All posts tagged: Nasa

ISS International Space Station

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image credit:  NASA   Facilities around the world support the operation and management of the International Space Station.    The United States., Russia, Canada, Japan, and the participating countries of the European Space Agency launched the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998. It is the largest space station ever constructed. Additions continue to be assembled in orbit. Astronauts from 15 countries have visited the ISS to date. It is a growing international collaboration. For more information about the International Space Station check here. Follow The International Space Station on Facebook. To view the ISS in the night sky check NASA Skywatch Sightings at Spot the Station videos from the ISS and a musical about the ISS can be found at the ISS Video Library Search for the video Story Time from Space Story Time From Space video can also be found on Youtube Story Time from Space a non-profit education foundation NASA Kids’ Club PBS list of Space Books  

Mamoru Mohri, Japan’s First Astronaut

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image credit:  NASA Mamoru Mohri (spelling used on NASA site) was Japan’s first astronaut on STS-47, Spacelab-J, a cooperative venture between the United States and Japan, September 12-20, 1992. The crew conducted 44 experiments in life sciences and materials processing. Astronaut Mohri  performed experiments that were televised to children in classrooms in Japan. From Feb. 11-22, 2000, he was a mission specialist as part of the international crew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-99. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission mapped more than 47 million miles of the Earth’s land surface. In an interview with Tokyo Weekender in 2001, he was asked about the inspiration for televising experiments to classrooms. He said he included the educational program as a tribute to Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space who perished in the NASA Challenger tragedy in 1986. Astronaut Mohri’s first televised experiment was a demonstration of weightlessness of an apple because Christa McAuliffe used an apple in her logo for her space classroom and in her NASA patch. Mamoru Mohri is now the director of the National …

Chiaki Mukai, Japan’s First Woman Astronaut

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image credit :  NASA Chiaki Mukai was selected as a payload specialist for the International Microgravity Laboratory on board the space shuttle Columbia in July 1994. She became the first woman Japanese astronaut. During her second flight in 1998, she served on board the Discovery with John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth (1962). He said Mukai had “more energy than anyone I know of.” On the seventh day on Discovery, during a conversation with Japan’s Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Yutaka Takeyama, the head of the Science and Technology Agency by communication link, Chiaki Mukai read a poem that she had written about being in space: chuugaeri                                                                                                                                             nandomo dekiru                                                                                                                            mujuuryoku weightlessness                                                                                                                                 turn space somersaults                                                                                                                       as many times as I like (translation from JAXA site) The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) asked the Japanese public to think of two lines with seven syllables to finish her poem making it a tanka with an overall rhythm of 5-7-5-7-7. NASDA also asked the public to come up with a name for her teddy …

Space View of New York City on September 11, 2001

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image and text credit:  NASA Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else,” said Station Commander Frank Culbertson of Expedition 3, after the terrorists’ attacks. The following day, he posted a public letter that captured his initial thoughts of the events as they unfolded. “The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked.” Upon further reflection, Culbertson said, “It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting …