New School

Image credit: NASA HQ

TOUCHDOWN: First thing this morning we watched a Soyuz capsule come floating back down to Earth, landing in a field of what appeared to be wheat. As much as I loved the shuttles, I must say, I love Love LOVE watching a capsule float down from space under the canopy of a parachute. I probably have a penchant for it due to childhood memories of Apollo mission splashdowns.

When I went to the Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup last November, Astronaut Doug Wheelock described the differences between taking off and landing in the shuttle vs. the Soyuz. He said takeoff in the capsule atop a rocket was a much smoother, less jarring experience than a shuttle launch. Conversely, the shuttle landings were super smooth, while the Soyuz capsule's controlled crash is less comfortable.

In the photo above, the capsule is obscured due to the dust generated when they hit the ground in a remote area outside the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.

It was interesting watching the ground crew extract the three astro/cosmonauts from the capsule. I couldn't help but compare it to a Cesarean section producting triplets.

The trio looked happy to be back on Earth after 165 days in space. In the NASA photo by Carla Cioffi, you can see Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank, left, Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov, center, and Anatoly Ivanishin sitting in chairs getting their land legs back.

In other NASA news, today shuttle Enterprise flew atop a specially outfitted Boeing 747 over New York City. Naturally, that operation made for some amazing photo opportunities. The pic below is by Robert Markowitz of NASA.

Though Enterprise never flew in space, it was a super important part of the shuttle program.  Constructed without engines or heat shields, it was the first orbiter built, and NASA astronauts used it for performing test flights in the atmosphere. It was originally going to be named Constitution, but a huge and effective letter writing campaign by Star Trek fans changed the course of history!

Leonard "Spock" Nimoy was on hand in 1976 when Enterprise was introduced and he was there in NYC today, to watch it touch down, flashing the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" salute. Excellent.

Enterprise was moved to New York to be installed in Manhattan's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in the not too distant future.

NEW SCHOOL: Today marked the start of a new adventure. For about a year I've been on the email list for the Family Learning Program at Southwest Teen Life Center in West Seattle (2801 SW Thistle, near Chief Sealth High School). I've always been interested in the FLP, but it just hadn't jibed with our schedule - until now.

When perusing their spring quarter offerings, I saw that there was a Bollywood dance class offered at the exact same time as a Scratch programming class, both on Friday mid morning, when we had no other commitments. So, I signed the kids up and today was the first day of school, so to speak.

 We went a little early to allow plenty of time for getting lost. Mercifully, we had no trouble finding the place, and what a place it is. Yet another stunning, enormous Seattle park. Straightaway we noticed eight brand new looking tennis courts - all empty. We happened to have our tennis gear in the car, so we killed 20 minutes playing some pretty bad tennis.

The classes were scheduled to start at 10:45, and so we headed in the community center a few minutes ahead of time. We found the gym, where Annabelle's class was going to be held, and the computer room, where CJ's programming class was going to get underway.

CJ's class was all boys about his age, and he fit right in. :)  Annabelle's class was a mix of boys and girls, with an age range of about 3 years or so, and they looked like they were having all sorts of fun. We already found out that the Bollywood group will be performing at the NW Folklife Festival on Friday, May 25 (!) and participating in a flash mob somewhere in Seattle on May 26. Exciting!

They both really liked their instructors and their classes. In fact, CJ said to me, "That class felt like it was just 15 minutes long!" High praise coming from him. (The class was actually an hour.)

After the classes, we checked out the two playgrounds on site.

We're already looking forward to next Friday!

YET ANOTHER: Late afternoon, we drove down to Columbia City so that Annabelle could participate in a yoga class with her favorite "old"/longtime instructor, Nicole Koleshis.

Nicole was leading a Next Generation Yoga class, teaching others how to teach yoga to children, and she needed some kids' age 5-7 as participants. Annabelle was a more than willing.

As we were leaving, she was raving about how much she enjoys Nicole and yoga class. As I've said here before, it's too bad that weekly activity has fallen by the wayside for the past several months due to scheduling conflicts.

TITANIC: Tonight we watched a two hour documentary on the History channel, Titanic at 100: Mystery Solved, about the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. It was fascinating and educational; the kids were completely rapt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYTHING: It was on this day, Apr 27, 4977 B.C., that the universe was created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler.