Happy Birthday Alpha !

Posted: November 20, 2008 9:02 am by alan
Filed under: WOW!, amateur radio, space

Space Station Alpha

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the first piece of what has become the International Space Station, also known as Space Station Alpha. The Russian name for this first component, the ‘functional cargo block‘ or FCB is Zarya, which translates as Dawn. This was truly a new beginning for a new world. When we look at how much we learn from having this resource, how we have come to view our planet, and how much potential we have yet to tap… it still has a lot of WOW left to deliver… I am proud that I can now contribute more than just 17 cents per day to support this experiment. Every day now, when I leave work - I recognize just how significant is the effort that supports all this.

For a review of some facts and figures on ISS, go read this NASA web page.

Add to this, a topic near and dear to my heart - Ham Radio.
Read this most excellent article on the ARISS program.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/ariss.html
Now this is ‘exciting science’ - kids ‘get it’ . . . (even big ones like me !)

Thanks NASA… (and all the International Partners too !) /;^)

2 Responses to “Happy Birthday Alpha !”

  1. KG4RCP Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

    Were you fortunate enough to see it (the ISS) this evening as it passed over Huntsville?

    I read that it should have been visible to the unaided eye.

    Reckon anyone got video of it?

  2. alan Says:
    November 21st, 2008 at 4:13 am

    I generally like to step outside and watch it go over whenever the weather cooperates. We had good observations the previous two nights, but I missed it tonite. I got caught up staying a little late at work and missed it by about 10 minutes. It was to have been the best pass all week, as it is much bigger and brighter when the shuttle is docked. It is easy to see with ‘nekkid eyes’. I use the site http://www.heavens-above.com to keep up with the schedule. Great site, just pick a location near you, or create a username and it can save your profile. You can use this to locate other satellites as well. On any given dark cloudless night you can often spot several satellites. This site also helps sort out planets, in case you can’t always keep up with which one is Venus…
    Enjoy /;^)

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