Space Cases

Image Credit:  NASA/Joel Kowsky
LIFT OFF:  See that streak in the sky? It's three humans rocketing toward space.

Specifically, it's Expedition 40 flight engineers on their way to the International Space Station, a six-hour, four-orbit trek.

On board are (top to bottom) NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst of Germany, and cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency.

 Image Credit:  NASA/Joel Kowsky

The trio are scheduled to remain on board through the end of November.

They blasted off at 3:57 a.m. from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Conveniently for us, that meant a 12:57 p.m. Pacific time lift off time, just a couple minutes before the kids' science class.  I brought the NASA TV coverage up on a laptop and as the kids were arriving for class, they got to see the launch.

They had great questions. I was surprised when one boy started asking questions about Skylab. I surprised myself by actually knowing the answers about when it flew, what year it fell onto Australia, and the serious damage it had to its solar array and a solar heat shield during launch. (Thank goodness we've met a couple of Skylab astronauts who shared those stories with us, and they stuck!)

Another kid mentioned icy relations between Russia and the United States at the present and seemed surprised an astronaut and a cosmonaut were sharing a rocket ride. I told him that despite differences on the ground, in space it's still the International Space Station and we have to work together up there.

When the NASA coverage showed the men in the cockpit, on their way to orbit, I pointed out the stuffed animal (a giraffe) suspended by a string. I told the kids that those astronauts have children about their age, and that the animal was a gift from the NASA astronaut's kids, and that it's a tradition for astronauts to use an item hanging on a string to let them know when they've escaped the majority of Earth's gravity, as the item will start floating. I made sure to tell them, however, that space is NOT gravity free as people so often say. There's not ZERO gravity in space, there's micro-gravity. Important difference.

After the launch, the kids had to take their final exam on the electricity and magnetism unit they just completed. 

During dinnertime, we watched the Soyuz capsule dock with the ISS. 

Speaking of the Soyuz, check out this great video by the European Space Agency. It's all about the Soyuz's launch sequence. 

And because we hadn't had our fill of space stuff, after the Soyuz docking, we watched NASA coverage of Morpheus' first night flight! Morpheus is a prototype planetary lander and testbed for advanced spacecraft technologies and Autonomous Landing & Hazard Avoidance Technology, based out of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

photo: Project Morpheus @MorpheusLander/NASA

POET LAUREATE: The first news I heard this morning concerned the passing of Maya Angelou.

The 86 year old led a long and remarkable life, and was/is the nation's most famous contemporary female poet. 

Like so many, I'm pretty sure the first place I heard of Angelou was from Oprah Winfrey. But the thing I remember most about her was her amazing poem "On the Pulse of Morning," which she read at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration. 

video: Courtesy; William J. Clinton Presidential Library
Before playing it for them, I didn't say anything to the kids, who were sitting across the room and couldn't even see the screen. They just heard the poem.

Afterward, Annabelle remarked about the repetition in it. I told her that was to make clear the theme. 

CJ said, "Based on that poem, think it means a new political right (as in civil rights)."  I think he had it exactly right. Even the poem's title speaks to that. 

NEW MOON: Thanks to the daily email I receive from Earth Sky news, I learned that today marks the new moon. I immediately asked the kids if they knew what that meant. I was surprised when Annabelle piped up with, "It's the very opposite of a full moon. It's when the moon cannot be seen at all."

Good for her, that's pretty spot on. On the day of the new moon, Luna is transitioning from the morning to evening sky, and right now the sun and moon are on the same side of Earth in space, the moon rising with the sun and setting with it, as well, meaning few. (During a full moon, the sun and moon are on opposite sides of Earth.)  

MISSION COMPLETE: Today, the kids finished a months-long math game at their once-a-week school called "Space Quest." They had to solve a pair of story problems each week, roll dice and proceed on a space adventure, battling aliens, asteroids, and other hazards on their journey to a home base. Their progress was tracked in a "Captain's Log," and today, they each reached home. 

WELL THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG: About 7:30 this morning we read with great interest that LeVar Burton had just launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring back "Reading Rainbow," a great children's television show about books'n'stuff. This go 'round, Reading Rainbow will be presented as a Web-based program, as opposed to a Public Television program, as it was in its first incarnation, from 1983 to 2006. (It won 26 Emmy awards during that timespan!) 

RR's Kickstarter goal was to reach $1,000,000 by July 2. All those kids who grew up with Reading Rainbow helped the word spread like wildfire over social media today and by dinnertime tonight, Burton and Co.'s goal had been surpassed!