This Week In Space

Is everyone remembering to tune into Miles O'Brien's show "This Week In Space" when new episodes are released??

The quality of this fantastic program never falters... Miles and producer David Walters (both of whom announce new episodes on Spaceflight Now, YouTube, Twitter and their Facebook feeds) have given us space enthusiasts a great gift with these regular updates…

Go SpaceX! And there's more water on the moon than in the Great Lakes?? Wow.

Miles mentions the exciting Mars500 project, and there are some clips of the crew entering their habitat before the hatch closed. He cracks that it would make a great reality show, but when you get right down to it... heck, it IS a reality show!

This week, they also have an interview with previous NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, who shares how he somewhat reluctantly continues to grant requests for interviews – and also weighs in (carefully) on the current controversy with NASA termination liability clauses.

And for those of us who keep up with interesting milestones, a new arrival to the International Space Station marks a new record!

On her first space voyage, flight engineer Shannon Walker joined existing crew member Tracy Caldwell Dyson, making this the first time two women have been part of a long duration crew. Way to go, ladies!

Expedition 24 on the orbiting outpost now includes NASA's Doug Wheelock, Tracy Dyson, Russian Commander Alexander Skvortsov, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Shannon Walker and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Walker, an American who spent 60 weeks training in Russia, is keeping a blog about her experiences aboard the Soyuz craft and her experiences in the ISS on the Houston Chronicle's "In Orbit" section.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock is also now tweeting regularly, and has unofficially taken Soichi Noguchi's place as twitpic pro on the station! Check out his great space photos at @Astro_Wheels.