Next week, the international forum uniting generations, "The Guardians of Earth," is bringing together high school students ages 14-17 from around the world to share their ideas for protecting Earth with astronauts, cosmonauts, scholars and each other. This is another example of why you don’t have to be in orbit to have the orbital perspective, Based on the belief that ...Keep Reading
What are you doing on Friday, July 20, 2012? On behalf of the Fragile Oasis team, I invite you to roll up your sleeves and Do 1 Thing to make life better on this planet we call home. July 20th is a special day in the history of humankind. We celebrate the day 43 years ago when two of the ...Keep Reading
Our time of solitude is rapidly coming to an end. Our new crew mates successfully launched very early this morning. With the 2 days they spend in autonomous flight to reach us, they will arrive around 4:00am GMT on July 17. All of the preparations have been made for their arrival. Since it was not too long ago that I ...Keep Reading
It is hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by. My lack of blogging is directly proportional to how busy things have been. As I write this, I am one of the three people on the ISS and the only American. It is pretty cool. The other three members of Expedition 31 went home last Sunday morning with ...Keep Reading
In the meantime, Yuri, Aki and I got our haircuts - a tradition before launch. The prime crew is not allowed to go to the Soyuz rollout, but all our family and friends were there on a gorgeous Kazakh morning!!!! Agat is up, hair is down. Editor's note: Agat is the Soyuz crew callsign, and the affectionate name Suni gave ...Keep Reading
We got to go into the Soyuz spacecraft one last time to check it out, to see where our stuff is stowed, and to make sure everything is where we want it. “Agat” is beautiful! I refer to her as Agat since that is Yuri Malenchenko's call sign. If you watch the launch on NASA TV you will most likely ...Keep Reading
Last Day in Space by Don Pettit Tomorrow we light our rocket, we burn our engines and likewise, burn a hole in the sky, And thus fall to Earth. How does one spend your last day in space? Looking at Earth, a blue jewel surrounded by inky blackness, Pure Occipital Ecstasy. Unconstrained by your girth, you fly with vestigial wings. ...Keep Reading
Tonight, Gardener and his crew will depart in their seed pod. The replacement crew is ready to carry on in their place. He is wearing his space suit undergarments. Not too stylish but functional. He gave all of us an extra long smell. His nose twitched with the slightest tickle from the leaf hairs on little Zuc. He said that ...Keep Reading
June 29, 2012 The crew is busy with their departure preparations. They are flying back and forth with bags of gear. Gardener tried on a special suit made out of tight fitting fabric. It keeps his roots and stalks from expanding when he returns to Earth’s gravity. He said things will feel real heavy for awhile.Keep Reading
I saw the waning crescent moon, a small sliver of white rising above the Earth limb. It reminded me of a glowing fingernail clipping. Like a rainbow of only blue, the atmosphere on edge filled the gap between Earth and space—electrifying diaphanous beauty. Venus was there, watching. Aldebaran in Taurus was an orange dot. The ghost of Full Moon Past, ...Keep Reading
