Atlantis ready to return to Earth
Astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis are preparing to return to Earth after an ambitious and risky mission to re-fit the Hubble telescope.
There are two chances to land on Friday: one at 1500 BST (1000 EDT) and a second at 1639 BST (1139 EDT).
Hubble analyzer fixed, but not without headaches
On a marathon spacewalk Sunday, two astronauts overcame repeated obstacles to make the second of two historic repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.
One bolt that had to be extracted proved so stubborn that astronaut Michael Massimino resorted to brute force to rip it out of the telescope.
Former Microsoft Executive returns from Space
A former Microsoft Corp. executive Charles Simonyi has safely returned from his 12-day “vacation” on the International Space Stati, It was the last trip on which nonastronauts could hitch a ride on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Simonyi blasted off March 26 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with two crew members, Russian cosmonaut Gennadiy Padalka and American astronaut Michael Barratt. He took the only route available to space tourists: making a reservation for the Soyuz through US-based Space Adventures Ltd.
Shuttle Discovery Back on Earth
March 29, 2009 by NetCrunch
Filed under Headline, Space Exploration
Space shuttle Discovery returned in good shape, after traveling more than 5 million miles and circling Earth 202 times. The 13-day flight — which ended as a Russian-launched crew was settling into the space station — was highlighted by the installation and unfurling of the station’s last pair of solar wings. The $300-million addition brought the orbiting outpost up to full power, a vital part of NASA’s plan to double the space station population and boost scientific research in a few months.
Kepler blasts off in search of Earth-like planets
March 7, 2009 by NetCrunch
Filed under Headline, Space Exploration
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday on a three-year mission to find Earth’s twin, a Goldilocks planet where it’s neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for life to take hold.
The Delta II rocket, carrying the widest-field telescope ever put in space, lifted off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 10:49 p.m. Eastern time.
The launch vehicle headed downrange, gathering speed as its three stages ignited, one after the other, passing over the Caribbean island of Antigua and tracking stations in Australia before climbing into orbit.
Googleplex
The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google, Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, near San Jose. The name Googleplex is a play on words, being a portmanteau of Google and complex, and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large number 10.
The four core buildings, totaling 506,317 ft² (47,038 m²), were built for and originally occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26-acre (110,000 m2) site that contains Charleston Park, a 5-acre (20,000 m2) public park; improved access to Permanente Creek; and public trails that connect the corporate site to Shoreline Park and the Bay Trail. The project, launched in 1994 to reclaim a former industrial brownfield, was a creative collaboration between SGI, STUDIOS Architecture in San Francisco, SWA Group of San Francisco and Sausalito, and the Planning and Community Development Agency of the City of Mountain View. The objective was to develop in complementary fashion the privately-owned corporate headquarters and adjoining public greenspace. Key design decisions placed parking for nearly 2000 cars underground, enabling SWA to integrate the two open spaces with water features, shallow pools, fountains, pathways, and plazas. The project was completed in 1997. The ASLA noted in 1999 that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space.
