One of the Most Important Advances in Spaceflight Ever

STS-126 mission specialist Don Pettit used some of his off-duty time on Saturday to improvise a new coffee cup for use in space. No more drinking coffee through a straw!



Coffee lovers will name a planet after him someday.

Video of SpaceX Falcon 9 First Stage Test Firing

From the press release:

At full power, the rocket generated 855,000 pounds of force at sea level. In vacuum, the thrust increases to approximately one million pounds or four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. The test consumed over half a million pounds of propellant. All nine engines fired for 160 seconds, then two engines were shut down to limit the acceleration and the remaining seven engines continued firing for 18 more seconds, as would occur in a typical climb to orbit.

The Falcon 1 that launched into orbit in September used 1 of the Merlin 1C engines in its first stage. The Falcon 9, a heavy lift human rated launch vehicle, will use 9 of the Merlin 1C engines in its first stage. This was a test fire of that first stage.

Significant Milestone Achieved as SpaceX Prepares to Demonstrate U.S. Transport to the International Space Station

Press release from SpaceX today:

Hawthorne, CA - November 23, 2008 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully conducted a full mission-length firing of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle's first stage at its McGregor Test Facility in Texas, on November 22. For the static test firing, the first stage remains firmly secured to the massive vertical test stand, where it fired for 178 seconds or nearly three minutes – simulating the climb of the giant rocket from the surface of the Earth towards orbit.

At full power, the rocket generated 855,000 pounds of force at sea level. In vacuum, the thrust increases to approximately one million pounds or four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. The test consumed over half a million pounds of propellant. All nine engines fired for 160 seconds, then two engines were shut down to limit the acceleration and the remaining seven engines continued firing for 18 more seconds, as would occur in a typical climb to orbit.

The test firing validated the design of SpaceX's use of nine engines on the first stage, as well as the ability to shut down engines without affecting the functioning of the remaining engines. This demonstrates the ability of Falcon 9 to lose engines in flight and still complete its mission successfully, much as a commercial airliner is designed to be safe in the event of an engine loss. Like an airliner, the Falcon 9 engines are enclosed in a protective sheath that ensures a fire or destructive loss of an engine doesn't affect the rest of the vehicle.

The Falcon 9 will be the first vehicle since the Saturn V and Saturn 1 to have the ability to lose any engine/motor and still be able to complete its mission without loss of crew or spacecraft. Engine out reliability proved crucial to mission success on two of the Saturn V flights.

"In the past month, we performed significant upgrades to the test stand and flame trench in preparation for this test," said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. "We added the flight base heat shields around the engines to protect the bottom of the rocket from the prolonged blast of heat and vibration."

"The full mission-length test firing clears the highest hurdle for the Falcon 9 first stage before launch," said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. "In the next few months, we will have the first Falcon 9 flight vehicle on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, preparing for lift-off in 2009."

Tenth Anniversary of ISS

Ten years ago today (July 20, 1998) the first piece of the International Space Station was launched into orbit, the Zarya module (built by Russia, financed by the US). It was lofted by a Russian Proton K booster from the Russian launch complex, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in Khazakstan. Two weeks later the first American piece, the Unity node, was launched aboard a Space Shuttle from Florida.

The ISS has been continuously inhabited since July, 2000, usually with a three person crew which is scheduled to increase to six in the first half of 2009.

Animation of the construction of the ISS.

What you get from Google and Amazon

If it weren't for Google and Amazon and my own self-absorbtion, there's all sorts of things I'd have never learned. For instance, that there is a village in Holland called Nettelhorst. I assume that's where my ancestors came from, especially since my family's last name was originally von Nettelhorst.

Or that there's an elementary school in Chicago named after a relative of mine, Louis Nettelhorst.

I also found out that I've been quoted on occasion. In fact, most commentaries on Matthew or Luke since about 1990 have mentioned my theory for reconciling the genealogies of Jesus that I proposed in an article that appeared in 1988 in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (JETS). For instance, Raymond Brown footnoted that article in his book, The Birth of the Messiah. Last Saturday, as I was googling and trying to discover which translations of my book have appeared in print (at least 10 out of the 13 projected), I stumbled upon the fact (via Google, which has been digitizing every book in the world) that Josh McDowell actually quotes a full paragraph from the same article Raymond Brown only footnoted. It appears in his book, New Evidence That Demands a Verdict. So far Google has only scanned in the Spanish edition of that book, but you can see it here:

New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Spanish)

UPDATE (Saturday November 22)

I picked up a copy of the English language version of New Evidence That Demands a Verdict at Barnes and Noble today. The quotation is of two paragraphs from the article and it appears on pages 297-298; I'm also listed in the index and the bibliography. The book was published back in 1999. I didn't find out I was in it until last Saturday.

New Star Trek Movie Trailer

The latest trailer for the upcoming Star Trek movie (May 8, 2009) was released this morning. You can watch it here, at the official website:

StarTrekMovie.com

NASA Video of Future Trip to Moon

Video created by NASA of the Ares V and Ares I going to the moon circa 2020.

German Translation of My Book

The German translation is available for sale here:

Die 100 Bekanntesten Gestalten der Bibel

The German edition looks about the same as the English, French, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Slovak, Swedish, Hungarian, Estonian and Romanian editions, except for the words. The title looks as if it translates from German as "The Hundred Best-known Figures of the Bible" which differs considerably from the title Reader's Digest gave it in English: The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Swedish Edition of My Book

The Swedish translation is available for sale here:

Apostlar och profeter

The Swedish edition looks about the same as the English, French, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Estonian and Romanian editions, except for the words. The title looks as if it translates from Swedish as "Apostles and Prophets" which differs considerably from the title Reader's Digest gave it in English: The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

A Swedish blog has reviewed the Swedish edition of my book (the following links to a machine translated version of the blog):

Gurgin: Last Book Read

Romanian Translation of My Book

The Romanian translation is available for sale here:

Cele mai fascinante personaje din Biblie

The Romanian edition looks about the same as the English, French, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Estonian and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title looks as if it translates from Romanian as "The Most Fascinating People of the Bible" which is the same title Reader's Digest gave it in English The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Norwegian Translation of My Book

The Norwegian translation is available for sale here:
100 skikkelser fra bibelen

The Norwegian edition looks about the same as the English, French, Danish, Dutch, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Estonian and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title translates from Norwegian as "100 Characters from the Bible" which was essentially its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Danish Translation of My Book

You can see the Danish edition for sale here:

Portrætter fra Bibelens galleri

The Danish edition looks about the same as the English, French, Dutch, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Estonian and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title translates from Danish as "100 Characters from the Bible" which was essentially its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

French Edition of My Book

The French version can be seen for sale here:

100 Personnages clés de la Bible

The French edition looks about the same as the English, Dutch, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Estonian and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title translates from French as "100 Characters from the Bible" which was essentially its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Estonian Edition of My Book

The Estonian version can be seen for sale here:

100 tegelaskuju piiblist

The Estonian edition looks the same as the English, Dutch, Slovak, German, Hungarian and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title translates from Estonian as "100 Characters from the Bible" which was essentially its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Hungarian Edition of My Book

The Hungarian version can be seen for sale here:

A BIBLIA 100 ALAKJA

The Hungarian edition looks the same as the English, Dutch, Slovak, German and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title translates from Hungarian as "100 Characters from the Bible" which was essentially its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Dutch Edition of My Book

You can see it here (machine translated by Google):

100 bijbelse figuren

The Dutch edition looks the same as the English and Slovak and German and Swedish editions, except for the words. The title translates from Dutch as "100 Biblical Figures" which was essentially its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Slovak Version of My Book

See it for sale, here: Sto postav z bible

Looks the same, except for the words. It was released on November 11, 2008. The title translates from Slovak as "100 Characters From the Bible," which was its working title before Reader's Digest changed it to The Bible's Most Fascinating People.

Shuttle Launches On Time

The Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on time at 4:55 PM PST and reached orbit safely about 9 minutes later.

Space Shuttle Scheduled to Launch Today

MSNBC reports:

A cold front is on its way to Florida but NASA officials say there's about a 70 percent chance the weather will cooperate enough to go ahead with the 7:55 p.m. EST launch. About a fourth of all shuttle missions start at night.

Endeavour and its seven-person crew will spend 15 days in orbit, including Thanksgiving. Its payload bay is filled with thousands of pounds of home remodeling supplies for the space station. That will allow NASA to double the size of the space station's crew by June.

Extrasolar Planets

MSNBC reports "First-ever images taken of extrasolar planets":

Astronomers have taken what they say are the first-ever direct images of planets outside of our solar system, including a visible-light snapshot of a single-planet system and an infrared picture of a multiple-planet system.

Read the linked article for more details and to see the photos.

Quote for the Day

The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.

Winston Churchill

Joke for the Day

Jack and Max are walking home from church. Jack wonders whether it would be all right to smoke while praying.

Max replies, “Why don’t you ask the pastor?”

So Jack goes up to the pastor and asks, “Pastor, may I smoke while I pray?”

The pastor replies, “No, you may not! That shows utter disrespect for God.”

Jack goes back to his friend and tells him what the good pastor told him.

Max says, “I’m not surprised. You asked the wrong question. Let me try.”

And so Max goes up to the pastor and asks, “Pastor, may I pray while I smoke?”

To which the pastor eagerly replies, “By all means, my son. By all means. You can always pray whenever you want to.”

Googling Oneself

Occasionally I Google myself. Recently, I found this on a Swedish blog (the following links to a machine translated version of the blog):

Gurgin: Last Book Read

My book, The Bible's Most Fascinating People, came out in a Swedish edition just last month.

Quote for the Day

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority....

An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter From a Birmingham Jail (1963)

Quote for the Day

No one can understand history without continually relating the long periods which are constantly mentioned to the experiences of our own short lives. Five years is a lot. Twenty years is the horizon to most people. Fifty years is antiquity. To understand how the impact of destiny fell upon any generation of men one must first imagine their position and then apply the time-scale of our own lives.

Winston Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol. 1

Quote for the Day

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell, Preface to Animal Farm