** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Apollo Moon Rocket Engines Raised from Seafloor by Amazon CEO.

Long thought to be lost forever on the ocean floor, massive engines that launched astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago have been recovered by a private expedition led by the founder of Amazon.com.

apollo-11-f1-engine-thrust-chamber-seabed.jpg


http://www.space.com/20317-apollo-moon-rocket-engines-bezos.html
 
The space station will be busy with departure and arrival this week:

SpaceX Dragon is now scheduled to depart the station tomorrow at 10:56 GMT (06:56 EDT) and splashdown at 16:43 GMT around 246 miles off the coast of Baja California.

Expedition 35/36, Soyuz TMA-08M, is set for launch on Thursday at 20:43 GMT (16:43 EDT). Docking is expected at 02:32 GMT on Friday. This will be the first time a six hour flight with a crew will be attempted.
 
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No for something different....

Space Station photographers armed with their Nikons on the ISS today just before the release of SpaceX Dragon:

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Excuse the quality but these were snapshots from the livestream. :)

Nikon products kept aboard the ISS

•1 Nikon D3S digital-SLR camera: Delivered to the ISS via the Discovery with Space Shuttle mission STS-131, which returned on April 20, 2010. Images are primarily those of the surface of the earth and nighttime scenes. Standard consumer product (no modifications).
•8 Nikon D2XS digital-SLR cameras: Modified according to NASA specifications for recording extravehicular activities (EVA)
•36 NIKKOR lenses (including three teleconverters)
•7 SB-800 Speedlights
•4 D2XS eyepieces: Eyepieces made exclusively for NASA Special eyepiece viewfinders that enable image framing and verification through a space helmet with extravehicular activities.
•Miscellaneous (filters, cables, etc.)
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Expedition 35/36, Soyuz TMA-08M, on the pad:

expedition351.jpg

Launch is set for 20:43 GMT (16:43 EDT) and docking is expected at 02:32 GMT.
 
Decided to watch it last night because I haven't been able to watch many recently. Surprised the internet here kept up!

Always nice to watch a live launch :)
 
Sim man / other space enthusiasts, I need your help :).

I visited the observatory in Kielder a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Sadly it was cloudy and snowing so not much star-gazing, so instead we had an introduction to astronomy and astrophysics which I found really interesting.

Does anyone have any personal recommendations for a book to get me started in astrophysics and astronomy? I know the info will be freely available online, but it's not the same as a good book :).

Cheers!
 
Kazz said:
Sim man / other space enthusiasts, I need your help :).

I visited the observatory in Kielder a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Sadly it was cloudy and snowing so not much star-gazing, so instead we had an introduction to astronomy and astrophysics which I found really interesting.

Does anyone have any personal recommendations for a book to get me started in astrophysics and astronomy? I know the info will be freely available online, but it's not the same as a good book :).

Cheers!
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If you're just starting to get interested the more popular books are a great read, such as:

A Brief History of Time
The Universe in a nutshell
The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe
And most other books by Stephen Hawking!
COSMOS (If you get the book, make sure you see the TV series too, amazing)
Pale Blue Dot
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
The Wonders Series

They're the ones I hear most about for a good read and good start into the subject :)
 
Thanks for reply.

I've looked at a few critic reviews of the Stephen Hawking books, and while they seem to be definitive guides to how things work, they're not great at explaining it to newcomers like myself :). Cosmos on the other hand seems much more easily digestible, think I'll go with that one.

I also spotted "How to destroy the universe and 34 other really interesting uses of physics" by Paul Parsons which looks like a different way to explain things :).
 
Packing for mars is a really interesting and space flight orientated rather than general physics.

http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/0393339912
Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.
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It's about all the perceived and actual issues with space flight on the human body, as well as stories from different astronaught a, recruitment selection process, and her own stories from her travels to different space agencies and even vomit comit. Covers from earlist pt high altitude ballon to ISS and some of the crazy purposals for mars, like ediable spaceships.

It really is a fascinating read.

General physics, parallel worlds by Michio Kaku
http://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Worl...F8&qid=1365079152&sr=1-4&keywords=Michio+Kaku
In this thrilling journey into the mysteries of our cosmos, bestselling author Michio Kaku takes us on a dizzying ride to explore black holes and time machines, multidimensional space and, most tantalizing of all, the possibility that parallel universes may lay alongside our own. Kaku skillfully guides us through the latest innovations in string theory and its latest iteration, M-theory, which posits that our universe may be just one in an endless multiverse, a singular bubble floating in a sea of infinite bubble universes. If M-theory is proven correct, we may perhaps finally find answer to the question, “What happened before the big bang?” This is an exciting and unforgettable introduction into the new cutting-edge theories of physics and cosmology from one of the pre-eminent voices in the field.
Click to expand...
 
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