The Voices in Frank's Head

NASA brought the Space Shuttle program to an end this July after more than 30 years of service to the nation and to cause of space exploration. Since I continue to hear the occasional complaint from one person or another about why NASA brought this program to an end, I thought I would write this post so I easily link to it later when I might need it. The Space Shuttle was a terrific vehicle for taking us into Earth's orbit. It enabled us to launch and repair satellites and to build the International Space Station. Those were fantastic missions, but they're done. It's time for NASA to move onto the next level of exploring space. Unfortunately, the Space Shuttle simply isn't the right vehicle for our next steps in space exploration. As an example, former Presidents George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton , and George W. Bush , as well as President Barack Obama , all endorsed the long-term goal of a manned mission to Mars during each of the respective tenures in the Whit...

Atlantis and the STS 135 crew returned safely home to Earth early this morning. They arrived at the Kennedy Space Center just before dawn today. Their safe return brings to a close the 30 year long space shuttle program. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden  outlines what is next for the space agency here . It is an ambition agenda of leveraging partnerships with the private sector, sending a manned mission to explore Mars, continuing the success of the International Space Station, conducting a multitude of scientific research missions, and maintaining its leadership role in aeronautics research. I look forward to the next chapter in NASA's great story.

International Space Station The Space Shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station this afternoon as part of the STS-133 mission. This will be the last time that Discovery will dock at the station since the shuttle program is now being phased out. Discovery was the first shuttle to ever dock at the International Space Station and now it's time for her to retire. It has been an amazing 27 year long career for her.

The folks at NASA posted their on-line holiday this afternoon. I think this is one of the best video greetings that I have ever seen. But then again, I am a nerd.

Heidi Montag  has already scheduled another round of cosmetic surgery. According to Life & Style magazine, she wants her breasts to be even larger. For the benefit of anyone who doesn't already know this, Heidi Montag already has DD-sized breasts. This means that Heidi Montag's breasts can already be seen from outer space, at least on your more sophisticated satellite photographs. Presumably, making them even larger will make them even more visible. All of which makes me wonder: Does Heidi Montag have some serious self-image problems? Or is she simply trying to flash the guys on board the International Space Station? I personally think she's trying to show some love to the space station. However, there is always the chance that I'm wrong.

Endeavor lifted off early this morning from Cape Canaveral. This will likely to be the last nighttime launch of a space shuttle as NASA is retiring the space shuttle at the end of this year. Her six astronauts will deliver a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station before returning in two weeks. I wish them well in their mission. Space shuttle blasts off on last night flight - Yahoo! News

The crew from the space shuttle Endeavor returned home this morning in a textbook perfect landing at the Kennedy Space Center, completing a mission to the International Space Station that lasted sixteen days. I still get goose bumps every time I see one of the space shuttles take off or land. Congratulations to everyone who was a part of the STS-127 mission, both on the shuttle and back on ground, for a job well done. Welcome home, Endeavor. Next up: the launch of Discovery, which is currently targeted for Tuesday, August 25 as part of the STS-128 mission .

Between the Cobo Hall fiasco, the economy, the mortgage crisis and the perpetual quandary of whether or not there will even be an American auto industry 6 months from now, Detroit is need of something to take our minds of the problems and make us realize what is really possible. For some folks, this means heading to Hamtramk this weekend to check out the more than 200 bands that are playing for the Metro Times Blowout . Personally, I have my own obsession. The International Space Station will be visible in sky over Detroit for the next few days during the early morning hours. All I have to do to be reminded of how much really is possible in this world is look up. I know I've complained about an ineffective city government on my neighborhood blog many, many times. Some folks might question my sanity when I say that a mere glimpse at the space station is enough to take my mind off these problems. They're right, of course. My sanity has been in question for some time now. It ...

The space shuttle Endeavor made a text book perfect landing this afternoon. They completed their 16-day mission to continue improvements at the International Space Station . It's hard to explain, but watching this video just makes me smile. Welcome home, Endeavor. Congratulations on a job well done.

For the past several years, we as a nation have been spending a lot of money on a lot of things, the war in Iraq, rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina and so on. The one thing that we haven't been doing is exploring outer space with the same earnest that we once did. NASA's budget, for example, has fallen 20% in real dollars from it's 1992 levels. It now only makes up 0.6% of the federal budget. Of course, while the United States has been doing other things, the rest of the world has been going full steam ahead . This creates a situation where the U.S. is no longer the world's undisputed leader in space exploration and we may soon be playing second fiddle to the Chinese, Indians and others. I'm all in favor of sharing outer space. There's clearly enough of it to go around. However, the idea that the U.S. is no longer at the cutting edge is irritating. Really, really irritating.

Earlier this morning, I posted about how astronaut Garret Reisman was a special guest on The Colbert Report - live from the International Space Station. They talked for several minutes in an interview that was classic Stephen Colbert . Well, that particular clip is now available on-line. Check it out below. It's truly one of the coolest things I've seen all year. I also found an article in the Houston Chronicle that talked about this interview, which included references to a few things that got edited out of the episode when it aired - like the fact that there aren't any refrigerators on the International Space Station to chill ice cream or beer.

I was just watching The Colbert Report . Stephen Colbert had one of the astronauts on his show, Garrett Reisman , live via satellite from the International Space Station. It was one of the coolest things I've seen all year.

Atlantis made another perfect landing in Florida at 9:07 this morning. This brings their 13-day mission at the International Space Station to a successful conclusion. It also means that astronaut Dan Tani is once again on solid ground after spending 4 months in outer space. Welcome home everyone!

Today has been one of those good news/bad news days. The good news is that astronauts from Discovery added a new room onto the International Space Station today. It's been named Harmony. My first thought was that they should have changed a few letters and named it after a Harry Potter character instead. In fact, I think every room on the International Space Station ought be named after a character from the Harry Potter books. That or one from a Mark Twain novel. Anyway, the bad news is that they also found metal shavings inside of a joint that is needed to turn solar panels. I know it's bad when I forget to do the dishes and they get kind of crusty. It's a pain in the butt to clean them. I'm just imagining the challenges associated with cleaning metal shavings out of a metallic joint while traveling at 1,000+ m.p.h. in outer space.

Every time the space shuttle lifts off, it always carries some special cargo with it. When it lifts off this coming October, however, it's going to carry one of the coolest pieces of cargo ever. NASA is actually going to carry the lightsaber that Mark Hamill used in the original Star Wars movie up to the International Space Station. Yes, I know this is a publicity stunt. 100% stunt. But it's so darn cool!

I was surfing on-line and found NASA's press kit for the current space shuttle mission (officially known as STS-116 , which is the 117th mission for the space shuttle program). Included in this 135 page press kit is the to-do list (or as they prefer to call it "mission priorities") for the current flight. I have my own to-do list for the day (pay a few bills, a half dozen or so phone calls to make). Their mission priorities, however, kick butt. It's interesting that I have three college level physics courses under my belt as well as a semester of Air Force ROTC behind me and I only understand about half of what they are doing on this twelve day mission. For the curious amoung us, here is their list. It consists almost entirely of things that are happening on-board the International Space Station. Perform inspection of space shuttle heat shields and downlink sensor data for evaluation on the ground; Document space shuttle tile during rendezvous with station using i...