Flying In Space At A Historical, Exciting Time (World Space Week, Day 7; Armchair Astronaut Oct. 2011)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be bolted onto a Russian Soyuz rocket, and then be sent into space for five months? How about living in a space station in which you could get lost, or when the last two shuttle mission ever arrive?

Astronaut Ron Garan knows. After all, he's been there, done that! Launching just mere days before the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, he called the International Space Station home for five months this year. As a member of the Expedition 27/28 crew, he was one the very privileged people to be in space while the final two space shuttle missions occurred.

But for me, what really made Ron Garan's most recent trip into space special was his blog posts. On a regular basis, he would write about what was happening to him. For example, he tells of training as the backup crew for Expedition 25/26, and his travels to here, yither, and yon. (Mainly Houston, USA, and Star City, Russia, but other places all around the globe as well).

Ron Garan and his crewmates Alexander Samokutyaev
and Andrey Borisenko are launched into
space aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on April 4, 2011.

I found Garan's blog (www.fragileoasis.org) shortly after his April 4 launch, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. It was fascinating to learn what a Soyuz launch felt like, or what one's first impression of the ISS was. Or of the in-space celebrations of Yuri Gagarin's flight (now just over fifty years ago). Less than two month's into Garan's stay in space, some really exciting stuff began to happen. For example, the next-to-last shuttle mission, STS-134, arrived. And while the shuttle was docked, three of Garan's crewmates left the station aboard their Soyuz! That was a first; a Soyuz undocking while the Shuttle was docked. Garan wrote a wonderfully detailed and interesting series of articles on that subject, entitled "Three Ships Pass In The Night". Can you guess what three ships he's referring to?

STS-135 arrives at the ISS

Even when a shuttle wasn't docked, there was plenty for Garan to write about. Sunsets, for example. Did you know that at 17,500 mph, astronauts see sixteen sunrises and sunsets per day? WOW. In addition to being on board during STS-134, Ron Garan was also onboard the International Space Station when the very last shuttle mission, STS-135, flew. He even got to complete a spacewalk while STS-135 was docked, and he has written an awesome series of articles on the entire STS-135 experience. Hey, who can tell the story better than someone who was actually there?

With just over a week left in space, Garan started posting a wonderful video series called "Cupola Corner", in which he interviews his fellow spacemen on how people can make a difference here on earth when they have the "orbital perspective". The "orbital perspective", as Garan calls it, is basically the school of thought that people come into when they realize how fragile our earth is, and how limited are its resources. Many astronauts and cosmonauts think that way once they see the precious earth hang like a Christmas tree ornament in the vast darkness of space, and that is what Garan tried to capture on tape. (In case you're wondering, the "copula" is a series of windows in which one can look out the ISS in a 360-panorama and see the earth, station, and space!)

Andrey, Ron, and Sasha prepare to leave the ISS.

Finally, Ron Garan tells of his homecoming delays and finally the return itself. While he loved being on space, it is clear that after 164 days off the planet that he was happy to smell the grass, trees, and sky once more. And why did he compare his re-entry to rolling over Niagara Falls in a barrel? You'll have to read his posts and see why! :D

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As you can see, I have thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with Ron Garan's experiences in space this year. He really did a splendid job of describing for everyone what spaceflight today is like. If you would ever like to read his posts, I would highly recommend them. Here's the link:

http://www.fragileoasis.org/bloggernauts/Astro_Ron/posts/

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For those who have just joined this blog for World Space Week, let me tell you a little about Armchair Astronaut. For those who have been reading my blog all along, read on! ;) "Armchair Astronaut" is the title of the monthly column I have had on my blog for one year. Each month, I would read and then review various space books. It's sad news, I know, but with this edition of "Armchair Astronaut", I have decided to discontinue the column. I have kept it going for a year now, and quite frankly, I've run out of new space books to read! (In case you didn't know, in the past two years I have read almost 30 space books, which total up to 10,000+ pages.) I've pretty much read my way through every space book, and since I'm not reading them anymore, neither can I review them! So again, with this edition of "Armchair Astronaut", I am retiring the column.

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Thank you so much to anyone and everyone who has joined me for World Space Week!! It's really been a blast sharing with people the history of space, from Sputnik to Apollo and the galaxies; from the Shuttle to Station! So with this post I am discontinuing my WSW postings. I will post the results to the space poll, but otherwise, safe and successful future missions to you!

~Photobug