Posts Tagged spaceflight
High-Flying
Posted by Danielle in Books & Literature, News & Happenings, Picspam on June 18, 2010
I’ve seen and heard snippets of this poem, but never read it in entirety before this week. It is a beautiful thing. (Hat tip to John C. Wright for posting it!) It seems to fit well with this lovely launch photo — the rocket in question delivered three individuals into orbit on Wednesday, and to the ISS yesterday.
High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds…and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of…wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Falcon Rising
Posted by Danielle in News & Happenings, Picspam on June 7, 2010

Credit: SpaceX/Chris Thompson
This is but one of many spectacular photos of SpaceX’s successful first launch of the Falcon 9 rocket:
At 2:45 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 4, 2010, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully launched its first Falcon 9 rocket from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The inaugural liftoff, which placed a mockup of the company’s Dragon crew and cargo spacecraft into orbit, came on the second launch attempt of the day after a last-second scrub.
“We put our Falcon 9 rocket into orbit, it achieved a near bullseye on the target. We would have been excited even to have the first stage work or get some of the way through the second stage burn,” said SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. “It has been a great day.”
Let us hope this heralds the dawn of a bright new era of commercial spaceflight. (Thanks to collectSPACE/Robert Z. Pearlman for the lovely photo gallery!)
Buran
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives, Picspam on June 1, 2010

All photos © drugoi @ LiveJournal.
For many years, I’ve been drawn to the Soviet space program, with its secrets, politically-creative explanations, and dreams as big as the motherland. The more that is declassified, researched, written about and digested by me, the more fascinated I get. How could such ambitions and technical advances fall so short, or be abandoned so suddenly?
Needless to say, when I found this photographic tour of the Buran assembly facilities and launch fields, I was utterly engrossed. These images — I’ve selected but a few — are amazing in scale, in scope, and in the end, are so poignant and sad. It breaks my heart to see such large-scale efforts rusting, abandoned in place. (Why have two launch pads, when you can have four, or more?) And to know that the one Buran orbiter that touched space was destroyed, when the assembly facility’s roof collapsed in 2002.

The program is long-dead, but test-mockup Buran lives on (and is viewable, and tourable.) And thanks to the dedication of this photographer, one gets a small glimpse into the sheer scale, the magnitude, of sending an earthbound vessel into space. It takes a lot of hardware.

I see these images, and my heart cries out, “such wondrous dreams were here!”

For full effect, you really need to see the rest here, and you can get a fairly decent translation through Babelfish (Buran means “snow-storm”, so if you see that in quotes a lot, that’s why.)
Another Science Fiction
Posted by Danielle in Advertising & Media, Books & Literature on March 16, 2010
When I was contemplating starting a “space and culture” blog back in 2006 (Common Themes, which became this blog you see here), one of my inspirations was “Space Age” advertisements from the 1950s-1970s. I have a collection of advertising books from those decades, and a copy of Science Magazine with the initial moon rock findings from Apollo 11 (basically, LPSC #1) with some spectacular examples of horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing, white-lab-coat-sporting scientists forging ahead in the name of PROGRESS. I love this stuff. I have a whole category here for advertising, because it’s just so darn fun.
I love the “future that never was” because hey, that future was pretty exciting, and a lot more optimistic than the grim realities of what’s happening right now at NASA. In fact, the “new vision” is so nebulous that one might say we don’t have a future in spaceflight at the moment. That may change, and certainly I hope it does… in the mean time, I have shelves of classic and modern science fiction to keep me dreaming.
Anyway, last week I was pointed to a fantastic upcoming book by two Twitter friends, linking to two separate, high-profile interviews and reviews — this author has a savvy publicist!! — and all I could think was, “at last, someone wrote a book FOR ME!” This book is Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962 by Megan Prelinger. I must own this book, forthwith. Or, well, forthwith upon release.

From “Another Science Fiction”
I missed out on Apollo completely, and even most sci-fi I read was written before I was born. I long for the Space Age, having never experienced it personally. I’m a child of the Space Shuttle, and my era is ending, with nothing to replace it (on NASA’s part; full well I know that the next era will most likely be commercial, and I embrace that future with open arms. Maybe I’ll even get to go somewhere in my lifetime. Viva la space tourist!)
Which is all a really long way of saying, I really look forward to Another Science Fiction, and I can already tell I’ll be loving it from cover to cover. Preorder it on Amazon — it comes out on May 1st!
By purchasing this book through my links, I may possibly get an Amazon Affiliates payout… in another year or two. For more information, click here.
To The Stars!
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture, Books & Literature on February 12, 2010

First Spaceship on Venus (from the 1960 East Germany/Poland film)
Handpicking a few — just a few — from Dark Roasted Blend’s latest installment of their “Retro Future: To the Stars!” series of fantastic retro space art.
These three are my favorites from this round; I find the space cowboys especially charming:
Paper Astronaut
Posted by Danielle in Books & Literature, Children's Items on December 11, 2009
I found this little gem over in the craft section of the nearest Barnes & Noble. Paper Astronaut: The Paper Spacecraft Mission Manual is packed full of information, with some punch-outs in the back to assemble various spacecraft. I was surprised by how much of the book was info, and how relatively little of it was craft materials — it’s even got a foreword by Buzz Aldrin! It certainly wasn’t what I expected to find in the collage and papercraft section, and I’m delighted by how educational it is (speaking from experience with space-themed origami books and the like.)
This review sums it up pretty well:
“By the time you’re finished assembling paper models of spacecraft from the book’s meticulously die-cut blueprints, you’ll be intimately familiar with many of the details of 20 different iconic spacecraft, as well as the broad arc of space exploration history and the basic principles of spaceflight. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s certainly a blast.” ~SeedMagazine.com
I don’t often plug things so heavily, but if I had a little space cadet, I’d be buying them this for Christmas. It utterly charmed me — a delightful gift for any age!
Heavenly Craft
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on November 24, 2009
I owe Sci-Fi-O-Rama a lot for introducing me to the artwork of Chris Foss. It’s fantastic stuff, I couldn’t pick a favorite if I tried!
Book of Space Adventures
Posted by Danielle in Books & Literature on November 23, 2009
Another interesting find, hat tip to Etherbrian for sharing! :D
50 Years of Space Exploration
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives, Picspam on October 14, 2009
Found this amazing graphic on this blog, a map by National Geographic (which has it as a Flash-based thing; the image above links to a much larger image for your downloading pleasure.)
Silver Rockets
Posted by Danielle in Computer & Internet, Site on September 25, 2009
This awesome image is from deviantART — it encapsulates what I’m hoping to do with my new (ma)gnolia group, Silver Rockets:
Celebrating the awe and inspiration surrounding space exploration, human spaceflight and the great beyond. Science and art, fiction and non-fiction, poetry and latest news — welcoming both the dreams and realities of space. Come one, come all!
(Sounds similar to what I do here, I know — this is a way for me to add more links, things not so easily blogged, and hopefully more often than once a day, though I can’t promise that.)
Anyway, my links should be varied and interesting (I hope!), so if you’re a new ma.gnolia user, or an old one that has JUST NOW learned of the relaunch (go sign up!!), please join the group! (You’ll be glad you did!) And if you’ve NEVER heard of (ma)gnolia, it is a social linking tool — somewhat like Delicious — except infinitely more streamlined, sophisticated and elegant.









This blog celebrates space exploration, human spaceflight and the heavens, through
My name is Danielle Signor, and I am a space cadet.


