Climate Change History

 #Maddow

I posted this the other day but it's a good reminder. Climate change from 1880 to 2021. Courtesy of NASA and NOAA weather.

RIP John Young

Astronaut John Young, Who Walked on the Moon and Led 1st Shuttle Mission, Dies at 87

John Watts Young was the only person to have piloted, and been commander of four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.

In March 1965, Young flew on the first manned Gemini mission (Gemini-3), and commanded the Gemini-10 mission in July 1966,

He was the first to orbit the Moon alone in May 1969 as Command Module Pilot of Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for the first Moon landing. In April 1972 Young became and the ninth person to walk on the Moon. He also drove the Lunar Rover on the surface of the moon,

Young also commanded STS-1 Space Shuttle Columbia in April 1981, the first Space Shuttle flight. Young’s final mission was STS-9 in January 1985,. STS-9, also referred to as STS-41A and Spacelab 1, was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Young flew a total of 34 days 19 hours and 39 minutes in space.

In 1974 he was chosen to be Chief of the Astronaut Office, in doing so he oversaw the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project--the first joint American-Russian mission.

The Space Shuttle Orbiter Approach and Landing Test Program, and 25 Space Shuttle missions were all during his tenure. From 1987 to 1996 he served as Special Assistant to the Director of JSC for Engineering, Operations, and Safety. In February 1996 Young was assigned as Associate Director (Technical), responsible for technical, operational and safety oversight of all Agency Programs and activities assigned to the Johnson Space Center. On December 31, 2004.

The space agency said Young died Friday night at home in Houston following complications from pneumonia.

John Watts Young (September 24, 1930 – January 5, 2018)

  Information from NASA History

Mesmerizing

People who know less always ask why we're spending "so much money" in Space exploration.

Let the money go to homeless, etc.

While I agree in spending more money in domestic issues, I think the system has to change wherein the money GOES to the less fortunate instead of "administrative costs".

But I digress.

Check out this video presented my my ex-employer, NASA (actually, I worked for a NASA subcontractor).

From Youtube user MadHatter: We've all seen images of extreme weather from space. But none of those could prepare us for this video just released by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. Using real data, this simulation's volume-rendered clouds depict seven days in 2005 when a category-4 typhoon developed off the coast of China.

Enjoy:

Farewell, Endeavour

I have been a part of the Space Shuttle Program for almost 30 years at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East. and I'm very sad to see it end.

This video shows the incredible strength and beauty of Endeavour's final launch on May 16th. Enjoy.