Monday, June 24, 2013

ISS, the wonder of it all




If you spend a lot of time watching the news, you can become mired down by the badness of it all; nobody seems to be getting along with anyone else, everyone spying on everyone else. Spy here, spy there, everywhere a spy, spy. But, all is not in discord, there is harmony just 255 miles overhead.

Six human beings—Pavel Vinogradov, Aleksandr Misurkin, Chris Cassidy, Karen Nyberg, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano—are circling the planet ever 92 minutes, 50 seconds. And they will continue until September when another international crew arrives to replace them.

The International Space Station (ISS) flew over my home last night. Slightly bigger than a football field, it took three minutes—horizon to horizon, west by northwest to south by southeast—for the man-made heavenly body to pass overhead. The ISS was the brightest object in the sky (the full moon was hidden behind a cloud). 

Oh, the wonder. Seeing it pass in the night at 17,239 miles per hour.

Here is a sense of what the crew sees.




1 comment:

Dorothy said...

That is tuly amazing!I can't even imagine how it would feel to be confined to such a small space, much less, orbit the earth!!! How can 'man' be smart and exacting to get all that just right, and then can't figure out how to run the government here on Terra Firma!