Oct 16, 2008

Hubble Looking Good!

The repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is, by all reports, going well.

The Hubble is 18 years old! The current repair will be the 5th servicing mission. Images from the Hubble have, of course, always excited astronomers. Perhaps equally important, Hubble images have captured the imagination of the public as well.

If all goes well, we should continue to get valuable (and beautiful) images from Hubble for years. And we can look forward to its successor—the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) scheduled for launch no earlier than 2013.

UPDATE: Not so fast. The Hubble repair, as I write this…hasn’t succeeded.

Humphrey and NASA

Today is the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Hubert H. Humphrey. If you don’t remember him, Humphrey was Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. He also nearly won the presidency in 1968—but was beaten by a tiny margin by Richard M. Nixon. (How different would history have been if he had won?) In any case, [...]

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3 Memorable Spacewalks—That Are Largely Forgotten

The first space walk—by Alexi Leonov in March 1965—and the first American space walk, by Ed White a few months later are pretty well-known. They’re firsts, and people were paying attention. But some amazing space walks are largely forgotten. Here are 3. 1. Al Worden takes a deep space walk. August 1971. Well, since his [...]

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Mars Society: Manned flight costs exaggerated

Spaceflight is expensive and, in the past, NASA has underestimated those costs. For example, as a re-usable space vehicle, the space shuttle was projected to be much cheaper to fly than it turned out. Yet, the Mars Society claims that the Augustine Commission—which is charged with providing direction for NASA’s future in manned space flight—is [...]

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Hubble Looking Good!

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Humphrey and NASA

3 Memorable Spacewalks—That Are Largely Forgotten

Mars Society: Manned flight costs exaggerated