• 27Nov 09

  STS-129 Landing

  The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed this morning. It was a very clear day in Florida and the landing was described as "picture perfect" by Mission Control. Astronaut Randolph Bresnik will be seeing his newborn daughter soon. Here's hoping that next week's Soyuz flight goes well too; Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk will be returning to Earth after several months on the International Space Station.

  And while I have space on the brain, here's an Apollo 13 parody for the Thanksgiving weekend. I know I've mentioned it before, but it's still funny.

  • Posted Nov 27, 2009 2:06 pm PT
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• 24Nov 09

  Huang Qi

  During the 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province, thousands of people, many of them children, were killed in collapsing school buildings. The buildings had been hastily constructed using cheap substandard materials; they were known as tofu buildings and they couldn't withstand an earthquake. Some Chinese people, many of them parents of children killed in the earthquake, demanded an investigation into the poor construction practices and said that the people responsible should go to jail (this hasn't happened). The Chinese media has been reluctant to report on this and the government has threatened and intimidated the people who speak out.

  Human rights activist Huang Qi wants to help the parents who lost their children. He has written about these issues on his website and yesterday he was sentenced to three years in prison for "illegally holding state secrets." Amnesty International is demanding that he be released immediately. The people who constructed the flimsy unsafe buildings have gotten away with it, but writing articles about this criminal negligence on a website is illegal. The Chinese government's actions in this matter are outrageous, but they're not surprising.

  • Posted Nov 24, 2009 2:11 pm PT
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• 16Nov 09

  Atlantis's Monday Commute To Orbit

  The Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off right on schedule at 2:28 this afternoon. Here's a video of the launch. I like the comment about "Atlantis steering into the center lane of Highway 129 en route to the International Space Station." For some reason, it reminds me of Buzz Aldrin's comment during Apollo 11 when CapCom Ron Evans said Eagle was cleared for takeoff from the Moon: "Roger, understand. We're number one on the runway." Good luck to the crew of STS-129.
  • Posted Nov 16, 2009 3:16 pm PT
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