Jan 22nd, 2012 at 9:00AM:
It looks like the Space Shuttle, but it isn't. It's made of plywood, for one thing, and it can't fly.
Yet it's a piece of aeronautics history and will soon grace Seattle's Museum of Flight. This training shuttle, more properly called the Full Fuselage Trainer, is a full-scale mockup that astronauts have used for practice since the 1970s. The museum originally hoped to get one of the four ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
space posts
Training shuttle to be displayed in Seattle's Museum of Flight
Jan 22nd, 2012 at 9:00AM:
It looks like the Space Shuttle, but it isn't. It's made of plywood, for one thing, and it can't fly.
Yet it's a piece of aeronautics history and will soon grace Seattle's Museum of Flight. This training shuttle, more properly called the Full Fuselage Trainer, is a full-scale mockup that astronauts have used for practice since the 1970s. The museum originally hoped to get one of the four ...Video of the Day: Making tacos in space
Jan 2nd, 2012 at 6:30PM:
Preparing your own meals while on the road can be tough. You don't always have a proper kitchen stocked with all of the tools and appliances that you need. Ingredients can be difficult to find. Still, at least we always have gravity to help us out. Not so for astronauts. When it's dinner time, they have to assemble their tacos in zero gravity. The last thing that anybody wants is refried beans ...
Space Tourists: a cinematic journey to the ISS (w/ Audio Interview)
Dec 25th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Space Tourists airs tonight on the Documentary Channel at 8pm & 11pm
When Anousheh Ansari boarded the International Space Station on September 20th, 2006, she became the first self-funded female, the first Iranian citizen, and the fourth human overall to enter the Earth's orbit as a coveted 'space tourist'.
After building and selling a large telecom business, Ansari had ...Discount space travel site launched
Nov 29th, 2011 at 3:30PM: A new website devoted to discount space travel was launched this week and has member-only benefits for joining.
"Space.Travel was created to fill a void in the burgeoning space tourism industry. With passenger space travel becoming a routine activity, outer space needed a destination website just like any other travel location. A one-stop website for all of your space trip planning," says ...NASA is looking for new astronauts!
Nov 19th, 2011 at 9:00AM: Anyone who has ever dreamed of going into space received a glimmer of hope this past week when NASA announced that they were looking for their next class of astronauts. This high profile "help wanted" ad had the dual effect of sending many of us scrambling to update our resumes, while simultaneously regressing to a point in our lives when we actually believed we could still grow-up to be an ...Video of the Day - Flying over Earth on the ISS
Nov 15th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
If you haven't seen this video since its emergence on the internet in the past two days, stop whatever you're doing, plug in your best headphones, quit your other applications (so you can watch in silky smooth HD), and full-screen this amazing compilation of moving images.
Edited by Michael König, this time-lapse was created by stitching together a series of still images shot by ...
Video of the Day: My Jet Pack
Oct 31st, 2011 at 6:30PM:
We've covered jet packs before here at Gadling. We've looked at water-powered versions, jet packs used for stunts and attempts to bring jet packs to the masses. However, as a viable means of transportation, jet packs still seem to fall a bit short. That said, they are perfectly suited as inspiration for an epic New Wave travel song. While we might have to wait years about we lift our feet off ...
Amazing photographic animation of Cassini's Saturn flyby
Sep 10th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
The Cassini unmanned probe to Saturn has been a resounding success. A joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency, it's been studying the ringed planet since 2004. Cassini has been sending back detailed images of Saturn, its rings, and its moons and expanding our knowledge of the solar system.
Check out this amazing video made up of hundreds of ...
Space junk is out of control, scientists say
Sep 2nd, 2011 at 2:00PM: It's a dilemma faced by every adventure traveler: to find the perfect remote spot untouched by modernity, free from cell phones, television, and trash. Of course there is no such place, not even in space. In fact, the orbital detritus of modern life can be downright dangerous, scientists warn.
A new report from the National Research Council says there are so many bits of trash in orbit, ranging ...Fifty years ago today: youngest person in space throws up
Aug 6th, 2011 at 10:00AM: Fifty years ago today, Gherman Titov became the second man to go into orbit. The first was Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union on 12 April 1961. Titov was also Soviet, and flew aboard the Vostok-2 mission.
While Gagarin launched into enduring fame and became one of my personal heroes, Titov has been largely forgotten. That's a shame, because his flight included a number of records and advanced our ...National Geographic celebrates the last space shuttle mission ever
Jul 9th, 2011 at 8:00AM: Yesterday morning, at 11:30 AM Eastern Time, the Space Shuttle Atlantis blasted off on the last shuttle mission ever. For fans and proponents of space exploration, it was a bittersweet moment to say the least. To celebrate what truly is the end of an era, National Geographic has updated their Space Shuttle Hub page with a look back at the storied vehicle's tragic and triumphant history.
At ...VIDEO: Astronaut's view of the world
May 31st, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Need a few moments of Zen? This video from NASA's Johnson Space Center has seven of them, traveling over the Earth from the coast of Namibia to the Amazon Basin to capture an astronaut's view of the world. The incredible images are narrated by Dr. Justin Wilkinson, a soothing astronaut who points out the many rivers, mountains, deserts, and other features shown on NASA's camera from far above. ...
Virgin Galactic releases first "feathered flight" video
May 18th, 2011 at 6:00PM:
Historical implications aside, one of the most impressive and important aspects of Richard Branson's upcoming private space line is its distinct mode of atmospheric re-entry.
Thanks to a breakthrough design by legendary aerospace engineer Burt Rutan, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is one of the first craft to utilize a technique known as "feathered flight" to acheive a safer, more stable ...Space race brings trip around the Moon by 2015
May 8th, 2011 at 7:00AM:
We've heard of suborbital flights being booked by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, those have been in the works for quite some time. So have various plans for a replacement vehicle for the retiring space shuttles. Now, the news about space travel brings us to the Moon with a flight around the moon available coming up as soon as 2015 says one company already in the business.
Space ...Forgotten space pioneer: 50th anniversary Alan Shepard's historic flight
May 5th, 2011 at 9:30AM: Fifty years ago today Alan B. Shepard Jr., became the first American in space when he flew in the Freedom 7 mission. He got 116.5 miles up and his flight lasted 15 minutes, 28 seconds. He made history, but has been generally forgotten.
Why? Because he was the second man in space. Yuri Gagarin made it into space 23 days earlier and won the second round of the US-Soviet space race. The Soviets ...Space tourism celebrates tenth anniversary
Apr 30th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Space tourism is ten years old this week. On 28 April 2001 millionaire Dennis Tito became the first person to go into space as a tourist and not an astronaut or scientist.
In an interview with BBC today he talked about how thrilled he was and called his eight days being in orbit "paradise."
While space tourism is the ultimate in high-cost adventure travel--only seven people have done it so ...Second-to-last Space Shuttle launch is big tourism draw
Apr 28th, 2011 at 8:30AM:
Tomorrow's launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour has turned into a major tourist event, the Associated Press reports. NASA estimates half a million people will show up for their second-to-last chance to see a shuttle launch. Other estimates vary from 250,000 to a whopping 700,000. That could rival the crowds that came to see the first Moon mission.
Hotels are sold out and homeowners near ...Video of the day: The Mountain, El Teide, Spain
Apr 20th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.
This video by Terje Sorgjerd, called "The Mountain", came into my Tumblr feed yesterday. I've watched it several times since that first breathtaking viewing and I'm still in awe. This time lapse video was filmed on El Teide--Spain's highest mountain. The mountain is reportedly one of the best places in the world to view the stars and the Teide ...
Virgin Galactic sets sights on orbital spaceflight
Dec 16th, 2010 at 4:30PM:
The stakes in the commercial space race just got a little loftier. Today, Virgin Galactic officially announced plans to team up with two U.S companies in pursuit of developing a commercial manned orbital spacecraft.
Backed by fearless entrepreneur Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic has chosen to support Sierra Nevada Space Systems (SNC) and Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) under NASA's ...NASA wants hypersonic plane, puts aside $15 million
Nov 5th, 2010 at 1:30PM: If NASA gets its way, layovers will become a thing of the past. It has plans in the works to develop hypersonic jets that would surpass the speed of sound by a factor of five. What's the implication? Well, you get on a plane in New York and get off in Sydney a mere two and a half hours later. That's a cut from the current flight duration of 21 hours, according to The Daily Mail. In addition to ...
