Category Archives: Science, Space, Technology

Science, Space, Technology

Book Review: The Seven Secrets of How to THINK LIKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST

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I don’t read a lot because reading usually puts me right to sleep. But every once in a while I get hold of a book that grabs my attention and keeps me awake through the whole thing. This book, The Seven Secrets of How to THINK LIKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST by Jim Longuski, is a very good book. It’s a very quick read too. Each chapter is very short and sweet and just tells you what you need to know and then moves on to the next topic in the next chapter. Seriously, each chapter in this book is only 2 or maybe 3 pages long.

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Activities, Travel, Vacations, Science, Space, Technology

STS-126 launch

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We got a car pass and watched Endeavour launch last night on STS-126 from the NASA Causeway viewing site. It was awesome!

Elijah waits patiently for the launch.  We got there almost 2 hours beforehand.  Notice the nearly full moon out the window.  A beautiful and clear night for a launch.

 

And we have liftoff!  The picture doesn’t do it justice, because it lights up the night sky as if it were daylight!

We could see it almost all the way down to the horizon.  Very cool.

Kurt

Activities, Travel, Vacations, Science, Space, Technology

Sun ‘n Fun Airshow at Lakeland, FL

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I took a much deserved day off work on Friday and attended the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In and Air Show in Lakeland, Florida with my buddy Les. It was a beautiful day for an airshow and this was quite an airshow.

.SUN n FUN

First we walked around and looked at all the homebuilt airplanes that were there for the fly-in. Then we walked around all the vendor exhibits for a while. Then we watched the airshow and it was quite impressive. Then after a dinner break, they put on a very cool night airshow. And after that, they put on the most spectacular fireworks display I think I’ve even seen in my entire life! It was quite a day. Here is a short video compilation that I posted to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqFCnRzDso

And here are some of the photos I took:

.Sun 'n Fun

.Sun 'n Fun

.Sun 'n Fun

.Sun 'n Fun

Kurt

Nature, Photography, Videos, Science, Space, Technology

KSC Beach Cleanup

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Last week I was able to take part in an annual beach cleanup on the very remote beaches of the Kennedy Space Center. It was a lot of hard work, but it was pretty cool to take part in this worthy cause. I put a short video from the beach cleanup on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjT6dTbacg0

This is an annual event at KSC and it is organized by the Fish & Wildlife Service, who owns most of the land that KSC sits on. They do this every year before sea turtle nesting season starts.

There were some pretty interesting items that were collected, in addition to a ton of bottles and bottle caps, which I noticed were the most frequent item found. A lady right directly in front of me found 2 separate messages in bottles. One of them was a letter from a 9 year old girl in the Bahamas who’s whole class had put messages into bottles for a “sea-pal” exercise. The lady who found the message said she was definitely going to write the little girl back. I found quite a few bottles, but none with messages.

It was hard work in the hot sun, but I’m going to sign up again next year.

Kurt