Kim Bach . Org

Welcome back Discovery. It’s amazing watching the landing procedure as seen from the cockpit, the descend is steep and quick.

It will be interesting to hear the post mission briefings, I hope that the Shuttle is finally considered safe again, so that the construction of the International Space Station can pick up pace.

Congratulations to NASA with a successful mission, but what’s with the constant need to reboot the computers?

Phew…The Shuttle has returned to space, and for the first time a Shuttle Launch on the 4th of July.

It’s always nervewrecking to watch a Shuttle launch, and it’s great to have live coverage by NASA TV that is streaming over the Internet from this address:

NASA – NASA TV Landing Page

Congratulations to NASA with the fitting celebration of Independence Day.

The Shuttle program is nearing it’s end, it’s the end of an era and a too complex program, that so far (touch wood) has resulted in the loss of 2 orbiters and 14 lives.

NASA is now looking back to the Saturn V program for inspiration, and a couple of new launch vehicles will be introduced, ending with the return to the moon by the end of the next decade.

Everytime the Shuttle program seemed to be running smoothly, we encountered a major disaster, making for a rude awakening to the dangers of space exploration.

The space program is the greatest project humanity is currently involved in, and it’s a great inspiration, and space is finally opening up due to the X-Prize and SpaceShipOne.

We’re once again taking baby steps into the final frontier, following the lead of the Apollo pioneers. Earth is too dangerous a place to stay.

ESA – Venus Express

OK OK…Since I always comment the NASA robotic missions, it’s sort of a disgrace that I have ignored the successful VOI (Venus Orbital Insertion) manoeuvre of the Venus Express mission last week. Congratulations to ESA on another success – things are shaping up, and I’ve almost forgotten the disappointment of the Beagle 2 Mars mission.

I must admit that I sort of fail to see the need for a mission to Venus. The Venusian surface, below the heavy cloud-cover has already been mapped, in quite a lot of detail, by one of the few NASA missions of the early 90ies.

But I welcome any science, and it is a real mystery why Venus is such a hostile environment, it’s amazing how “sweet a spot” Earth has hit in it’s orbit of the Sun, the “life as we know it” zone seems to be extremely narrow.

ESA has caught the Podcast wave, and Vodcast? That’s the first time I head that term – I guess that it covers Video Podcasts – really just call it a Podcast or maybe V-Cast – I really hope that Vodcast doesn’t catch on – it just sounds bad?

Google Mars

Wahooo…Great…

And we thought that Google only looked for TWD (Total World Domination), it’s sooo much bigger than that…

NASA – NASA’s Cassini Discovers Potential Liquid Water on Enceladus

The Cassini mission, already a stunning success, seems to have landend another scoop: The possibility that liquid water exists on the Saturn moon Enceladus.

NASA – Robotic NASA Craft Begins Orbiting Mars for Most-Detailed Exam

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has reached the red planet, and is now performing an aerobreaking manoeuvre over the next 6 months.

Another success for the NASA robotic missions.

NASA – NASA’s Pluto Mission Launched Toward New Horizons

The New Horizons Pluto mission launched successfully yesterday.

Quote from the above press release:

“The United States of America has just made history by launching the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt beyond,” says Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. “No other nation has this capability. This is the kind of exploration that forefathers, like Lewis and Clark 200 years ago this year, made a trademark of our nation.”

Congratulations to NASA with the success, they’re batting a 100.

After the spectacular failures of a number of robotic missions in the 90ies, lead NASA to change it’s traditional complicated space craft designs to simpler, innovative (like the use of airbags for soft landings) and last, but not least, cheaper designs, the success-rate of the robotic missions has been increasing, and it now seems like routine that the missions are so successful, that they are extendend again and again.

The European Homepage For The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

I just stumbled upon the official website of the Hubble Space Telescope, spacetelescope.org. spacetelescope.org is a great site, the place to go for all those amazing images, that keeps coming, after Hubble has been in service for 15 years.
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ESA – Results from Mars Express and Huygens

The European Space Agency has published results from findings of the Mars Express and Huygens probes.

There are strong hints that liquid water-ice exists deep underground on Mars. Existence of water is a prerequisite for extended stays on Mars, e.g. colonies, where the settlers will have to live off the land.

The Huygens probe, that was hitching a ride with the Cassini Saturn orbiter, discovered that Titan is, in many respects, similar to Earth.

Congratulations to ESA with the success of these missions, and the groundbreaking science that they have provided.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Probe ‘gathers asteroid material’

The Japaneese space probe, Hayabusa, has sucessfully gathered material from the asteroid Itokawa.

Congratulations to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), with the success, after the mission originally seemed to have failed.