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POPSThe giant anvil-shaped cloud hovering 75,000ft above Earth "A giant, anvil-shaped cloud bubbles up towards the Earth's stratosphere, looming over West Africa. The amazing formation would be invisible to anyone on the ground and would even be obscure from a regular passenger jet since they can reach up to 75,000ft. But astronauts captured the astonishing picture from hundreds of miles up as they orbited the globe on the International Space Station. Anvil clouds are formed mostly from ice and normally form in the upper parts of thunderstorms. They get their shape from the fact that rising warm air in thunderstorms expands and spreads out as the air bumps up against the bottom of the stratosphere. Streaks of snow are often seen falling out of the edges of anvils. This light snow usually evaporates as it falls through the relatively dry air surrounding the upper part of the thunderstorm."
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POPSHubba Hubble "A view from above" Take a space walk with the Atlantis astronauts who carried out five back-to-back spacewalks to fix and upgrade the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, adding five to 10 years to Hubble's the observatory's lifetime. Scientists hope to begin beaming back the results by early September. Crew members for the STS-125 mission, from top left: Michael Good, Mike Massimino, John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel, and bottom from left: Gregory C. Johnson, Scott Altman and Megan McArthur.
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POPSRepair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Atlantis' astronauts headed out for another spacewalk Friday, this time to give the Hubble Space Telescope some new, badly needed gyroscopes and batteries. Replacing Hubble's gyroscopes is the top priority for this final repair mission to the 19-year-old observatory. The gyroscopes are part of the telescope pointing system, and half of the old ones are broken. It was the second spacewalk in as many days for the Atlantis astronauts. On Thursday, another two-man team installed a powerful new camera and a computer data unit, after struggling with a stubborn bolt. NASA hoped for an easier, less stressful spacewalk Friday. In all, five spacewalks are planned so that the observatory -- beloved by astronomers and many others for its breathtaking views of the universe -- is at its apex while living out its remaining years. (16 images)
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POPSMore Spacewalks Amazingingly this Russian Space station is 10 years old now. It has been plagues with dozens of problems, but is still functional. I love this kind of stuff *note* the links at the bottom of the clip are fully functional. Read on; have fun!
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POPSPut on Hold This is not just one shuttle being held up. Most of the planned launches have bee put on hold until February 2009. Coincidentally after Obama's inauguration. I heard something about this before, that Obama doesn't want to spend any more money on the space programs until he can get a better look into the budget. I think it could be revamped as well, but not all and not forever. After all, this is where all of our micro-technology comes from.
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POPSChina's Space Mission a Success.... at who's expense? How much milk did they taint for this? How much did they scrimp on quality for exportation to other countries in order to afford their space rendezvous? I bet.... if we were to ban certain imports from China, it will be a long time before they are seen in space again. grrrrr
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POPSPrivately-funded Rocket Reaches Space Just a few days after the Chinese government performed its first spacewalk, SpaceX has achieved the first successful rocket launch funded by a private company. Finally, space exploration as a for-profit venture might be starting to make sense. And that may mean a new sort of race to the moon is beginning--this time between China's government and American private industry.
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POPSCHINA'S SPACE PROGRAM While America is loosing ground, China and Europe are intensifying efforts. Russia remains the only nation so far with little or no interruption in its program.
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POPSRobot frozen in space I the problem cannot be fixed, the same astronauts may have to endure another spacewalk to disassemble the robot, which could otherwise be damaged if it remains without power on the outside of the space station. Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station programme manager, said he was confident the problem could be resolved fairly quickly
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