Nullary Sources

Space station to be crewed for SpaceX docking

This article on TPM’s IdeaLab blog (which is relatively new and has been doing a great job covering tech and science news) is mostly about how the ISS is doing after an August crash of an unmanned Soyuz rocket. But this caught my eye. Carl Franzen:

In any case, the decision is great news for the private spaceflight company SpaceX, which planned to make history by docking its Dragon capsule with the space station on November 30, the first such commercial spacecraft visit of its kind. Following the Aug. 24 Soyuz crash, the company had worried that its mission would be delayed, as there wouldn’t be any astronauts aboard the station to receive the craft, but according to NASA’s current launch schedule, its still a go for November 30.

I hadn’t heard about this, and didn’t realize SpaceX was this far along. Bad. Ass. I remember when the ISS was nothing more than an idea, much less something visited by commercial spacecraft.

Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan, a billionaire Sheikh and member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, has had his name carved into the sandy surface of an island he owns in the Persian Gulf. It is no lackadaisical sand-scrawling, though: At half a mile tall and 2 miles long altogether, the letters HAMAD are visible from space.

Satellites captured these images of al Futaisi Island, stamped with the name of its owner, back in 2009. They can be accessed on Google Maps and Google Earth. [The Top 10 Views of Earth From Space]

While, under normal circumstances, words written in sand wash away, The Daily Mail explains that these letters are large enough to “form waterways that absorb the encroaching tide.” Indeed, at the time the satellite photographs were taken, said tide can be seen flowing through the letters all the way to the M.

From Natalie Wolchover at Space.com.

A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: space

Space station to be crewed for SpaceX docking