::: bisonium.com :::

To all Americans everywhere, Happy Independence Day!  Today is a special day in our nations history and this day, we had an extra special treat.  The space shuttle Discovery has successfully launched into space on it's way to replenish the International Space Station.

"And liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery returning to the space station, paving the way for future missions and beyond," said NASA launch commentator Bruce Buckingham.

This is the first time the shuttle has ever launched on Independence Day.  After 2 scrubbed attempts due to bad weather, and lots of crossed fingers, we are back in space for only the second time since the Columbia accident.  It sure feels good, lets hope that after further analysis of the images, there weren't any complications or damage to the shuttle.  The missions launch was in question earlier this week when it was discovered that there was a 4- to 5-inch crack in the external fuel tank's foam insulation.  After further analysis, the NASA engineers determined that the mission was still good to go.

To my fellow veterans, and those friends and other service men and women who continue to serve our country - THANK YOU.  We are thinking of you and hope we can see you all back home soon.  Have a fun and SAFE holiday everyone...to our heros in space - Good Luck and Godspeed.

Technorati Tags: General, Space Shuttle

Posted by Frank Bisono at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[ via Astronomy Pic of the Day ]

Europe at Night:

Europe at Night

Can you find your favorite European city?

The above digital fantasy of Europe at Night is a digital composite of archived satellite images taken both during the day and night. This image is different from what an astronaut would see for reasons including a complete lack of clouds and an unrealistic exaggeration of lights and contrasts.  Even so, the geography underlying the image is captivating.  Nighttime light patterns have been accumulated from the USAF Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize:

SpaceShipOne's second flight was a success, the craft successfully launching from mothership White Knight and returning safely about 20 minutes later. If the flight is certified to have reached the X Prize's target height (62.5 miles) before its safe return, it will win the $10 million purse, and more importantly attain the prestige of repeatably (if only technically) reaching space, on a budget embarrassingly smaller than NASA's. Today's flight was manned by 51-year-old test pilot Brian Binnie (rather than Mike Melvill, who piloted last week's trip), and according to spectators present at both launches seemed even smoother than last week's flight. The view from the sidelines was incredible. flapjack submits a link to CNN's coverage of the launch (which lists a claimed height attained of 368,000 feet), noting "Interesting to note that a majority of its funding ($20-$30 million) was put up by Microsoft's own, Paul Allen." See also the official X Prize site for continuing live coverage. Update: 10/04 17:05 GMT by T: I was able to attend the launch; read below for my short sketch of the event.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:34 PM | Permalink

Space Ship One Desktops:

Courtesy of Bryan Bell

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A request was made for me to release desktop-image sized version of the photos I took this wednesday. So here you go. All images are 1280x1024.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:15 PM | Permalink

SpaceShipOne: Monday Launch Is On:

Satisfied that his spaceplane is sound despite a series of unexpected rolls during Wednesday's flight, Burt Rutan will send SpaceShipOne aloft as scheduled to try to capture the $10 million X Prize. By Dan Brekke.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:09 PM | Permalink

Witnessing History:

Wow! Boy I wish I could have been there to see this! Bryan Bell is one lucky dude...

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Yesterday Erin Clerico and I dragged ourselves out of our nice warm beds and drove to Mojave at 3:30am to see the Launch of SpaceShipOne. This was the First in a series of 2 Space flights needed to collect the Ansari X Prize. After getting over the shock of getting out of bed so early, Erin and I had a really good time. The crowd was large but pleasant and the whole event had an upbeat atmosphere that was hard not to get into.

Video of the launch is available here

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:29 PM | Permalink

Asteroid 4179 Toutatis Will Miss Earth, This Time:

EtherAlchemist writes "National Geographic News reports in this story that a giant, peanut shaped asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will pass within 1 million miles of Earth on Weds, the 29th. When it does, it will be the closest any known object of this size (3 miles) has passed near Earth in this century. No worry about impact yet, it should pose no threat until at least 2562. An interesting note: the asteroid believed to have caused Earth's biggest mass extinction is thought to have been between 3.7 and 7.5 miles as reported here in 2001." 2004 FU162 came closer, but is a much smaller object.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:48 PM | Permalink