More objects in the sky for evening cyclists tonight: ISS and resupply craft

@jrenaut 67710 wrote:

That’s what the dude in “Gravity” said.

I mean, probably. I haven’t seen the movie. I’ve heard it was bad.

I liked it, although I’d say that it’s more of an “experience” than a traditional movie. It’s one of those rare movies that really does need to be seen on a large-scale IMAX screen. (The mini-IMAX or LIE-MAX screens just aren’t the same thing.) Unfortunately, the Smithsonian IMAX theaters haven’t scheduled it… yet. (Keeping my fingers crossed for a December run at the Air and Space Museum, which would be awesome!) Without posting any major spoilers, the movie is successful at creating a very claustrophobic atmosphere throughout the movie. The story is not complex at all, although there are debates about how deep the symbolism is. I see what some people are referring to, but I think it works mostly as a visceral experience, almost as if you were out there in space yourself.

It’s short for a big-budget feature movie though, around 90 minutes. But I think that was enough to cover the simple plot. Any longer and the director would have been simply stretching things out needlessly.

I’ll rate it 4.5 out of 5.

I just read that Gravity will NOT be showing at the Smithsonian IMAX theaters.

@Rootchopper 67766 wrote:

It was Aldrin who figured out the basics of space walking. Prior to him, space walkers would get exhausted from doing minimal tasks. He introduced foot holds and such.

Oh, yeah. he was also Ginger Rogers to Armstrong’s Fred Astaire.

He spoke about the slingshot technique of boosting spacecraft by using the gravity of the Earth or the Moon, which he helped develop. But he didn’t talk about spacewalks too much this time. He is very focused on getting NASA and the international community to fully fund an eventual manned mission to Mars, which is the subject of his recent book. It was only at the earlier book signing this year that I learned that he earned a doctorate from MIT. I also found out that he did a rap video with Snoop Dogg. Totally not making this up. Last weekend, he finished off the talk with the behind-the-scenes video from that studio session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcUeGRpPzgw

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There was another talk earlier this year at the museum with John Glenn and Gen. Thomas Stafford, where they spoke more extensively about the history of spacewalks and the difficulties encountered in the early missions. (Stafford was commander of Apollo 10, the 2nd mission to orbit the Moon and the 1st to fly a lunar module there. He came as close to landing on the Moon as you can without going the final distance. That mission also set the record for fastest human travel, at just under 25,000 mph. He was also commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Among his many official roles, he served as chairman of the NASA advisory committee that drew up a long-term plan for U.S. manned spaceflight, back in the 1990s.) He mentioned that when the Russians first stepped out of a spacecraft for the first time, the spacesuit ballooned up because of the pressurization. The cosmonaut was almost unable to get back into the ship. The same thing happened on the first U.S. spacewalks. Makes you realize just how dangerous it is to be a pioneer, truly going where no one had gone before.

@aflapr 67753 wrote:

Thanks for posting this! We took our 4 year old daughter out to see this and we were able to make out both the ATV4 and the ISS. This made my day, thanks again!

Glad to hear she enjoyed the show!

Did you see the Discovery flyover last year here in DC/Northern Virginia? I never saw a shuttle launch but at least I saw the final flight of Discovery, before it went on display at the Dulles Air and Space Museum. That was pretty cool to see.

[video=vimeo;40543196]https://vimeo.com/40543196[/video]

Do you know about the rocket launches at the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia? Orbital is one of the private NASA contractors that will be operating resupply missions to the ISS in the future. They had a successful test launch recently. That rocket was visible from the DC area. As they work out the remaining bugs in the program, there should be more frequent launches from the Wallops Flight Facility.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/home/index.html#.UnABaPkqiSo

It’s not that far of a drive from the DC area if you’re interested in getting a closer look at future launches. They have a visitors center, which is free to the public. I don’t know what it’s like, since I’ve never been there. But here’s the website:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/visitorcenter/index.html#.UnAB1fkqiSo

The next launch from Wallops is scheduled for Nov. 19, depending on weather conditions that day.

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And to tie this back into cycling, The WashCycle is run by a NASA employee at Goddard Space Flight Center, though the blog/website is a personal project only.