Space Shuttle Atlantis Set to Blast Off on ISS Repair Mission

All systems are almost go for Space Shuttle Atlantis to launch. They're off to the International Space Station on June 8th. ARead more about the mission here. There's been some trouble with previous attempts to unfold the all solar arrays panels. They literally got stuck together the last time and failed to unfurl. This meant the cables that are meant to pull the arrays taut came off their pulleys, leaving the solar array hanging.

But this time the astronauts have a backup plan. Two of them will assist the arrays in unfurling.

You can check out the shuttle launch online.

Lost In Space: Bone Density & Muscle Mass

After 277 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and with 10 spacewalks to his credit and more than 67 hours of total spacewalking time, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, commander of Expedition 14 to the ISS, set 2 NASA records.

Now he and fellow astronaut Mikhail Tyurin, who was the Flight Engineer, are recovering from their adventure. They returned back to earth around April 21st and are still regaining their lost muscle mass and bone density, as they adjust to Earth's gravity. These tissue losses happen in spite of rigorous daily exercise while on board the ISS. The losses are normal in long duration stays away from earth's gravity field. Commander Lopez-Alegria said he thought that "it takes about a week or two to get back to 80 or 90 percent, and I think it's going to take a lot longer to get that last 10 percent back. But so far, so good." He should know - this is his fourth stay in space. Younger people recover faster, according to previous NASA research.

According to NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research even with rigorous workouts, astronauts return to Earth much much weaker than when they left. After just 11 days in microgravity muscle fibers can shrink up to 30 percent and cause soreness as damaged muscles tear while readjusting to Earth's gravity.

Space medicine researchers and radiologists and other medical researchers and biologists have studied tissue loss due to lack of sufficient gravity at
Texas A & M University as well as this 2004 article (which I just found hours after I came up with this article's title. :) in Radiology Today both if which look at bone density losses.

Devices have been used to study bone density changes for about a decade.

For the Love of Space (ISS link now works!)

NB.. I have fixed the link which now REALLY DOES take you to the International Space Station's webbpages at NASA! :)

There are nearly 800 news reports on the story, so you've no doubt heard that Steven Hawking, the world's most famous cosmologist, got his birthday wish - a parabolic flight, a.k.a. "a ride on the 'vomit comet'". courtesy of 'Zero G'.

It's called a vomit comet because some people's stomachs don't respond too well to 'microgravity'.

The flight is Dr. Hawking's first step towards his dream of orbiting the earth.

Cosmology is a branch of astronomy dealing with the study of the universe. By now you've heard the news that Britain's star cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, has made his 'zero-G' parabolic flight and experienced 8 twenty-five second bursts of almost weightlessness. And you might know that since 1979 he has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, in their Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. But did you know that Dr. Hawking has his own website?

You can read more in two more articles about his flight which I've 'Dugg' up for you, one from the BBC and one from the Planetary Society, which was founded in part by another star astronomer, Carl Sagan.

And here you can watch some multimedia stuff about Dr. Hawking and his theories.
Stephen Hawking suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aka ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease is known in the UK as motor neurone disease. Anyone who thinking the disabled are wasting resources and/or that having disability is an impossible barrier to accomplishment will have to eat their words after Dr. Hawking's flight today. yes, he had help. So do all the astronauts. No one flies up there alone.

For the sake of our listeners I subscribe to NASAs press release service. Here is their take on Hawking's zero-G

NASA SCIENCE STATEMENT ON STEPHEN HAWKING'S ZERO GRAVITY FLIGHT

WASHINGTON - The following is a statement from Alan Stern, NASA
associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at
Headquarters in Washington, regarding renowned physicist Stephen
Hawking's flight aboard Zero Gravity Corporation's Boeing 727.

"Stephen Hawking's flight to experience zero gravity is exciting. I
can say from flying hundreds of parabolas aboard NASA KC-135s myself
that the experience is eye-opening, exhilarating and personally
fulfilling. My own experiences primarily were participating in
research in space motion sickness and later, low-gravity accretion.
But it's the 21st century now, and I expect more and more scientists
to be conducting research in zero gravity, and even in space, as new
vehicles and venues for such research open.

"Space is as much a place for scientists, I believe, as the arctic,
Antarctic, and the deep ocean. And Dr. Hawking is showing the way.

"I want to extend my congratulations to him on his first taste of zero
gravity and offer my best wishes for the realization of his dream of
launching into space itself."

*****************************************************

Now, for those of you interested in 'vomit comet rides' - we covered parabolic flights, with the help of the Canadian Space Agency, plus a fair bit on the International Space Station, as well as looking at the two most recent 'space tourists'.

Last year Jon & I reported on parabolic flights last year, and also on Anousheh Ansari, the first woman to go into space who isn't an astronaut - she visited the International Space Station in October of 2006. Here is her space blog.


More recently I did part of an episode on the changeover of the ISS's crew (Expedition 14 going home and Expedition 15 just getting aboard), on ISS Flight engineer Sunita (Suni) Williams running the Boston marathon in while aboard the International Space Station, as well as a mention of Space Tourist (and ex-Microsoft star software engineer - he authored Outlook and Word, two programs used by many MANY people!). Simonyi's trip got an extra media boost from a couple of unusual things. One - he is Martha Stewart's boyfriend. Two - his multimedia blog, 'Charles in Space'.

In doing the research for that show I discovered that both Stewart and the Food Network's Emeril have been closet space cases - admiring the work of the astronauts and groups like NASA. So we took a bit of time to look at Emiril's contribution to life aboard the International Space Station: he sent a up Cajun & Creole food for ISS's crew, much to their delight. Because, as we also reported, in space, people's tastebuds don't work as they do on earth: prolonged microgravity dulls them! So the spiciness of Emiril's food was much appreciated by the astronauts.

Here is NASA's take on 'space food.'