Aug
17
2009
By Kate Hennessy
Today I stumbled upon the humbling realisation that I had a lot to learn, professionally, from school-children.
Astronaut, Megan McArthur. Image: NASA
Megan fields some excellent questions at Google HQ today.
I was one in their midst at Google HQ in Pyrmont this morning, listening, agog, as NASA astronaut Megan McArthur talked about working in space. Megan had fronted up in her blue NASA overalls, there to talk primarily about the fifth and final servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope she worked on in May this year.
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Jul
17
2009
By David Finnigan
I’ve been crouched on the internet all morning listening to the gentle crackle of radio static between NASA Headquarters and the Apollo 11 mission.
Occasionally the fuzz is interrupted by Apollo’s astronauts discussing the merits of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a strangely soothing sound yet, in just 59 hours, the Lunar Module will descend to the surface of the Moon.
Lunchtime on Apollo 11. Image: NASA
Yes, it’s 2009, and what’s going on is this: I have a window of my browser tuned to We Choose The Moon, the JFK Presidential Library’s interactive website recreating Apollo 11’s lunar mission, minute by minute, with archival audio, video, photos and “real-time” transmissions. Everything is dated 40 years to the minute after the actual 1969 event, with touchdown scheduled for July 20, 2009.
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