Godspeed, John Glenn!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5soUes2-LrU&w=466&h=346]

50 years ago, today.

Friday Flyover. (Looking Down From Space At Storms Over Africa.)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxH3Pnknhps]

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station, over a 15-minute period Dec. 29. The space station is passing over central Africa, near southeastern Niger, toward the south Indian Ocean and Madagascar.

The View From Space.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/32001208 w=465&h=262]

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa and the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011.

Via Open Culture.

Amazing Video From A High Flying Rocket, 121,000' in 92 Seconds.

Derek Deville's “Qu8k” blasted into the sky on September 30th from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. It climbed to 121,000 feet in 92 seconds. It took some stunning video along the way. Yeah, I know, the video is close to 17 minutes, but it's worth watching. Prepared to be amazed.

Hat tip to PopSci.

Maps On Monday. The Salinity Of The Oceans.

Aquarius has produced its first map of global ocean salinity. The map is a composite of the first two and a half weeks of data since the instrument became operational on August 25. Yellow and red colors represent areas of higher salinity, with blues and purples indicating areas of lower salinity.

Aquarius is a focused effort to measure Sea Surface Salinity and will provide the global view of salinity variability needed for climate studies. The mission is a collaboration between NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales).

Friday Flyover: The End Of An Era With The Launch Of Atlantis.

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."—President John F. Kennedy, Joint Session of Congress, May 25, 1961

Moon.

Galileo’s first diagrams of the moon.

Via Neutral Notes.

Science On Sunday. Spectacular Saturn Fly-Through.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/11386048 w=466&h=262]

5.6k Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation from stephen v2 on Vimeo.

Stephen van Vuuren - "This is fly-through of this photograph - photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/​catalog/​PIA11141 - only a little brightness and contrast has been made to balance the moons with saturn's body. Do note that several thousand layers of many Cassini photographs were animated to make the fly-through work without any 3D CGI. The saturation is off due to lack of Flash Player ICM support."

Via, one of the most interesting bloggers around, Ole Eichhorn.

A Room With A View

...and what a view!

Photos by Col. Doug Wheelock aboard the International Space Station.
The good Colonel sends photos back regularly via his twitter account @Astro_Wheels