NASA Academy strategic conference

"Almost heaven..."

Making some good progress on the Academy. We have a pretty decent mission statement going. Goals and action items, too. Should be some good information coming out of it. Alums: check spacealumni.com for our notes and to contribute!

Here we are at work:




This was out in the woods of West Virginia at a national parks training place, and we saw deer in the trees when we walked to breakfast in the morning.



It was good to catch up with folks like Dave and Doug and Laura again, and to meet Natcho and Johnny (from whom I've received many emails), and others in the NASA Academy family. We all drank lots of coffee together.

More travel coming up...

Tomorrow I leave for a few days in West Virginia for the NASA Academy future-of-program conference. I'm really excited about making some progress in securing a future for the Academies and representing for Ames and Marshall. Hopefully we'll come out of it with some good headway and better networking between alumni from different centers.

Then in mid-May, I'm going with some cool people on a trip for Citizens for Space Exploration to Washington DC to visit with congresspeople about how much I support my US space program. Therefore the decision-makers should, too. I'll say it better than that, of course.

Figuring out this Picasa thing. Hey, look, it's me in Moscow by some shiny Kremlin domes. Very pretty place.

In Moscow!

Here in Russia now and officially on so many levels. There's a lot of paperwork involved in this country. Nice hotel. Star City tomorrow!

gang's all here

I'm in Strasbourg. My bag's very very likely to be in Strasbourg. We're just not in the same place yet. No biggie. But for you worry-types, I am here safely at International Space University again. Later!

Spring Break

Okay, I'm off to Strasbourg tomorrow, then on to Moscow with the ISU crew. I'll post from there, most likely, and I'll be back, oh, let's say, a week from tomorrow, if all goes well.

SB

Spring Break: Strasbourg and Star City. Already got the tickets. How much does that rock?

Brushing up on my Russian.

past, present, future

Former astronauts all over TV... or at least in two places:

1. This season on Survivor: Panama, Dan Barry.

2. Tonight on The Daily Show, Mike Mullane, promoting his new book Riding Rockets.

* * * * *

Looks like Star City Spring Break is on!

* * * * *

Gratuitious sleepy puppy time. Look how she's grown already...

Are you a champion... a Space Champion?

"TORONTO/EWORLDWIRE/Feb. 10, 2006 --- IPX Entertainment, a
Nevada-registered corporation, is issuing a casting call for American
and Canadian athletes to participate in a reality television show about
a sport played in zero gravity. The show, /Space Champions/, will
premiere on SpaceChannel.TV in the fall of 2006."

Space Champions

Exciting find annouced today... the smallest extrasolar planet yet. Not quite home, since it's still 5.5 times as big as Earth and 2.6 AU away from its sun. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting better at it.

Here's the NSF story. And CNN's story... "New science finds Earth-ish planet," if you feel like reading a story with the word "Earth-ish" in its front page headline. The actual story calls it "Earth-like" (and now it's all fixed, but trust me that it said "Earth-ish" a couple hours ago), but how do professionals get away with that, unless they were just being cutesy? Not really a cutesy story, dude. Serious scientific coolness.

During the NASA Academy at Ames 2005, I did some educational outreach work for the Kepler mission which is planned to launch in summer of 2008. That mission's goals include getting an idea of how many of these little habitable Earth-y (I can say this because I'm not supposed to be a reliable national news source; I'm a student with a blog, and this is my standard) planets are out there. We're expecting a decent number.

In completely unrelated news, she's officially Jolie.

New puppy

It's distracting. Distractingly adorable. My current vote for her name is Jolie.

Hmm.

It occurs to me that I still need to post the Paris/Luxembourg write-up and pictures. Don't think there's not already two pages of it written. My photo program (which quickly and conveniently resized and autolinked pics for me) stopped working on my computer right before my move back to OK. I like to break up text with pics and vice versa, so I'll see if I can't get something to work so I can put that up very soon.

In the meantime, here's an obligatory picture of me with the Eiffel Tower. Imagine that, but all over the page. It'll do until I get the real post.




Congrats Stardust and good travels to New Horizons!

Stardust@Home ... more work that SETI@Home, but better chance of payoff. Support both!

The New Mythologies

I love the trend of naming new celestial bodies after our pop culture icons.

Kuiper Belt Object Buffy

Oklahoma Nutcracker

This has less to do with space, but oh well. My sister is in the Norman Ballet Company and will be performing in...

The Oklahoma Nutcracker
Sooner Theater (101 E. Main Street in Norman)
December 17th and 18th

To order tickets please call the box office at: (405) 326-9147
OR
Print this page to mail in as your order form.

Seating Chart of the Sooner Theatre

Saturday, December 17th
Sand Plum Fairy Tea Party, 2:30pm
Children and Adults $15

Ballet Performance, 2pm and 8pm
Children 12& under Main Floor $12
Adults Main Floor $15
Choice Balcony $15
Open Balcony $10

Sunday, December 18th
Sand Plum Fairy Tea Party, 2:30pm
Children and Adults $15

Ballet Performance, 2pm
Children 12& under Main Floor $12
Adults Main Floor $15
Choice Balcony $15
Open Balcony $10

"All seats are reserved and non-refundable.
To fully appreciate and enjoy these performances (and out of consideration for other audience members), the Norman Ballet Company suggests that CHILDREN SHOULD BE AT LEAST TWO YEARS OF AGE to attend the following production."

About:
"Set to the traditional Tchaikovsky score, the story has been adapted to include historical Oklahoma persons and natural treasures: the King Snake, the Sand Plum Fairy – you will fall in love with Mama Armadillo and her babies! Coming from New York City, professional dancers Juliana Scarpelli and Kyle Coffman will perform their spectacular pas de deux as the Sand Plum Fairy and her Prince. It is sure to become a family tradition for all to see!"
(from the website)

Happy Thanksgiving!

back in OKC

I'm back in Moore safely. After sooo many security checks, you wouldn't believe and various other drama, but I'm here now. Yay!

yeah, so...

I'm not so much "on my way" to OKC now. I'm more "sitting at ISU." Again.

There's this whole big thing with this little regional airline I was taking to Brussels (then on to Chicago, to OKC on American Airlines). They do not allow a laptop bag in addition to a carry on, unlike every other airline ever. So (even though I was two hours early) there wasn't time (or option, really) to repack, and they wouldn't let me pay for an extra checked bag. Not an option. They did reschedule my flights to be the same exact flights, one day later and for free. That was cool. So I'm not home today, but will be on Friday afternoon.

In better news... thank you so much to the guys who came out for tarte flambee last night! I know that you all had a lot of work to do on the projects, and I appreciate you taking time out to see me for (what should have been) the last time for a long while. Y'all* are awesome! As soon as I get home, I'll post some of the many many pics I took. After I post all those other pics that I need to put up here.

JSC

* This is an Oklahoman phrase that I think I never** used the whole time I was at ISU.
** Except maybe that one time when I could only speak in a raspy Southern accent.

oh, well

Until Hello starts to work for me again (in the US, maybe?), I can't post more pictures. I'm working on a write-up, though.

Last chance for anyone to request anything from Strasbourg...

back for a few

I am back in Strasbourg until Thursday morning. I'll do a picture and word thing over Luxembourg and Paris... maybe tomorrow. Probably when I get back to OK. More later.

paris

Doing the Paris thing, tourist-style. Luxembourg was very lovely. Many many many many pictures to post when I'm back in the SXB (airport slang for Strasbourg) on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Talk to you then.
JSC