STS-133 Flight Day 7 Planned Activities

10:23 GMT (5:23 am EST) ? Discovery / ISS Crew Wake Up (begins FD 7)
12:13 GMT (7:13 am EST) ? EVA #2 Preparations Resume
15:18 GMT (10:18 am EST) ? EVA #2 Begins (Bowen And Drew)
16:48 GMT (11:48 am EST) ? LWAPA Retrieval And Replacement
16:48 GMT (11:48 am EST) ? ELC-4 Thermal Insulation Removal
17:38 GMT (12:38 pm EST) ? P3 CETA Light Installation
17:48 GMT (12:48 pm EST) ? Dextre Camera Light Pan And Tilt Assembly Installation
18:58 GMT (1:58 pm EST) ? P1 Radiator Trou [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25060/sts-133-flight-day-7-planned-activities.html

Dark matter is alive and well, thankyouverymuch

I get email press releases from various sources, and a recent one had the subject line "Prediction of Modified Gravity Theory Confirmed". I couldn’t help it; I literally snorted a bit. Modified Newtonian Dynamics (or MOND) — basically, theoretically tweaking the strength of gravity on large scales — is an attempt to circumvent the need to use dark matter to explain some things going on in the Universe, and in my opinion is interesting but unnecessary.

Why?

Well, as those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I just spent 20 out of the past 24 hours traveling from Florida back home to Boulder (next trip I’ll just ride my bike to save time) so I’m pretty exhausted. But happily, my fellow Hive Overmind Discover Magazine blogger Sean Carroll — who’s a real life cosmologist and stuff — takes this issue head-on and shows why the so-called MOND idea really doesn’t work.

Sean goes into lots of detail, but really, for an observer like me, it boils down to two words: "Bullet Cluster" (scroll down to #4 on that page). Until they can explain this, there’s no reason to even worry about ...

Full story at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/oBWvrcrjqUU/

STS-133 Astronauts Conduct Spacewalk

Discovery spacewalkers wrapped up a six-hour, 34-minute spacewalk Monday, moving a failed 800-pound ammonia pump module, installing an extension cable and extending the rail track along the International Space Station?s main truss.

Mission Specialists Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew also moved a pump module vent tool, installed a camera wedge, relocated a tool stanchion and worked with a Japanese project to bring a bit of space back to Earth.

After the spacewalk, spacecraft communicator Sta [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25044/sts-133-astronauts-conduct-spacewalk.html

Virgin Galactic to Fly Scientists to Space

Virgin Galactic Announces World?s First Commercial Contracts to Send Researchers to Space

Sir Richard Branson?s Virgin Galactic, LLC, the world?s first commercial spaceline, announced today the first ever commercial contracts to fly scientists into space for the purpose of conducting research experiments.

Virgin Galactic?s signed contract with the Southwest Research Institute is the first such agreement to fly scientists into space (over 100 kilometers or 328,000 feet above the E [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25047/virgin-galactic-to-fly-scientists-to-space.html

STS-133 Flight Day 6 Planned Activities

10:53 GMT (5:53 am EST) ? Discovery / ISS Crew Wake Up (begins FD 6)
13:08 GMT (8:08 am EST) ? SSRMS Grapple Of PMM
13:43 GMT (8:43 am EST) ? PMM Unberth
13:58 GMT (8:58 am EST) ? Discovery / ISS Transfers Resume
14:48 GMT (9:48 am EST) ? PMM Installation Begins On Unity Nadir Port
15:38 GMT (10:38 am EST) ? PMM Installation Complete
17:38 GMT (12:38 pm EST) ? PMM Vestibule Pressurization Begins
21:23 GMT (4:23 pm EST) ? KING-TV / KTRK-TV / KOMO-TV Live Interviews
22:18 G [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25049/sts-133-flight-day-6-planned-activities.html

Indexed takes on antivaxxers

Jessica Hagy has a terrific website called Indexed, where she uses simple, hand-drawn charts and Venn diagrams to make some pithy point in a funny way. She’s tackles all kinds of topics, and recently, to my heart’s delight, made a very simple point about vaccines:

Yup. Hard to be any more succinct than that.

[Speaking of succinct points, check out a strip from last week's Frazz webcomic, sent to me by my brother Sid.]

Related posts:

- Index card of truth

- The intersection of pareidolia

- Getting sick of Jenny McCarthy

- I got shot

Full story at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/DNJ5zJ5jDt4/

Shuttle and Station Crews Working Together

Moving equipment and supplies between Discovery and the International Space Station, robotics activities and preparation for Monday?s 6.5-hour spacewalk kept shuttle and station astronauts busy much of Sunday.

Transfer activities began during the crews? morning. About 2,000 pounds of cargo was brought to the station on Discovery?s middeck, and about 2,600 pounds is to be returned to Earth by the shuttle.

STS-133 Mission Specialists Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen configured tools for th [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25036/shuttle-and-station-crews-working-together.html

This Week On The Space Show

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week:

1. Monday, February 28, 2011, 6:30-7:30 PM PST (March 1, 2:30-3:30 GMT)
Live from the Next Gen Suborbital Conference in Orlando, Florida David McBride, Director of NASA Dryden Spaceflight Center where CRuSR is managed and Dr. Alan Stern, NSRC conference organizer.
Dr. Alan Stern is a planetary scientist, space program executive, consultant, and author. He is serving as an Associa [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25039/this-week-on-the-space-show.html