It took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build the International Space Station (ISS). Satoshi Furukawa, an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours — and he did it all while aboard the orbiting outpost itself.
It helped that his space station was made out of LEGO.
View Link [collectspace.com]
Heads-up universe, a flock of furious feathered fighters is coming your way. Having conquered Earth – or at least its mobile and social networks – Angry Birds is launching into outer space with the latest version of Rovio Mobile’s popular strategy puzzle game.
“Angry Birds Space” will blast off on March 22 with NASA along for the ride…
View Link [collectspace.com]
Fifty years ago Monday (Feb. 20), John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, relied on ground stations located across the planet to communicate with his control team. But after his Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7, safely splashed down, it was another type of station that took over tracking his historic mission: U.S. post offices.
For the first and only time in the country’s postal history, the United States Post Office Department — since 1971, the U.S. Postal Service — surprised the public with the release of a secret stamp celebrating Glenn’s successful mission. The 4-cent “Project Mercury” postage stamp was revealed and immediately put on sale in 305 post offices within an hour of Glenn’s triumphant return to Earth at 2:43 p.m. EST (1943 GMT) on Feb. 20, 1962.
Half a century later, collectors are still searching for those first-day-of-issue stamps…
To this day, as many as 20 of the original 305 cities that received the secret shipments of the “Project Mercury” stamp are still missing examples of first day of issue postmarked envelopes.
Also, anniversary interview — John Glenn, first American in orbit, reflects on his flight’s 50-year legacy: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-021712a.html
View Link [collectspace.com]
Want to experience what it was like 50 years ago to be inside NASA’s Mercury mission control center monitoring astronaut John Glenn as he became the first American to orbit the Earth? There’s an app for that.
Spacecraft Films, which for more than a decade has been restoring mission footage for DVD and Blu-ray distribution, launched their first Apple iPad app on Monday (Feb. 13), a week before the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s historic mission. “Friendship 7: The Voyage of Mercury-Atlas 6″ gives users a seat in mission control for a multimedia-rich playback of the Feb. 20, 1962 flight.
“Fifty years ago John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth,” Mark Gray, Spacecraft Films’ producer, writes in the text accompanying the app in Apple’s store. “Relive his three-orbit mission with exclusive access to over 4 hours of rare video, plus the complete audio from the onboard recorder and flight director’s loop recorded in mission control.”
View Link [collectspace.com]
Three icons of professional basketball will don special space exploration-themed sneakers when they take to the court for the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 26, 2012. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant will be outfitted with new Nike shoes styled after spacesuits and inspired by astronauts.
Additional photo gallery: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-020912b.html
View Link [collectspace.com]
collectSPACE had the rare opportunity recently to tour NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis to photograph its preparation for museum display and capture its glass cockpit powered and lit for one of its last times.
The photo gallery starts on Atlantis’ flight deck, and then proceeds to its now mostly empty middeck, out into and above the 60-foot payload bay, and then around and under the winged spacecraft.
View Link [collectspace.com]
Could a collectible have just outed the names of China’s second group of astronauts?
That is the conclusion reached by two international space observers, who found an offer for a postmarked envelope – or “philatelic cover,” as collectors refer to it – signed by seven Chinese pilots. The group included two women, one of whom may soon become China’s first female astronaut, or “taikonaut,” to reach space.
View Link [collectspace.com]
The final astronaut crew to fly on a space shuttle has a secret in store for everyone watching when they pause during their mission to pay tribute to NASA’s 30-year shuttle program.
The four crew members have some special souvenirs on shuttle Atlantis, but what they are, they aren’t saying…
http://collectspace.com/news/news-070611a.html
…they aren’t but collectSPACE has, sharing the full, illustrated contents of the shuttle’s final souvenir stash:
http://collectspace.com/news/news-070611b.html
View Link [collectspace.com]
NASA released Tuesday the long-awaited, historic photos showing space shuttle Endeavour at the International Space Station. Taken two weeks ago by the Earth-bound crew on Soyuz TMA-20, the pictures capture more than one million pounds in orbit, including the shuttle, the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle “Johannes Kepler,” Russian Progress and Soyuz spacecraft and the station’s modules, truss, and solar arrays. The photographs are the first to show the shuttle docked with the complete ISS.
View Link [collectspace.com]
When Atlantis lifts off in July on the final mission for the space shuttle program, it will do so decorated with ‘nose art.’ More specifically, its external fuel tank, ET-138, will be outfitted with a painted intertank access door displaying the commemorative logo for NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program. The decorated door marks just the second time that the shuttle has flown with markings other than the U.S. flag and NASA insignia.
View Link [collectspace.com]
Thousands of the men and women who work to build up the space shuttle for launch took a break on March 19 to shape a shuttle of a different type. Standing side-by-side outside NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, the workers formed a full-scale outline of the orbiter. The unique photo op, which was also captured in a time lapse video, was organized to honor the 30-year legacy of the space shuttle program and and the people who have contributed to its success.
View Link [collectspace.com]
Before leaving the International Space Station (ISS) Monday, space shuttle Discovery’s final crew left their mark on the orbiting laboratory. Adding their patch to the station’s growing collection of visiting crews’ emblems, the simple activity represented the successful completion of their mission’s goals. It also symbolized the final contribution by a late artist to the visual history of the U.S. space program. Like Discovery, Robert McCall’s final works of art have made their last flight into outer space.
View Link [collectspace.com]
For one week starting Dec. 24, people from around the world will look into the sky, wave at the International Space Station (ISS) and then share their wave by posting the details, photos, and video to Twitter. The around-the-world wave, to be tracked using the hashtag #ISSwave, is focused on raising public awareness about the space station and the fun associated with seeing it flyover.
View Link [isswave.org]
The moon may not be made of cheese, but for about three hours on Dec. 8, a wheel of cheese rounded Earth twice before returning for an historic splashdown. Packed aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, the wheel of Le Brouere was in honor of a classic Monty Python comedy skit.
View Link [collectspace.com]
NASA is holding a “baked-goods” sale for schools, but instead of tasty desserts, the space agency is offering something much hotter: space shuttle heat shield tiles.
NASA began Wednesday offering 7,000 of the black and white lightweight tiles to U.S. schools and universities that “want to share technology and a piece of space history with their students.”
View Link [collectspace.com]
Former NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless filed a lawsuit Thursday against singer Dido and Sony Music for what he claims was unauthorized use of his image for an album cover. Dido’s 2008 “Safe Trip Home” featured a 1984 photo showing the astronaut testing the Manned Maneuvering Unit jet backpack in 1984, establishing McCandless as the first to float free (i.e. without tethers) of his spacecraft. According to Businessweek, McCandless does not allege copyright infringement, “only infringement of his persona.”
View Link [collectspace.com]
The launch pad from which the first United States astronauts left Earth for orbit may soon be revived as an engineering classroom for a new generation of rocket builders, where laid off space shuttle technicians are the teachers.
View Link [collectspace.com]
Almost 200 people from 15 countries have visited the International Space Station, but the orbiting laboratory has so far only ever had human crew members — until now.
Robonaut 2, the latest generation of NASA’s Robonaut astronaut helpers, is set to launch to the station aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission. It will be the first humanoid robot in space.
On August 4, shortly before shipping R2 to the Kennedy Space Center for its launch, NASA demonstrated R2′s capabilities to the media.
View Link [collectspace.com]
NASA intends to award its three space shuttle orbiters — Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour — to museums for public display after the fleet is retired. The agency requested interested museums submit statements of interest, including details for how they plan to meet the requirement of exhibiting an orbiter in an environmentally-controlled, enclosed display.
Some of the 20 organizations vying for an orbiter have released concepts for how they plan to exhibit a retired shuttle, should they receive one.
View Link [collectspace.com]
Antinous / Moderator is discussing.
Antinous / Moderator 5:54 pm on 06/06/2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
No Glamorous Glennis?