International Space StationAugust 5, 2007
This weekend Meredith and I are up in Kincardine at her family cottage, the "Huron Haven". Last night just happened to be one of the prime viewing nights to see the ISS fly over South Western Ontario, and it was almost perfect for the Kincardine area. At 9:30 PM, I went to the
NASA tracking page and watched the station fly over the south Pacific, finally crossing the shores of Mexico and then racing up towards Ontario. At 9:40 PM, an hour after sunset, we headed down to the beach and sat on the picnic table waiting in anticipation. As we sat there waiting, looking to the South West, we wondered "is that it"? After a couple of miscues, Paul finally spotted it coming up over the horizon. Soon it was high up in the sky, a brilliantly bright star. The higher in the sky it got, the brighter and faster it seemed to get, until it was directly overhead, just motoring! Amazing to think that three people are living and working up there. The next shuttle launch is scheduled for two days from now (Tuesday).
Another interesting thing I'd like to check out is called an "Iridium Flare". The Iridium sattelites, when they make a perfect angle between an observer on the ground and the sun, attain a brightness factor of -8, which is many times brighter than Venus, -4 at its brightest, and compared to -2.4 for the ISS last night.
Blast off!
September 12, 2006
Graham and I had the pleasure of watching Shuttle Atlantis ride up to space on Saturday morning via NASA TV on the Internet and a phone call between us. A far cry from watching from Florida, but it was still an exciting moment. Eight minutes later, Atlantis floated in space, drifting over Ireland. It was a long, long road waiting for this day! The installation of the P4 truss segment is scheduled for today.
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It wasn't meant to be
September 5, 2006
Last week five excited 20-somethings flew down to Florida in the hopes of seeing Shuttle Atlantis blast off. But it wasn't meant to be. While we were still enroute, a huge bolt of lightening struck the launch pad, delaying the launch long enough for the tropic depression Ernesto to force NASA to roll the shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
While we're plenty sad, it was still a fun experience. We did get to attend the Canadian Space Agency's reception at the Double Tree hotel. The energy in the room was remarkable -- a healthy feeling of national pride, listening to Steve McLean's wife talk about the mission, her husband, and the CSA.
The launch is now scheduled to take place tomorrow just after noon hour.
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