In observance of the 30th anniversary of NASA’s shuttle program, the announcement has finally been made. Space Shuttle Endeavour will spend her retirement in Southern California, on display in the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Are we worthy of such a gift?

Endeavour, also known as OV-105, will launch into space on April 29th for its final mission. STS-134 will deliver the  Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. This, in addition to STS-135 is considered to be a bonus flight, as the shuttle program was scheduled to be retired from service after STS-133.

Godspeed, Endeavour. We’ll see you soon.

 

On Monday February 16 and again on Tuesday February 24, if you are very lucky, there are no clouds and you are up before dawn (I’m looking at you Will Campbell), you may be able to see the Green Comet in the southwest sky. A telescope and/or binoculars might be a big help.

Comet Lulin (or Comet C/2007 N3 for you sticklers), discovered in 2007 by 19 year old student Quanzhi Ye in Taiwan, is green and might not be quite visible to the naked eye and there is a chance the bright LA basin will make it even harder to detect, but to see a green comet? Might be worth a go.

Read more about on Nasa’s Green Comet page.

Jump past the comet’s tail to see sky maps for both those pre-dawns.

 

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You have read the details from my earlier post about the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) that is going into space in May of this year. NASA wants to give GLAST a real name. I asked you to come up with some suggestions and now it’s time to vote.

The poll closes on Friday morning at which point I will take the top two and send them into NASA for consideration. We will get a certificate just for participating. Vote vote vote!

Three weeks ago I challenged you to come up with an LA-centric name for a Space Telescope, currently called GLAST, that will be launched into space in May. (Full recap of my earlier post here.) The brief recap from NASA:

GLAST is designed to probe the most violent events and exotic objects in the cosmos from gamma-ray bursts to black holes and beyond. “We’re looking for suggestions that will capture the excitement of GLAST’s mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy,” says Alan Stern, associate administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. “We hope someone will come up with a name that is catchy, easy to say and will help make the satellite and its mission a topic of dinner table and classroom discussion.”

We have until March 31st to send in a name for consideration. And remember, we get a certificate just for participating! To see suggestions already made, click on through to the other side.

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