Weird Wild & Wooly

Welcome Home, Discovery!

Discovery touched down on Runway 15 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, completing the 13-day, 5.3-million mile journey on the STS-119 mission. Discovery delivered the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and the S6 truss segment. The mission was the 28th flight to the station, the 36th flight of Discovery and the 125th in the Space Shuttle Program, as well as the 70th landing at Kennedy.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett (from

Too bad, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein are not alive to witness this triumph of earthling ingenuity.

Discovery is battered and blistered but safely home.

No fancy space debris dodging is needed today!  Or in NASAese “no debris avoidance maneuver required“.  The ISS and Discovery crews can concentrate on the shuttle shield and docking later today at 4:13 pm.

Watch these crisply speaking spacemen on TV as they maneuver at an astonishing speed.

Wish them luck like I did (or say hello)!

Discovery lights up the night on the Ides of March.

Go Team NASA!  Discovery’s mission is on!

The intrepid STS-119 crew will be busy delivering and then helping to set up the last solar array on board the International Space Station (ISS).  The final solar array will double the power capabilities for scientific research.  Science and Engineering feats of skill are everyday occurrences for the ISS residents and visitors.

Members of the STS-119 crew are (from right, front row) NASA astronauts Lee Archambault, commander, and Tony Antonelli, pilot, and (from left, back row) Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, all mission specialists. Image Credit: NASA

Weird: Holy Moly, these guys found some pretty weird facts.  There are 50!

Wild: Watch out for the birds.  Their habits are changing according to the Audubon Society’s analysis of citizen scientists’ 40 years of data collection.

Wooly: Galactic dust bunnies?  Ha ha, the NASA nerds have a sense of humor! But wait, the article is all about how heavy elements like oxygen, carbon and iron are blown “across the universe”.  I like these NASA writers.  They appeal to my chemist’s heart.  I thought carbon was ubiquitous but it took the Sptizer and her scientists to prove it.