Some news of the weird for the previous week. To commemorate the 40th-anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing on the moon, a group of cheesemakers in Somerset, England, decided to send a piece of cheddar into space on a high-altitude weather balloon. The logic of this, so it seems to me, is that some thought inContinue reading “On the Flight of the Cheese Wedge”
Tag Archives: NASA
On Space Bat
We must take a moment to salute a true hero, Space Bat. On March 19th, a bat affixed himself to the space shuttle Discovery and took off into space. It was, sadly, also his last flight into space. A tribute video to a true space pioneer: And a memorial website in tribute to Space Bat.Continue reading “On Space Bat”
On Stephen Colbert’s Orbital Victory
For the record, I love UK news sources. They’re not afraid to call a spade a spade. As in this article, about NASA’s recent online voting to name a new component of the International Space Station. “An American comedian has embarassed Nasa, the US space agency,” the article begins. And that comedian is Stephen Colbert.Continue reading “On Stephen Colbert’s Orbital Victory”
On Obama and Space Policy
For some time, I’ve had one great reservation with Barack Obama as a potential President. Obama wanted to gut NASA, taking the funds for Constellation, the successor to the space shuttle, and channel them into funding education. One analysis of Obama’s education plan likened it to Hernando Cortez burning his boats when he landed inContinue reading “On Obama and Space Policy”
On “Across the Universe Day”
On Tuesday the DVD of Across the Universe hits stores. I needed to see that film the way I need oxygen, and for the most part I enjoyed the film. The soundtrack, at the very least, is one of the rare Beatles covers albums worth owning. It turns out that Tuesday, February 5th, is almostContinue reading “On “Across the Universe Day””
On Photographing Area 51
Doubtless this will be of no interest to anyone but myself, but I found this article interesting. In 1974 astronauts aboard the Skylab space station, in taking photographs of Earth from orbit, photographed something they should not have photographed — the Air Force base at Groom Lake, Nevada, better known to conspiracy nuts as AreaContinue reading “On Photographing Area 51”