Tag: Space

A Legos Felix Baumgartner Breaks the Speed of Sound

Felix Yesterday in New Mexico after several delays, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner did a space supersonic free fall that broke records for both speed and altitude. During the fall, his body’s speed hit 833.9 mph (Mach 1.24) breaking the speed of sound. You have probably seen the video on TV or the Internet, but have you seen this version in Legos?

On the same date in 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound, as reenacted in the 1983 film, “The Right Stuff.


Was Felix Baumgartner’s free fall heroic or crazy? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Sky is Deep Black: RIP Neil Armstrong

    first on the moon Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the moon, passed away on August 25, 2012 at the age of 82. After having traveled so far, Armstrong died in the same state where he was born, Ohio.

    Armstrong accomplished one of the great feats of the twentieth century with Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  The mission also included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

    Choice for Apollo 11 and Famous Words

    Although it was not revealed at the time, NASA chose Armstrong for the honor of being the one to take the first human step on the moon that July 20, 1969 because his stoic and ego-less personality would make him a good heroic representative for NASA.

    Armstrong later explained that his famous words that accompanied his step off the ladder onto the moon’s surface at 10:56:15 p.m. Eastern time came to him only after he and Aldrin had landed on the moon. To this day there is still some debate about whether he misspoke or whether the transmission omitted a key word.

    What the world heard, and what was conveyed by reporters at the time, was, “That’s one small step for man, One giant leap for mankind.” Because “man” can also mean “mankind,” the correct quote would have been “one small step for [a] man.” Subsequent studies of the transmission seem to reveal that the reporters were right that the “a” was missing. Armstrong later explained that he wished history would remember the quote with the “a” in parenthesis.

    After Apollo 11

    Apollo 11 Insignia For someone with such an achievement, Armstrong lived mostly out of the public eye after the moon landing. After working at NASA for a few more years, he joined the engineering faculty at the University of Cincinnati, later resigning in 1979 to pursue a career in business.

    Armstrong did not say much publicly about his thoughts about the historic trip to the moon.  He believed he should not get so much attention when his trip to the moon was such a team effort.

    But in this BBC interview from 1970, Armstrong talks about the view from space and from the moon, describing the “deep black” sky.

    It this day of modern celebrity where so many people are famous for just being famous, it is amazing that someone with such an accomplishment could walk down the street in his later years without anyone recognizing him or approaching him. Well, unless he happened to be walking down the street next to a Kardashian.

    RIP Commander Armstrong.

  • Apollo 11 Lands On the Moon
  • The Scene in “The Right Stuff” That Makes You Love John Glenn
  • Astronauts on Space
  • Mars is Now Streaming Live
  • Hail Atlantis!
  • Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Travel Space in “Passengers”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Mars is Now Streaming Live

    Now that NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars safely on Monday, you can watch live streams from NASA on the Curiosity Cam. The rover, which is 10 feet long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide, and 7 feet tall, weighs 2,000 pounds (i.e., 900 kilograms for our readers outside the U.S.). You may watch the Curiosity Cam below through UStream, but sometimes it is offline and during those times when they are not running live footage you will see recorded footage.


    Live stream by Ustream

    Other viewing is available through NASA’s website. If you are interested in seeing how Curiosity landed on Mars and a short overview of what will be the rover’s mission, check out this video:

    If you wish to see some other images from Mars, you may also watch the video below, featuring a famous rabbit.

    You can also follow the rover on Twitter (@MarsCuriosity).

  • The Scene in “The Right Stuff” That Makes You Love John Glenn
  • Apollo 11 Lands On the Moon
  • Astronauts on Space
  • The Sky is Deep Black: RIP Neil Armstrong
  • Hail Atlantis!
  • Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Travel Space in “Passengers”

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Hail Atlantis!

    This morning at 11:30 a.m. EST, the space shuttle Atlantis successfully launched, marking NASA’s final shuttle mission. Atlantis will be in space for twelve days before returning to earth at Kennedy Space Center.

    Donovan Atlantis

    A previous Chimesfreedom post featured some thoughts about the end of the shuttle program, but watching this final launch online this morning at NASA HD-TV brings back a flood of memories, ranging from the excitement about the program when it was first announced, the thrill of the first test flights when the shuttle rode piggyback on jets, and remembering where I was when we lost the heroes on the Challenger in January 28, 1986 and on the Columbia on February 1, 2003. So today, it is hats off to all of the men and women (as well as some animals) who have contributed to the space program through the years, and here is hoping for future safe adventures.

    The space shuttle is named after a seafaring research ship, following a practice for naming the shuttles after ships. The articles do not say where the research ship got its name, but one may surmise that the name “Atlantis” comes from stories about the lost civilization and the continent that was buried beneath the sea. Tales about Atlantis, whether myth or reality, have circulated for centuries, and Plato wrote about it around 360 B.C.

    A little more recently, in 1969, Donovan released an album featuring the classic song about the lost civilization, “Atlantis.” It is an unusual and unforgettable song, where the singer begins by telling us about the island’s tragedy as an epic story and ends with his sadness over a lost love. The song was originally released in the U.S. as a B-side to the song “To Susan on the West Coast Waiting” because the record company thought U.S. record buyers would not be interested in a song with a long talking introduction. But they were wrong, and “Atlantis” became a much bigger hit than the A-side did.

    Around the Internet, there are rumors that Paul McCartney sings in the background and plays tambourine on “Atlantis,” although he is not listed in the credits for the song. Give it a listen and you will hear the McCartney-like voice near the end. But in a 2008 Goldmine interview, Donovan said that it was not McCartney (although McCartney claps and giggles on Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow“).

    And as you listen to “Atlantis,” send good thoughts to the astronauts on their journey, as well as to “the poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,/ The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.”

    Bonus “Atlantis” song: On Twitter, someone pointed out that The Shadows recorded an instrumental song also called “Atlantis” in the early 1960s. For readers who may not be familiar with the group, as explained on Allmusic.com, The Shadows were a landmark U.K. band in the 1960s and became one of the most popular instrumental groups in the world. Also, they often performed with Cliff Richard. Check them out if you do not know them already. (Thanks to @RetrospaceAndy.)

  • The Scene in “The Right Stuff” That Makes You Love John Glenn
  • Apollo 11 Lands On the Moon
  • Astronauts on Space
  • The Sky is Deep Black: RIP Neil Armstrong
  • Mars is Now Streaming Live
  • Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Travel Space in “Passengers”

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    Discovery’s Final Launch: The Space Race is Over

    Space Shuttle Discovery

    Bragg, Billy – The Space Race Is Over The Space Race is Over – Billy Bragg (press to play)

    Today at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT), the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to make its final launch. During the 11-day mission, Discovery will bring supplies to the International Space Station, including Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot (I missed Robonaut 1 apparently). Since Discovery’s first flight in 1984, the shuttle has traveled 143 million miles and carried 246 humans into space.

    I remember watching the first Discovery flight. It was an exciting time for the space program. I was lucky to grow up with exciting changes in the space program, including seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. The new space shuttles promised an even more exciting era. Many years before the shuttle’s first launch into space, I had a plastic space shuttle model that I glued together, and I would have guessed that by the time I was as old as I am now, we would have regular trips to the moon and robot servants.

    But it did not happen that fast. Science takes time, and some of the greatest advances are not necessarily the most exciting initially. I understand the debates about how money should be spent, but we cannot ignore science if we want a good future for us earthlings. And the International Space Station is pretty cool, and at least they will have a robot servant.

    Billy Bragg is an English singer-songwriter who has songs ranging from punk to folk. He is also active in left political causes, and in the 1990s Woody Guthrie’s daughter chose him to write music for some of Guthrie’s lyrics that were without music. The result was the excellent 1998 Mermaid Avenue album that he recorded with Wilco (along with Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II two years later). But Bragg probably is more known for writing excellent lyrics.

    One of Bragg’s songs from his Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg, “The Space Race is Over” captures the nostalgia for the space adventures and perfectly captures how one might feel about the Discovery’s final mission. He remembers back to being a kid and telling his mom, “We’ll walk on the moon someday” because “Armstrong and Aldrin spoke to me/ From Houston and Cape Kennedy.”

    The song tells about his dream of someday traveling in space “On the high tide of technology. / But the dreams had all been taken / And the window seat’s taken too.”

    Now that the space race is over
    It’s been and it’s gone
    And I’ll never get to the moon.
    Now that the space race is over
    And I can’t help but feel
    That we’ve all grown up too soon.

    It is possible Bragg is being critical of the waste of resources, but I do not think that is the main point of the song. His son does ask, “”Why did they ever go,” and the song concludes, “Now that the space race is over/And I can’t help but feel/That we’re all just goin’ nowhere.” But the nostalgia is genuine. The song’s invocation of his mother and his son point toward him intending the mixed emotions in the song.

    “The Space Race is Over” appears on Billy Bragg’s album William Bloke, which Bragg released in 1996 after taking some time off from music to raise his son. In that context, the song’s reference to his son evokes some loss that future generations are not getting the excitement from science and the space program that we “older folks” did. Even if a computer did win on Jeopardy recently, it is not as exciting as getting humans to the moon. And “don’t offer me a place out in cyberspace / ’cause where in the hell’s that at?”

    Will I be watching the final launch of Discovery today? As an adult, I have other plans and will be traveling on the subway around the time of the launch, so I will miss it. Oh well. Godspeed Robonaut 2.

    Now that the space race is over
    And I can’t help but feel
    That we’ve all grown up too soon.

    Bonus Live Version Video: A live video of Billy Bragg performing “The Space Race is Over” is on YouTube.

  • The Scene in “The Right Stuff” That Makes You Love John Glenn
  • Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Travel Space in “Passengers”
  • Apollo 11 Lands On the Moon
  • OK Go in Zero Gravity in “Upside Down & Inside Out”
  • Amazing Time-Lapse View of Earth from International Space Station
  • “Wanderers” Video on the Future of Space Exploration

    • (Related Posts)