On this record-setting day for commercial astronautics, we have also lost one of the Original Seven.

Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. passed away today at the age of 77.

Here's his spacesuit from Mercury 9, worn aboard the Faith 7 capsule, now located at the Astronaut Hall of Fame near Kennedy Space Center, Florida.I took this photo on our recent anniversary trip with my wife. If you take the Kennedy Space Center tour, it's worth the extra amount to include the Astronaut Hall of Fame. I loved the G-Force trainer, and all of the exhibits!

Gordo had The Right Stuff. When asked who was the greatest fighter pilot he ever saw, Cooper answered, "You're looking at him!"

Godspeed, Mr. Cooper.

Fellow blogger Kirk has already documented this achievement, but I also would like to pass along my congratulations to the crew of SpaceShipOne on winning the X-Prize!

Full details available here: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/xprize_full_coverage.html.

Not to belittle this great achievement, but they should've required at least one Earth orbit at that altitude to claim the prize. The craft was also not built with a docking ring to verify that it could ferry someone up to the ISS or some other space station.

Now someone needs to take the $50 million America's Space Prize challenge to truly bring tourism to space! The new prize stipulates bringing seven into space, as opposed to three.

I'd give anything to be Astronaut Mike Fincke (Ham call sign: KE5AIT) right now.

Check out some of his amazing photos of Hurricane Frances and Ivan from the International Space Station at: http://www1.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/frances_ISS.html.

This one is particularly amazing: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-9/html/iss009e22187.html

Studying weather from space has got to be my ultimate dream job!

!=

Doh!

Thankfully it's not the Genesis Device from Star Trek II and III or we'd all be protomatter...

The Genesis project gave new meaning to the name "Dugway Proving Ground" in Utah, as it "dug way" down into the Proving Ground after its two parachutes failed to open during re-entry today. The full report can be found at: http://www.space.com/news/genesis_captured_040908.html

At $260 million, it is disappointing to be sure. Too bad the shuttle fleet is still down, or they could've inserted it into a retrieval orbit for one of the shuttles to grab, without risking the chute failure...

This has been spotted in orbit around Saturn!
Good thing it's the moon, Mimas...

The real story can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia05423.html (2004-07-27 13:00:55.0) Permalink See also: Space

Unfortunately, I was born too late. Too late to be involved in the historic Apollo program. Too late to even remember seeing any of the final missions on TV...

There is a great feature on the Apollo 11 program at: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/apollo11_35th.html.

You can also check out this cool site: http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_gallery.html Which features digital pictures:

a result of recent work by Johnson Space Center to digitally scan original Apollo film. The process involves removing each original film roll from a double-freezer, allowing it to thaw, then digitally scanning each frame using an Oxberry adapted HR-500 long roll film scanner.

I've been to Kennedy Space Center twice now, and it chokes me up every time I go there.

I still hope to work for NASA some day. I think the xml.nasa.gov project would be a great fit!

Today, Cassini became the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit.

Primary Mission: Four-year tour to study Saturn, its rings, moons and magnetosphere

Launch: October 15, 1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

Arrival at Saturn: July 1, 2004 (Eastern time)

Distance Traveled: 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km)

Huygens probe Titan descent: January 14, 2005

More info available from the NASA site: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

I would guess they aren't using Java on this one, though, since it launched in 1997...

SpaceShipOne and Mike Melvill completed their historic Private Manned Spaceflight today. Congratulations! Now they just need to launch three passengers into sub-orbital space, return them safely home, then repeat the launch within two weeks with the same vehicle.

If you guys still need that third passenger, please let me know...

I can't wait for the space tourism industry to blossom. I certainly plan to be onboard when the price is right!