Two Space Station Updates

Soyuz rocket blasting off in snowstorm.

Two international dockings this week made the news. Our first story is the return of human spaceflight to Russian space Operations, as a successful Soyuz launch was made to the ISS. On board the TMA-22 Soyuz spacecraft were two cosmonauts and an astronaut of Expedition 29. Even though the launch occurred during a snowstorm, the spacecraft successfully made it to the ISS and docked to the Russian Poisk module on Wednesday.

Expedition 29 all together now.

Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and astronaut Dan Burbank join the rest of the Expedition 29 team for a six month stay aboard the station. Burbank is in the middle of the front crewmembers in the photo. Station Commander Mike Fossum (middle in back row), astronaut Satoshi Furukawa (left back row) and cosmonaut Sergei Volkov (right back row) will return to Earth next week. Another group of three astronauts will launch to the station in December.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have been continuing their tests with their Tiangong-1 space module which acts as a remote-control station for practice purposes.

Tiangon-1 (left) and Shenzou-8 (right)

Chinese ground controllers have been practicing undocking and redocking the Shenzou-8 spacecraft. No Taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) are on either craft. Notice the Shenzou-8 (right side of picture) looks remarkably like a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Why start from scratch when you can borrow (?) from something that has worked well for decades. The Chinese are actually doing very well and making good progress in their goal to establish an inhabited space station and then press on to the Moon. Certainly they have benefited from the American and Russian technology. Sure would be nice if they paid for the use of those patents, though.

Recovering the landed Shenzou-8.

Like the Russian Soyuz, the Chinese Shenzou spacecraft land in an open wilderness for recovery. In this case, Inner Mongolia. It had undocked from Tiangong-1 on Wednesday and returned to Earth on Wednesday. It is expected that Taikonauts will be on either the next flight to the station or for certain the third flight up.

Mark Daymont,
Space Center Educator

HopeKids and the Space Center

Hello Troops,
The following is an email received recently from a parent of one of the Hopekids who attended the special missions we ran for them two weeks ago.

I want to thank the staff and volunteers who made the evening a success. Honestly, do you know of any place on Earth where so much human awesomeness exists in such a concentrated space? The astronauts in the International Space Station must see this place glowing on pure 100% creative fuel when all the ships are running as they orbit the Earth.

I'm proud to be associated with such fine people past and present.

Mr. W.

Dear Space Center,
Hi! I just wanted to send you a little note to thank you for letting my son and Hopekids come enjoy space camp. My 10 year old son, Austin, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is 100% fatal with no treatment or cure. He wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. He absolutely loved coming to this activity and has talked about it for days. Hopekids is a really special organization to us, especially since Austin stopped walking 1 year ago. He can no longer go to friends homes to play and finds himself trying to keep up with friends. Hopekids gives us the gift of being together and participating in activities that Austin can participate in and gets him out of the house. We love Hopekids and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us. Our live are definitely enriched through everyday angels like you!

Thanks again,

Karalee
(Austin's Mom)

Rough Seas Ahead

Hello Troops,
This is day two of two busy days at the Space Center. Double field trips yesterday and today mean four classes will keep us engaged until 6:00 P.M. Private missions start after the last school bus leaves. Some of us will emerge from the this grueling herculean task unscathed. Others, chained to their stations until the last bus disappears into the dark of night, will leave the Center bruised, unwashed, dishevelled and smelling heavily of human child and musty Voyager uniforms.

Our school's principal spent time and effort scrubbing the school's faculty room for today's principal's meeting with the Alpine School District's Superintendent. She left this note on the Space Center's white board: "NO ONE GOES INTO THE FACULTY ROOM FOR ANY REASON. I CLEANED IT FOR A MEETING". Knowing I suffer from selective memory syndrome, she told the night custodian to find me after my last mission and tell me not to let anyone use the faculty room.

Thirty minutes later....... The bus driver for the 2:00 P.M. field trip walked into the office.
"Do you have a microwave. I'm starving."

It was 5:30 P.M. She had another thirty minutes to wait before our field trip ended, then a 45 minute drive taking the students back to their school in Salt Lake City. The microwave was in the faculty room. I hesitated, remembering the principal's note on the white board behind me.

"Sure," I replied. I wasn't going to say no. How could using the microwave mess up the faculty room?

She didn't cook a Lean Cuisine or a Hot Pocket. She burned a bag of popcorn! The faculty room stunk to high heaven of burned popcorn. The school's hallways smelled of burned popcorn. We went into disaster clean up mode. I set up fans and left instructions for our night custodian to wash the tables and walls with the strongest disinfectant legally sold.

Now I get to return to school and smell the results. My fingers are crossed. If that smell isn't gone I'll be in deep trouble. Yes, even Mr. Williamson has a boss and I think I'm in for it today. I'll be cleaning toilets and raking leaves for the next two weeks.

Perhaps its time for a few things from the Imaginarium:

The Berlin Subway? If not, it should be.

Who says you can't improve on an existing design. The Rocking Chair reinvented.




Live Live Differently.


I know the feeling. We deal with small humans daily.

Again, Imagination and perfection in design.