50th Anniversary of John Glenn’s Orbital Flight
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s flight in Friendship 7. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, following Yuri Gagarin a year earlier, although Gagarin just completed one orbit, whereas Glenn actually completed three complete orbits.
Update
I’m currently reading Into That Silent Sea and have just got to the part detailing the launch of Vostok 2 (the successor to Gagarin’s first Vostok flight), illuminating me to the fact that Gherman Titov circled the Earth 17 times, half a year before Glenn, a number that would not be matched until Gordo Cooper’s flight in 1963. It really is humbling sometimes to think how much the Russians achieved in those early days and yet how little those achievements are celebrated.
Why should we explore space?
No fancy pictures today, I’m afraid. Instead, an utterly wonderful letter from a space scientist to a nun who questioned the value of space exploration.
It is one of the most eloquent and thought provoking treatments of this difficult subject, and you wouldn’t go far wrong if you used some of the points if you ever get into a similar argument.
The letter was posted by Roger Launius, Senior Curator of Space History at the Smithsonian.
Time lapse views from the ISS
If you’ve seen any of the photographs of the Earth taken from the ISS, you’ll know how amazing they are.
Well, someone’s stitched a load of them together to make some time lapse movies, and they are pretty breathtaking. I love how the Aurorae undulate over the top of the world and how the sparks of lightning dance around inside the storm clouds.
Clouds on Mars
If you aren’t already following the Road to Endeavour blog, you should be, so go and do it right now.
Why? Well, on there you’ll find amazing pictures including some breathtaking mosaics and now this, an animation of clouds drifting past in the Martian sky.
Yes, you read that right. You can see Martian clouds.
Happy Birthday Opportunity
The Opportunity MER is now entering its ninth year of operation, an astounding feat for a machine that was intended to run for only one. The rover has now driven to the top of an outcrop to take sun itself through its fifth Martian winter and try and survive the duration. The picture above is a mosaic of the view from the top of the outcrop called “Greeley Haven” and is in false colour, but still an amazing picture. There is a slightly wider view available from NASA’s image of the day gallery.
Dunes of Titan
Titan shares many similarities with Earth, including a thick atmosphere and liquid (methane) on the surface. But the topography of the surface also shows a remarkably Earth-like world, with river valleys, lakes and these amazing ‘sand’ dunes, made up of frozen hydrocarbons.
Amazing restored Gemini era photographs
Hello Exploration and Life! Your new cuddly contributor here, with a batch of utterly amazing images taken by Mercury and Gemini astronauts that have recently been restored.
The archive includes a full range of images, including calibration captures, over exposures and other mistakes and is available here. (Their server seems to be going a bit funny at the moment though.)
Apologies for the lack of news
The rigours of Real Life have forced Exploration and Life into a temporary hiatus. We hope to resume your scheduled programming in the not-too-distant future. Watch this space.
leave a comment