the-shrike.net

Schirra’s NASA career began with his selection as one of the original seven Mercury astronauts in 1959 and spans the period from Americas first tentative steps into space to the missions to the moon.

Schirra flew on the fifth Mercury flight in 1962, orbiting the Earth six times. He commanded Gemini 6A in 1965, a flight with Tom Stafford that had the historic distinction of being the first rendezvous of two manned, maneuverable spacecraft. Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 flew in formation for five hours, as close as one foot to one another.

Commander Schirra in the center with the rest of the Apollo 7 crew.

Schirra also commanded Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight. During that 11-day flight in Earth orbit in 1968, he and fellow crewmembers Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele tested the Apollo systems and proved it was ready to take astronauts to the moon.

One of the great one has left us.

I would like to wish him a safe journey like the ones he had around Earth.

Apparently, what they’ve taught me in school is no longer correct.
Today, during the 2006 International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly, resolutions 5A & 5B have been voted and approved (among others…) thus leading to the final chapter on the question: is Pluto to be considered a planet?.
Apparently the final answer is to be considered: NO.
As stated by Resolution 5A:

• The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
• An IAU process will be established to assign borderline objects into either dwarf planet and other categories.
• These currently include most of the Solar System asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other small bodies.

It appears that Pluto, Ceres and the recently discovered 2003-UB313 are small bodies enough to be considered non-planets. Look also at this post by Tom to clear your mind even more.
By now on, we’ll better refer to Pluto as a dwarf planet rather than a planet. Probably this’s a good step forward down the right direction of classifying better all the bodies of our Solar System (and all the bodies we’ll hopefully find outside of it), but I can’t help but being a little sad for Pluto.
It feels a little weird to consider our Solar System to have only 8 planets…

On the 1st of November 2005 I blogged about the discoveries of two candidates to become newest knwon Pluto’s moon.
Finally, they got names and they’re now considered as two satellite of the most distant planet of the Solar System.

Pluto’s small moons were provisionally designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2. They have now been officially christened Nix and Hydra. [..] Nix was the goddess of darkness and night and the mother of Charon, while Hydra was a nine headed monster and is now orbiting the solar system’s ninth planet.
(source: Astronomy Picture of the Day)

The full, and detailed, article about this naming could be found here, and I also suggest to take a look at the pictures here too: the first one is really impressive, showing also Charon. It is good to know New Horizon is going to have so much to study once arrived to Pluto.

And then, as it has begun, the Shirts Odyssey is finally almost over. Actually, that’s quite far from truth but it’s still a step in the right direction.
Anyway, for those of you not informed about it, the Shirts Odyssey was (is) my struggle with my airline to get what’s missing of my uniform: dress shirts.
They’re white, they’re quite anonymous, they’re even not too nice looking (ehm… maybe I shouldn’t be saying this :p) but apparently they’re very rare and very close to extinction. My last 10-15 days were spent trying to find at least two of them (the minimum requirement for a flight), but one flight lost *sigh* and a lot of headaches after I’ve finally managed to grab only 2 long-sleeves XL-size dres shirts.

And they are not even what I requested!

Ok, I’m not going to bother you with the description of how funny I look (I’m L-size shaped) in those two, they’re too big for me, but that’s the better we can do by now, and that must be enough. After my arrival from Cancun (on the 18th of June) I’ll look for the correct sized ones.

So, with the Odyssey finally almost over, here we come: I’m flight ready!
*gosh*
That’s something very exciting! ^___^

Anyway: the title of this post, and its categories, ask for something more and here it comes. I’d like to point you to an interesting post from Stuart at Astronomy Blog about Saturn’s moons and a very nice animation of the two. I suggest a reading, it’s very interesting, also because of the strange configuration of the ringed-giant planet and its various moon.
Fascinating… at least!

Take care! Maybe you’ll see the next blogging here from Mexico :)

…wow, what a wind today. And not only in Milan, seems like whole Italy is experiencing a strong wind today. Guess where it comes from, it’s quite unusual for Milan (seem just like we’re in Trieste with the Bora!).

Anyway, it’s a relax day for me, and I don’t dislike to see a clear blue sky (very unusual in the foggy and polluted Milan), some sun, and fresh air.
Since the starting of the Flight Attendant course (the 10th of April) I have been very busy studying and planning my future working life, and now that the course is over (last tests were passed last 24th of May ^_^) I am regaining some time for myself.
Not that I will be able to do this for a long time, on Thursday I’ll go to collect the last part of my uniform (…pictures will follow :p), and the first 5 days rotation is already planned on a MXP-FCO-CUN-MXP route. Not bad to go to Cancun (Mexico) for my first time, I guess I’ll enjoy it, even if only thinking about my first flight makes me nervous like hell. But after all, I guess it’s quite a normal reaction.

I am going to have a very busy month (with another 8 days big rotation to Maldives by the end of June), but I am finally just a step away from doing what I dream, and that sounds good enough to forget everything else!
It’s nice to think this blog will be updated from all around the world in the near future ;)

The continuing disintegration of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has allowed ESA scientists to see into the interior of the comet. Using a revolutionary camera attached to the ESA Optical Ground Station on Tenerife, they have followed the detailed twists and turns of various comet fragments.

More information here: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEMN1C9ATME_0.html.

That’s yummy! Really yummy, indeed.
Today Boeing released some inside view of the cabin of its new project, the 787 Dreamliner.

© Boeing

I’m really looking forward to see this huge new beast in service, even if I’ll have to wait until December 2010, when the first aircraft will be delivered to Air New Zealand.
The interior is looking amazing, very futuristic and really fascinating. I bet this aircraft is going to make history. Let’s just hope Airbus will not remain looking on the bench :p

Anyway, speaking of things that fly, I’ve scored a 100% in the Safety/Emergency Procedure test for my Flight Attendant training course. This leads me to a 100%-98%-100%-100% streak that amuses me enough for now.
If my uniform is going to be delivered to me in time (something I really hope…), I’ll fly for the first time to Cuba on the 30th of May.

But now, let’s face the last 12 course days… phew! ;)

(source: Flight Global)

The MCR (main control room) at ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) is getting ready to accompany Venus Express on its arrival on Venus, scheduled for 11th of April. Orbit insertion manouver is going to be (as always) a tough and delicate one, and for the first ESA mission to Venus, that is going to be one of the most critical part ever.

As for now, the spacecraft looks in peferct shape:

“In the night between 16 and 17 February, Venus Express passed its VOI readiness review after a successful burn of its main engine, providing a thrust of 400 Newtons,” said Don McCoy, Venus Express Project Manager. “This was followed by a minor mid-course correction provided by the spacecraft’s four 10-Newton thrusters on 24 February.”

All the preliminary tests show nominal behaviour, and that is really reassuring after such a long journey in space. In this ESA press relase it is possible to find also a brief explanation of some of the manoeuvres that are going to be performed shortly before/during the VOI (Venus Orbit Insertion).

Let’s cross our fingers for the next 15 days, they’re surely going to be very busy and full of anxiety at ESOC! (I remeber when I have visited that control room… AMAZING!)

Airbus successfully completed the passenger evacuation trial on development A380 MSN7, paving the way for the Authorities to certify the aircraft in time for delivery by the end of 2006. During the trial, all of the 873 participants were able to leave the aircraft and reach ground within the 90 seconds prescribed, with half of the 16 doors in operations. The trial was performed under the supervision of the European Aviation and Safety Agency EASA and a representation of the American FAA.

This is an excerpt from an issue Airbus released yesterday, just after the massive evacuation test that took place as part as the certification process of this new flying giant.
The test was carried out in Hamburg (Germany).

Let’s take a look at what were the main requirments for the evacuation drill (as stated here):

• 650 passengers taking part
• Lights will be out in cabin
• Half of exits will be closed
• Drill must feature 40% women, 35% people over 50
• Passengers will not be told which exits are in use
• Passengers must wear their seat belts

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? ;)

Anyway, everything went incredibly smooth and the drill was a total success. Even Airbus team said the result exceeds their most optimistic projections, they were thinking to be able to evacuate a maximum of about 750 in 90 seconds, a number that in any case would have led to a large success of the test itself.

About the 32 (some are reporting them to be 33) light-injured people (a broken leg is supposed to be the heaviest one…), Airbus says:

All slides worked and the number of injured people is in line with what to expect with a trial of this size
[...]
The “passengers” having suffered injuries when arriving on the ground were immediately taken care of by the medical emergency and first aid service available on the site. Airbus will of course provide all the support required to the injured person who were covered by a special insurance.

That nice and very professional, as far as I can tell.
Anyway, everything goes perfectly, and I am very happy the beast has just done another step forward to start its full service.

(check here for updates and infos)

• Hayabusa: the Japanese probe seems to get more and more ill as time passes, but at its mission control they seem to remain quite optimistic about the possibility to bring her back anyway. Let’s hope they’re right!
  You can find a translation of the latest conference about Hayabusa’s status on this page (seems very detailed, I’ll finish studying it later…)
• MRO: the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter is due to begin its orbit insertion phase at 1:25 p.m. PST (21:25 UTC) on March 10, and today a pre-arrive conference has been held by the team to explain what is going to happen. More informations about it, on the relative page of the Planetary Society Blog.

(Source: The Planetary Society Blog)

At the latest meeting of the European Space Agency’s Earth Observation Programme Board, which took place at ESA’s Headquarters in Paris on 23 and 24 February, ESA received the green light from its Member States to build and launch a CryoSat recovery mission, CryoSat-2.

This is a news I was waiting to read since 8th of October 2005, after the tragic launch failure (of a Rockot russian launcher) that led to CryoSat lost in the Artic Sea. The failure was caused by a malfunction of the 2nd stage of the launcher, that caused the abort of the launching process and the not controlled fall of the 3rd stage (containing CryoSat) somewhere in the North Sea.

“This decision is very important, as the scientific community in Europe and elsewhere is eagerly awaiting resumption of the CryoSat mission. We are happy to have obtained approval today”, said Volker Liebig, ESA Director of Earth observation programmes.

Let’s hope in 2009 (planned launch year for CryoSat-2) everything will go fine (I am now curious to know if they’re planning to use the same launching system or to change on a different one…) and that CryoSat-2 will help us understanding what is the actual status of ice poles and their evolution in time.

(source: ESA)

…Venus Express is inexorably approaching Venus. ESA announced a week ago today that they successfully performed a test of their main engine, a little less than two months before their planned Venus arrival.

(source: The Planetary Society Weblog)

Everything is going smooth for Venus Express, and this is something I’m very pleased to read. Returning back to Venus after such a long time is something very thrilling, and so let’s hope everything is going to continue without any problems.

Anyway, still on the same page on The Planetary Society Weblog you may find some informations about the status of another probe getting closer to its destination: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (this time a NASA mission, not ESA like Venus Express).

Different planets, different probes, same emotions! :)