Alpine School District Bond Survey. You Can Help! Space News. The Imaginarium

Utah County's Voyager Club Loves the Space Center!

Friends,

     I spent 24 years raising money, designing, building, and administering the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. It all started in 1989 when I had this crazy idea to take my space simulations out of my classroom and put them in a simulator at Central School. I guess you can say it has been my life's work. I retired in 2013 proud of the difference the Space Center made in so many people's lives. It has made a difference in yours or you wouldn't be reading this. Thank you for your continued support of this unique experiential educational center.  
     Mr. James Porter is the current Space Center director. I visit with him often and am impressed with his dedication to the program, its principles, and its history. James in on target and doing a fantastic job.

     As supporters of the Space Center, we have an opportunity to speak out on the need for a new Space Center in a new Central Elementary School. I'm asking you to please fill out this ASD survey by Monday and  let the district know you want to make the reconstruction of the Space Center a priority. It takes just a couple of minutes so do it now before you forget.  Make sure to leave a specific comment about the Space Center in the last question.  Your comments will help the Space Center as the District makes plans for a possible new Central Elementary School and Space Center. We'd like to be put at the beginning of the bond projects.  

     The Alpine School District has been fully supportive of continuing the program into a new Central Elementary School. Let's help Mr. Porter build the next Space Center by filling out the survey. It will only take a few minutes. To sum up, make your voice heard. I have!

Mr. Williamson

Founder, Retired Director, and #1 Fan of the 

Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center

Space News
by Mark Daymont

ISS: Dragon Returns, 3 million photos

Returning Dragon cargo capsule about to splash down in Pacific Ocean. Credit: SpaceX

After parking a large number of spacecraft at it's docking ports, the ISS Expedition 47 let one go: Undocking the Dragon unmanned cargo spacecraft took place on Monday in the morning. After a fiery re-entry, the parachutes opened perfectly and slowed the Dragon to a safe landing off the coast of California later in the afternoon.

Dragon spacecraft in orbit near ISS. NASA photo.

When the Dragon originally arrived back in early April, it marked the return of Dragon cargo deliveries after a one-year absence following a failed mission. This Dragon had brought almost 7,000 pounds of supplies and experiments. After 31 days of docking at the US Harmony module, the empty spacecraft was filled with supplies to return to Earth.

A view of the Japanese Kibo module, connected to the Harmony module. Dragon is shown parked underneath the modules at the Harmony docking port.

As Dragon is the only cargo spacecraft which can return safely to the Earth, instead of garbage and waste, it was filled partially with returning experiment samples stored in a couple of refrigeration containers and other time-dependent science experiments. About 3,000 pounds of items were stored carefully in the capsule.

Dragon is moved to release point by the CanadArm robotic arm. NASA TV.

Also this week, ISS astronauts achieved a significant milestone in the course of living and working in space. NASA announced on Tuesday that astronauts had taken the 3,000,000th picture aboard the station. The subject was the combined crew of expeditions 47/48:

Number 3,000,000: Front (L-R): British ESA astronaut Tim Peake, NASA astronaut and Expedition 47 commander Tim Kopra, and Roscosmos (Russia) cosmonaut (Flight Engineer) Yuri Malenchenko. Back row (L-R): Russian cosmonauts (Flight Engineers) Oleg Skripochka, Alexey Ovchinin, and NASA astronaut (Flight Engineer) Jeff Williams. Picture taken on April 30, 2016.

The Imaginarium