End of the Shuttle Era

Space Shuttle Atlantis began her final descent from space this morning at 4:49, Eastern Daylight Time when her engines were fired to drop her back into Earth’s atmosphere. Just over an hour later, her wheels touched the tarmac at Kennedy Space Center. She was the oldest Orbiter in the shuttle fleet after the losses of Challenger and Columbia, and was the last to visit space.

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Technology + Space Fact of the Day

STS-135, the final space shuttle mission that lifted off successfully yesterday, is carrying an iPhone 4 into space for the first time. The astronauts will use the iPhone to assess the phone’s abilities to navigate in space. The iPhone 4 has a three-axis gyroscope, and three accelerometers, which means that it has more ways to sense where it is than the Apollo Command Module which guided men to the moon from 1969 to 1972.

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Overview of the Past Year

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The weather command center.

GET IN THE CAR of the Day: Wildlife photog Tom Leeson snapped this rather unnerving shot on Barter Island from the back seat of his pick-up truck.

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The Beginning

I’m not entirely sure what this will become. It is starting as a way to keep up with a few people that I care about. I imagine it will also serve as a place for things that I find interesting that don’t really go anywhere else, which means they might be random and pointless. Heads up: I like computers, the Internets, and the space, so I’ll try to explain anything that might be too technical for someone who doesn’t find these areas as interesting as I do.

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