 10:48 a.m. There are opportunities Friday at Kennedy and backup landing site Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. For recorded updates about landing, call 321-867-2525. On the landing of Atlantis, the United States is down to only two human space launches ending the space shuttle era in November 2010.

a world cup of crisps

in honor of the world cup next month, a pub near my house is offering sausages from a dozen different countries playing in the tournament. it really made me laugh when i saw the sign, but now i'm curious about what sausages will be featured from various countries like the US, france, and even england. so of course i will be watching at least a few matches there!

i think the sausage variety is a much better idea than the one developed by Walkers crisps (potato chips). they have created 15 new flavours of crisps from different countries in the world cup, including: South African sweet chutney, Spanish chicken paella, Irish stew, American cheeseburger, Japanese chicken teriyaki, etc...



you should read the hilarious results of charlie brooker's taste test.

i mean, the british love their crisps and they certainly have an arsenal of unique and interesting flavours already on the shelves (eg. "prawn cocktail" or "smoky bacon"), but i think maybe this has gone too far....?

RECORD SKYDIVE SET FOR NEW MEXICO

Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian daredevil, hopes to to break a 50-year-old record this summer in New Mexico when he begins a sky dive from 120,000 feet, or almost 23 miles above the earth’s surface jumping from a capsule and going nearly 700 mph down breaking the sound barrier, reports CNN.

It’s unclear from the CNN story where in New Mexico Baumgartner’s jump will happen. It’s sponsored by Red Bull, which probably adds to New Mexico’s allure as a place for far-out, space-related stuff - like those recognized along the New Mexico Space Trail.

The previous record for highest sky dive was set in 1960 when U.S. Air Force jumper Joe Kittinger started a descent from 102,800 feet near White Sands, New Mexico, CNN tells us. The sport of breaking the Kittinger record and launch the extreme sport of space diving in the next decade has been discussed for the past few years among space advocates.

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WISE is busy mapping asteroids!

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is busy surveying the landscape of the infrared sky, building up a catalog of cosmic specimens -- everything from distant galaxies to "failed" stars, called brown dwarfs to asteroids.

WISE is picking out an impressive collection of asteroids and comets, some known and some never seen before. Most of these hang out in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, but a small number are near-Earth objects -- asteroids and comets with orbits that pass within about 48 million kilometers (30 million miles) of Earth's orbit. By studying a small sample of near-Earth objects, WISE will learn more about the population as a whole. How do their sizes differ, and how many objects are dark versus light?

So far, the WISE mission has observed more than 60,000 asteroids, both Main Belt and near-Earth objects. Most were known before, but more than 11,000 are new. About 190 near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) have been observed to date, of which more than 50 are new discoveries. WISE may help determine which asteroids humans should visit first under the Obama space plan now under consideration in the Congress.

fuschia flower

of course the fuschia decided to bloom just in time for me to go on holiday!

The Moon Needs You!

National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" segment ran with a story today calling upon professional and amateur astronomers to lend a hand in the lunar data coming from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) now in orbit about the Moon [NPR]. Two weeks ago, Scientific American published a story, pushed by NASA, entitled: "Your chance to be a lunar scientist" through the new program called Moon Zoo.

Apollo 14's Mitchell Takes Space Policy Position for the Moon and Private Sector

Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a moon walker of Apollo 14, penned an article Sunday published in the TC Palm (Beach, Florida) newspaper in which he states, " I urge President Barack Obama to continue moon missions as an important flight destination for testing next-generation rocket propulsion systems" while he commends the president "decision to strengthen the private sector’s role in the space program. The intellectual energy of scientists and inventors, as well as private entrepreneurs, will catapult Earth’s people into a space-faring race."

Compared to his former Apollo astronaut colleagues, Mitchell takes the more middle ground by not ceding the moon to near-term exploration but supporting propulsion innovation and the involvement of the commercial space launch sector.

As founder and chief science officer of Quantrek, Dr. Mitchell collaborates with progressive scientists and experts in the fields of propulsion systems, as well as other applications of frontier science emerging from discovery of zero-point energy. He is a "strong proponent of a manned mission to Mars, and see moon missions as a prerequisite for testing spacecraft propelled by advanced propulsion systems, such as zero-point energy that can travel to Mars and deeper into space."

In Dr. Mitchell's 1996 book, The Way of the Explorer, the lunar astronaut developed a "dyadic" model of paired opposites-mind/matter, life/death, etc.-that he also covers here and that owes as much to quantum physics' wave/particle duality as to Taoism's yin/yang. Mitchell isn't afraid to go out on a limb; his contention that the universe "intended" to evolve to higher levels, for example, goes against mainstream Western science, [audio interview].

Meanwhile, Apollo lunar era astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Rusty Schweickart have been supportive of the new presidential space policy to advance humans to an asteroid while Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan, (these two appearing twice on Capitol Hill) and Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt have been among the most outspoken critics of the president's new policy space and destination.

Lunar Apollo astronauts Cernan, Harrison, Walter Cunningham, Alan Bean, Al Worden, Jim McDivitt, Fred Haise, Jim Lovell, Charlie Duke, Frank Borman, and Dick Gordon were among those signing a letter to the president objecting to the discontinuance of the lunar Constellation Ares-1 and Ares-V program.

Absent the space policy debate has been veteran lunar and shuttle astronaut John Young, now retired, who has in the past been supportive of new technologies and asteroid surveys.

Humans Beyond the Earth-Moon System

USA Today journalist Dan Vergano this Sunday evening published an interesting article entitled: "Asteroids emerge as next frontier of space exploration" pointing to the new and recent destination goal set by the president. In which Vergano writes "An astronaut 'sprint' mission would three to five years later [2025], with a 20- to 75-day outbound trip, a one- to two-week stay and a 45-day trip home, 'marking humanity's first foray beyond the Earth—Moon system,' says the December [NASA] study." [Vid NEOnauts].

Some see the asteroids as the logical next step beyond the surface of the Moon; asteroids as the next step to the exo-moon of Mars; and, the surface of The Red Planet below. The presidential directive does provide a human space map. A map of human expansion beyond the Earth -Moon system and ultimately to the Jovian moon Europa before the end of this century, if one is willing to look ahead.

Federal law does require survey of all near Earth asteroids (NEO's) of any significant size for these objects may hold many keys to knowledge, resource supplies, and more Earthly dangers as these NEO asteroids do lurk and perhaps with damaging human impact.

The goals are high. They shall require the combined efforts of spacefaring governments and their commercial space launch elements from around the blue and partly cloudy globe to achieve human but commercial exploration of the Moon, and NASA-driven human missions to the asteriods, exo-Moon Phobos, the surface of Mars, the Asteroid Belt and on to the surface of a new water world.

Atlantis Departs Station for Earth Final Time

FULL SCREEN VID -- The Space Shuttle Atlantis has departed the International Space Station (ISS) and is set for a final landing at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, May 26, 2010. Upon its return to Earth, Atlantis will be prepared for flight as an emergency rescue ship for the final shuttle mission now set for November, but is not expected to launch despite efforts of some advocates to provide it one more flight in 2011.

Atlantis lifted off on its final mission May 14 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and delivered the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 to the ISS that will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Astronauts conducted three spacewalks to install six new batteries for the station.

Space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour scheduled for their last missions in September and November to the ISS bringing a conclusion to the nearly 30-year program of orbital operations. Endeavour will carrying a $2-billion, multinational particle detector known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS.

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solidly in the thirties

once i recognized the pattern, i knew it had to be continued: i'm going to try to spend my birthdays in different countries for as many years as i can!


all birthdays were celebrated in the US until...

2007: buenos aires, argentina (photos)

2008: austin, texas, usa (post-phd party)

2009: i turned thirty in england's peak district (photos)

2010: BARCELONA, SPAIN! (if the volcano allows...)


i'm leaving ridiculously early in the morning. cant wait! chao!

Star City is the Human Space Gateway

While Star City, Russia will become the only viable gateway for humans to get to orbital space whether they be Russian, American, or some other nationality next year, excepting the Chinese, the Russian government has declared 2011 the Year of the Cosmonaut to add oomph to the 50th anniversary of Yuri Garagin's first orbital human flight next April 12th.

Star City is where the training facilities for all who fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft that will soon become the only vehicle to dock at the International Space Station with the retirement of the space shuttle after only two more scheduled launches later this year.

Those planning a trek into Russia in the next 18-months or so may wish to consider a visit to Star City to get a piece of space history first hand since - Star City is where the first commercial cosmonauts trained for the Mir Corp flight, all of the commercial space flight participants in this first decade of the 21st century and many-a-government sponsored cosmonaut and astronaut from around the globe over the past fifty years have been to prepare for their orbital journeys. There may even be commercial spaceflight participants planning to circle the Moon in 2011 who will train at Star City soon.

The Star City Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center has engaged programs for the hearty and less intensive tours of the varied Russian space museums and space facilities available to foreign tourists including the Russian International Space Station Mission Control Center outside of Moscow a few miles. And, if you have $30-million and lots of time to spare, you may find yourself trained at Star City and on your way to the Baikonur Cosmodrome's launch pad.

X51-A Waiverider Flight Test Set for Tuesday

The Boeing X-51 is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic (Mach 7, around 8,050 km/h) flight testing. The X-51 WaveRider program is a consortium of the US Air Force, DARPA, NASA, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The program is managed by the Propulsion Directorate within the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).The X-51 has flown on a B-52 and is expected to have its first flight as early as May 25, 2010. More from The Register.

saturn's aurora

the spacecraft cassini continues to explore saturn's environment and captured this lovely timelapse of saturn's aurora between october 5th and 8th, 2009.


auroras (aurori? aurorae?) occur because energetic particles coming from the sun react with a planet's magnetic field. magnetic fields naturally have directional field lines which act as "traffic lanes" that guide the electrically charged solar wind particles to the north and south magnetic poles.

once concentrated at the poles, the particles begin to react with the gas in the planet's upper atmosphere. the atoms and molecules of the atmospheric gas absorb some of the energy of the foreign particles and become "excited." when they get exhausted from being excited, they return to their relaxed state by sending off a photon of light which we see collectively as the glow of an aurora.

the type of gas in the atmosphere that reacts with the solar particles determines the color of the aurora we see. on earth, the gas is mostly atomic oxygen (which produces a red glow), molecular nitrogen (blue), and molecular oxygen (green).

the animated image of saturn's aurora is almost as mesmerizing as voyager's approaching view of jupiter in the late 1970s.

MARS 500 International Crew Selected

At the beginning of June, three Russian astronauts will be joined by Chinese, Italian and French colleagues on a simulated mission lasting 520 days sealed inside a simulated interplanetary spacecraft, the men will mimic the effects of traveling, researching and living in space for the duration of a year and a half while still on the ground in Moscow. The mission is a groundbreaking study that will show the stress put on astronauts during such lengthy missions, particularly a potential journey to Mars.

A commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medical and Biological Problems last Tuesday named the crew. “There are four Russian citizens – two doctors, Sukhrob Kamolov and Alexander Smoleyevsky, and two engineers, Alexei Sityov and Mikhail Sinelnikov, two European engineers – Romain Charles of France and Diego Urbina of Italy, and China’s Wan Yue on the crew,” experiment director Boris Morukov said.

A Russian will be the crew commander. Another two crewmembers will become the flight engineer and the doctor. Three will be researchers. Each function must be duplicated because the experiment will be rather complicated. The three researchers will ‘land’ on the Martian surface.

English and Russian will be the working languages, but three researchers from Europe and China do not speak Russian. “A special sign language has been agreed upon for avoiding possible misunderstandings,” Morukov said. The Russian Energia Aerospace Corporation developed the flight plan.

More from ITN News and BBC reports.

The Great Space Policy Debate Set for ISDC

The National Space Society (NSS) has organized a debate between Mars Society President Robert Zubrin and Apollo Astronaut Rusty Schweickart on the subject of the new Obama space policy. The debate will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, May 29 at the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Chicago. Zubrin has been critical of the new space policy, while Schweickart has been strongly supportive, so the debate promises to be a very exciting event. With any luck, Schweickart's position may get a boost from Elon Musk May 28.

Ariane 5 Makes 50th Space Launch

On Friday evening, May 21, 2010 Arianespace placed two communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit: the ASTRA 3B commercial communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based operator SES ASTRA, and the COMSATBw-2 military communications satellite built by Astrium for the German Ministry of Defense. It was the 50th space launch of the Ariane V booster and the 36th consecutive launch without booster mishap. More from the BBC.

here's lookin at you, kid.

by karen roe at flickr

More Vermont Photos

Today I'll post the rest of the Vermont photos. First, here is one of my son, Kevin, and my daughter-in-law, Jericho, and their dog, Quincy.



Although most of the covered bridges in Vermont are for cars, there is one right down town for pedestrians. Pictured is my friend, Dianna.



We had some extra time one day, so we drove up one of the mountains surrounding Stowe to visit the von Trapp family lodge. This is the family that the movie Sound of Music was made about.









While hiking one day we came across this snake. It is proof of how warm it was in mid-May.



There are many structures in Vermont that date back hundreds of years. I'm not sure how old this house is, but I like the architecture.



When we flying out of Marquette, we were told about this Russian plane. Apparently, someone did not have full authorization to have the plane, which is a converted military plane from WWII. They needed spare parts and ended up in Marquette. Due to the questionable status, apparently it wasn't allowed to leave. There it sits, mounting up a huge parking bill.