Here’s a “Cosmical” that will really test how much you’re paying attention to current events 😉 Now this one isn’t based on natural events in our skies, which is mainly “Cosmical”‘s focus, but on a human made one; a history-making one that is worthy of mention.
This past week the private company SpaceX successively launched its Falcon9 Rocket sending their Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, therefore being the very first commercial craft to ever visit the ISS. Since the ending of NASA’s Shuttle Program last year, the United States has had to rely on other for transportation to and from the ISS. In the mean time, private companies are competing to take over what was once the job of the Shuttle.
SpaceX has so far won the race there, but will they win in the end? It’s an exciting time as we watch the beginning of something new in space travel. Competition is the fire for innovation. We’ve seen this before when the US wanted to be the first to reach the Moon.
As Will Wheaton said,
iss$> sudo mount /dev/dragon /mnt/dragon
Ha! I really need to start following him on Twitter…
The Milky Way has a halo. And we know how old it is now. Well, better than we did before …
– http://www.livescience.com/20665-milkyway-galaxy-halo-age.html
Also, time to pack our bags and find another place to live. Our galaxy is doomed. DOOOOOMMED, I tell you!
– http://www.space.com/15949-milkyway-galaxy-crash-andromeda-hubble.html
I was thinking, while reading about the Dragon capsules, that maybe they should just be fired up in a one-way trip. Then keep them up there and use them as closets for the space station. I wonder where an astronaut keeps his towel up there … 😉
I love all the info you post here. Thank you!
And, of course, the astronauts must keep their towels on their person ALL the time. If they are smart 😉
you obviously have needed to study DRAGON-ometry *rimshot*