Truemors
MOSCOW (Reuters) - An unmanned Russian Progress supply
vessel docked with the orbiting International Space Station
(ISS) on Wednesday to deliver fresh food, water, fuel,
equipment and holiday presents for the crew.
News like this never fails to give me goosebumps. Think about it - while we're all working away at our jobs, this truly amazing event is happening far above us in space - and has been happening for decades.
Space ships come and go, bringing much needed supplies to those living in space and (for the most part,) we don't even give this a thought, unless we read it in the newspapers, or see it on television.
Other than using "warp drive" or having the ability to "cloak" our space vehicles, we've stepped beyond "Star Trek" into unknown territory. Yes, yours truly is a "Trekkie."
The Voxant Newsroom (via Xinhua News Agency) reports:
Russian
cargo spacecraft sunk in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, ending a
month-long journey back to the Earth after undocking with the
International Space Station (ISS)
As you can imagine, the ISS is
beyond enormous. It is the boldest move in collaborative, technological
progress in the history of our planet.
The project is led by the United States, but has the benefits of the scientific (and technological) advances of sixteen nations - though how they ever got sixteen nations to unanimously agree on anything is beyond my understanding.
The Russian supply vehicle, known by the name of Progress M-62 was launched from Russian-operated Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Sunday, December 23rd, at 2:112am EST.
The ISS is manned by only three crew members as part of Expedition 16; Yuri Malechenko (cosmonaut,) Peggy Witson (astronaut,) and Daniel Tali (?)
[q
url="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition16/p27_docking.html"]The
station's 27th Progress unpiloted spacecraft brings to the orbiting
laboratory more than 1,900 pounds of propellant, more than 100 pounds
of oxygen and 2,921 pounds of dry cargo. Total cargo weight is 4,949
pounds. [/q]
It's then going to return to Earth filled with trash and other station
discards, which will be undocked from the station and deorbited to burn
in the Earth's atmosphere.
And we never give the fact that this
happens over and over, a thought.
Source:
Nasa
BBC News Online
Voxant News Room
Reuters UK
Reuters/NASA Handout
© Reuters2008All rights reserved.
Byline: Chris Baldwin.
Image Source:
Nasa
Reuters UK
International Space Station
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