Orionids Meteor Shower

	NASA (@NASA)
10/19/12, 5:32 PM Looking up tomorrow night as the October sky brightens with Orionid meteor shower? Join our chat & watch the sky: go.nasa.gov/OPo8C4

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." 

-Seneca circa 40AD

Tweet from Camilla Corona SDO (@Camilla_SDO)

	Camilla Corona SDO (@Camilla_SDO)
10/16/12, 1:10 AM Impressive timelaps movie of #Endavour #SpotTheShuttle 's last journey owl.li/evkRS

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Michael Wilkinson

Fieldston Lower Math-Sci

"Is your mind open?"

-P Erdos

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." 

-Seneca circa 40AD

7 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars Landing | Video

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Technology Behind NASA's 'Curiosity' Landing

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47JanXuYlNo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Attitude Adjustment @MarsCuriosity, 7/18/12 9:27 PM

Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) 7/18/12 9:27 PM Guess who just got an "attitude adjustment"? My mood's fine; I needed to reposition my medium-gain antenna for Earth communication.

SpaceFest July 18-22

SAMSUNG SpaceFest, a 5-day festival, will celebrate the opening of Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum's Space Shuttle Pavilion, and its newly acquired Space Shuttle Enterprise. The festival kicks off the night of Wednesday, July 18, with a free concert on Intrepid's Flight Deck. Intrepid's free Summer Movies Series continues with Star Trek, Friday, July 20.

From Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22, NASA will present over three dozen exhibits, displays, and educational demonstrations honoring aeronautics and space exploration past, present and future. Visitors to the Museum Complex will be able to learn about current missions in earth and space science, the rockets destined to take humans to explore the solar system, and the NASA research improving and enhancing aeronautics. The new Space Shuttle Pavilion will open to the public on Thursday, July 19 following a Grand Opening Ceremony. This exciting 5-day event will also provide an opportunity for guests to meet and mingle with a number of current and former astronauts.

Link to Schedule of Events

Shuttle Enterprise

This week marks the Grand Opening of the new Space Shuttle Pavilion at the Interpid Sea, Air & Space Museum in NYC. The museum has several days of special activities planned to celebrate the new acquisition. Check out the schedule, including astronaut meet & greets. I hope to visit the new exhibit to see OV-101 Enterprise in her new home. Earlier this spring, my family and I were able to be a part of the arrival flight of OV-101 and SCA-905 at JFK Airport. It was a thrilling day to see Enterprise in flight as I first saw her more than thirty years ago as I watched the broadcasts from Edwards AFB. While it is always a thrill to see these special spacecraft close up, it is even more thrilling to see them "alive" doing what they were designed to do. While I couldn't bring my students to the airport for the arrival, they were treated to a double pass directly overhead of the school as SCA-905 flew its pattern up the Hudson River to the Tappan Zee and returned for final approach to JFK.

Here are a few photos of that special day.

OV-101 and SCA-905 on Approach
@mwilkinson3

OV-101 and SCA-905 Flyby Beauty Shot
@mwilkinson3

OV-101 and SCA-905 makes turn for Final Approach
@mwilkinson3

OV-101 and SCA-905 Triumphal Arrival
@mwilkinson3

OV-101 and SCA-905 Head On
@mwilkinson3

SCA-905 Pilots Salute
@mwilkinson3

Badges of SCA-905 Missions
@mwilkinson3

SCA-905 Pilots
@mwilkinson3

@mwilkinson3 with "the girls"
photo by @LaurenAlloyce

OV-101 Space Shuttle Enterprise was designed as a full-scale prototype to test and refine reentry and landing procedures and technologies. Some say, "she's not a real shuttle," but I strongly disagree. While Enterprise did not fly in space and has no engines of her own, she is in every other sense a real space shuttle, without which the other five (Challenger, Columbia, Endeavor, Discover & Atlantis) would never have been realized. This is the shuttle that ignited my imagination as a boy. This is the shuttle that made the last incredible 30 years of human space flight possible. This is the shuttle that made it possible to build the International Space Station. Enterprise, I salute you and look forward to my next visit in person.