Progress 39 liftoff from Baikonur.

Progress 39 liftoff from Baikonur.

The crew of the ISS always needs resupply. The Russian Progress supply spacecraft are tailor-made for this mission, lifting such necessities as oxygen, food, spare parts, experiments and propellant for the station's thrusters.

Progress 39 blasted off from its base in Kazakhstan on Friday after a 2-day weather delay. After another 2-day journey, it arrived at the ISS this morning at close to 6 a.m. MDT. Using the Kurs automated rendezvous system, it was safely docked and the crew of ISS will begin unloading supplies.

On approach for docking, picture from ISS.

After the spacecraft has been unloaded, it serves as a container for waste and trash from the ISS. When full, or when the docking port is needed, the Progress craft is undocked and de-orbited to burn up in the atmosphere over the ocean.

Mr. Daymont
Space Center Educator

Why The Space Center?

The first picture of Earth from such a distance taken by the
Voyager Space Probe in 1991 as it passed Saturn.
From this image this has become.....This is our Blue Dot in Space.

Hello Troops,
I've been asked many times over the last twenty years why I created the Space Education Center. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, the answer lies in something I saw and heard that changed the direction of my thinking towards space and our place in it.

I'd like to share that experience with you. Perhaps, after watching this, you'll come to understand the power of emotion in education and how something lasting only a few minutes can change a life forever.

The three minutes I spent listening to this master teacher may seem insignificant in a life of 52 years - but they were. They inspired me to pass this reverence of what lies beyond in the darkness that surrounds us and the importance of what we have here on Earth with my students. And thus, from my sixth grade classroom in the 1980's, sprang the concepts the Space Center was built upon.

The power of Dr. Sagan's words, spoken so long ago, still impact the children that come to the Space Center to experience what is, what was, and what could be -

- if we cherish the pale blue dot in space we call home.

Mr. Williamson

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

Dr. Carl Sagan

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

An Entry from the Overnight Journal.

Hello Troops,
Just a quick word before turning in for the night. I'm at my desk at the Space Center. It's 11:42 P.M. so therefore it must be an Overnight Camp! Tonight we are hosting 45 4H campers. They're a great group of kids.

I just returned from checking on the High School Staff in Discovery. The room was dark and the talking robust (and if your interested in what robust means, look it up). The girls are all settled down in the Gym with Mrs. Houston, Metta and a 4H chaperon.

The junior high boys are sleeping in the Odyssey. Only McKay seems to be talking. The other five are quiet. McKay is telling a story - the plot is confusing because I'm hearing only bits and pieces. The boy campers are in the Voyager.

It's cold outside, a sure sign of Fall.

I'm typing this post on my new (gently used) computer purchased from Alex Anderson. Alex is getting a new one. My old desktop is going to the Magellan Control Room to become their Tactical Computer. Aleta, Lorraine and Sheila are happy. With my computer in their Control Room, the Magellan staff won't be borrowing Discovery's laptop every time they need to run their new tactical screens.

Jon just walked through the Briefing Room.
"Are they settled?" I asked while I typed the paragraph above.
"They're settled," he replied as he collected his laptop from the side desk.

Now its time for me to settle. I've got a pad waiting on the floor in front of my desk with my name on it. It will be sweet slumber once my head hits the pillow. I dream I won't be woken up by a needy camper. Six hours of sleep is all I ask. I'll be happy with five but will settle for four is need be.

Goodnight.
Sleep tight.
Don't let the bed bugs bite......

Mr. W.