On The Pale Blue Dot

"Forget Jesus. The stars died for you to be here today."

[spaceexp]

Two Worlds, One Sun…

[micdotcom]

Read more about NASA’s incredible discoveries in 2015.

[spaceexp]

Launch of GPS IIF-11 on Atlas V Rocket from Cape Canaveral

An American Atlas V 401 rocket successfully launched on October 31st 2015, at 14:13 UTC carrying the GPS IIF-11 satellite into orbit for the US Air Force. The Atlas V 401 rocket was the 59th launch of an Atlas V vehicle.

[zechery-deactivated20220114]

Send me to Mars with party supplies before next august 5th

[thebaconsandwichofregret]

No guys you don’t understand.

The soil testing equipment on Curiosity makes a buzzing noise and the pitch of the noise changes depending on what part of an experiment Curiosity is performing, this is the way Curiosity sings to itself.

So some of the finest minds currently alive decided to take incredibly expensive important scientific equipment and mess with it until they worked out how to move in just the right way to sing Happy Birthday, then someone made a cake on Curiosity’s birthday and took it into Mission control so that a room full of brilliant scientists and engineers could throw a birthday party for a non-autonomous robot 225 million kilometres away and listen to it sing the first ever song sung on Mars*, which was Happy Birthday.

This isn’t a sad story, this a happy story about the ridiculousness of humans and the way we love things. We built a little robot and called it Curiosity and flung it into the star to go and explore places we can’t get to because it’s name is in our nature and then just because we could, we taught it how to sing.

That’s not sad, that’s awesome.

*this is different from the first song ever played on mars (Reach For The Stars by Will.I.Am) which happened the year before, singing is different from playing

[thewriterkb]

[for-all-mankind]

The Apollo 13 Service Module photographed by the crew following CSM separation, April 17, 1971. Three days prior, on April 13, an oxygen tank in the Service Module ruptured due to a short circuit, causing significant damage to the spacecraft and an aborted Lunar Landing mission. Up until recently, only one photograph of the damaged service module was in widespread publication:

With NASA’s publication of over 8,400 Apollo program images, the other photographs in the sequence are now available. New Horizons team member Alex Parker processed the set and combined them into the above gif.

[astronomerinprogress]

There are 2 gateway drugs to science - dinosaurs and space.

My astronomy professor

(via coffeeforcollege)

accurate

(via thedoubleclicks)

#Yep

[obamawhitehouse]

America is the first country to reach Pluto, and this is the closest image we’ve ever seen. It took a decade to fly our New Horizons spacecraft through the solar system to send back this love note from the dwarf planet. Congrats on a successful ‪Pluto fly-by, NASA.

[explore-blog]

Happy birthday, Nikola Tesla! Another reason to love the great inventor – his prescient ideas on how technology will empower women in a 1926 piece called “When Woman Is Boss.”

[collectivehistory-deactivated20]

Apollo 1 crew practicing a water landing in 1966.

[itsokaytobesmart]

It doesn’t look like a “water landing” so much as “best pool party ever”

[spaceexp]

Astronaut Alan Bean taking his first step on the lunar surface, EVA 1, Apollo 12, November 1969

via reddit

[spaceexp]

Neil Armstrong practices a moonwalk, Apollo 11, June 1969

via reddit

[hannahgoestomars]

Special report: Will there be life on Mars?

Many would-be astronauts applied for the Mars One project – a mission to colonise Mars. Five Britons will soon find out whether they've made the cut. Two explain why they’re ready for a one-way ticket.

Over the weekend I was featured, along with fellow UK candidate Clare Weedon, in a special report in the Daily Mail. It was really great to meet Clare at the shoot, she’s a lovely and inspiring person!

[spaceexp]

Moon and Earth photographed at the same time from Apollo 13

via reddit

[bourbonface]

Mars One Mission Applicant Sonia Van Meter: Down to the last hundred

Sonia Van Meter is giving up her husband and kids to pursue her dream of exploring space. Van Meter joins Matt to talk about why she is willing to do so, and how her family is taking it. 

This was one of the nicest interviews I've done so far. I love it when people "get" why I want to do this. It's not just for me. It's for everyone!

[bourbonface]

Leonard Nimoy is no longer with us. But he definitely lived long, and prospered.

[bourbonface]

Alexandria resident named a finalist for Mars voyage

And this is the piece where I learned (the hard way) to always always always ask the reporter if she's going to want to photograph you for her piece so you can remember to put on some friggin makeup...