Way cool.

Discovery is home and all is well. Now, let’s fix that damned foam and get on with the task of finishing the ISS and getting back to the moon. Mars or bust baby!

MJ @ Impossible Scissors has two great posts tonight. The first is some commentary on Paul Hacket, Marine Corps reservist turned congressional candidate. MJ makes an excellent point:

Although many great leaders have worn the uniform, the uniform doesn’t always make for a good leader. Hiding behind the camoflauged battle dress uniform doesn’t shield us from partisan hypocrisy.

The second post is almost too eerie because I felt the same resurgence of pride in the Shuttle program I think MJ is describing he felt today (at least that is how I am interpreting this post).

The only thing I would add is part of NASA’s change in direction, more in the way of attitude than anything else, may also be attributable to Spirit and Opportunity. Those two rovers are now coming up on Earth year number two when they were only supposed to last six months. Aside from the technical achievement, we are learning more about Mars in the last nearly two years than we have learned in the last thirty. That has to give NASA a good morale shot-in-the-arm and people that feel good about what they do tend to do great things.

Gotta love this.

Now, let’s get that damned foam problem fixed and get on with it already! I wanna see a man on Mars before I die and the longer the damned ISS takes to get completed the more chance I am going to be worm food before Mars happens.

(not Discovery, just a launch picture)

Congratulations to the team at NASA for a job well done and to all the brave men an women that risk their lives to further mankind’s quest for knowledge in space.

Originally posted July 13, 2005

In front are astronauts Eileen M. Collins (right), commander; Wendy B. Lawrence, mission specialist; and James M. Kelly, pilot. In back are astronauts Stephen K. Robinson (left), Andrew S. W. Thomas, Charles J. Camarda, and Soichi Noguchi, all mission specialists. Noguchi represents Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Well, today is the day! At 12:51 PM Pacific, 3:51 PM Eastern, the Space Shuttle Discovery will once again streak into space carrying seven astronauts.

Blogs of War is providing excellent coverage. You can also watch the launch LIVE on NASA TV.

Our hopes and prayers…

**UPDATE**

There is a problem with an engine cut-off sensor that is going to delay the launch. Discovery will not launch today.

**UPDATE** 7/25/2005

Reposted. Hey, I ain’t writing another post. Discovery is set to launch at 10:39 AM Eastern Time Tuesday morning.

I, for one, don’t mind that it has taken so long to get back up and flying again. Most of us have witnessed two disastrous shuttle missions and I have no desire to see another crew lose their lives because people rushed to get something done.

NASA has posted Discovery’s flight-prep schedule. The launch date is currently set for May 15th.

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Vanishing Robbers - Part 2

Do your part! Download SETI@Home and help find those little buggers!

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Vanishing Robbers

Do your part - download SETI@Home and help find those little buggers!

Have you ever wondered where the material that eventually became our Earth came from?

In the new research, Farrar and her colleagues identified five cosmic rays over a 10-year period that all come from one small circle in the sky. It is likely, she said, that they were all spawned from the same source. Like motorists taking different paths through a city, however, they each arrived at their own pace and took a slightly different parking slot.

Other observations of that same circle of sky reveal a colossal merger of two clusters of galaxies, about 450 million light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

Farrar can’t be certain the merger is the source of the cosmic rays, but that’s her bet for now. The merger would fuel huge magnetic shock waves that could accelerate particles with tremendous force. The galaxies in the cluster could also be home to quasars or gamma-ray bursts that might have produced the fast-flying particles.

“Stuff we’re made out of has come from well outside our galaxy, travelling millions of light-years,” Farrar said in an interview.

Ponder that for a moment.

Go ahead - ponder it now.

Now how insignificant do you feel?