Countdown to Yuri's Night!

 On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to enter space. Secured in a small capsule named Vostok 1, he launched from Leninsk, Kazakhstan (now renamed "Baikonur"), the first and still-largest space launch facility in the world. The 27-year-old cosmonaut made a historic 106-minute (not 108!) orbital flight around planet Earth.

Юрий Гагарин 1934 - 1968

In 1962, the Soviet Union established День Космонавтики, or "Cosmonautics Day,” to commemorate this amazing achievement.

In 2001, Loretta Hidalgo, George T. Whitesides and Trish Garner founded "Yuri’s Night," with the support of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) — and each year since, the parties celebrating the first human in space have only grown larger! This year, festivities all around the world are being held between April 4th – April 12th. The current count for Yuri’s Night parties is 160 parties in 42 countries!

The goal of Yuri's Night is to increase public interest in space exploration and to inspire a new generation of explorers. Driven by a worldwide network of celebrations and educational events, Yuri's Night creates a global community committed to the future of exploration while developing leaders and innovators.

This year, *THE* place to be is the Space Station Museum!

On Saturday, April 11th from  noon to 8pm, this particular party will be the only one on the North American continent with actual Yuri Gagarin artifacts on display.

There are precious few places where one can see AND TOUCH Russian Cosmonautica outside of Russia... and The Space Station Museum in Novato, California is one of them! (Kansas Cosmosphere being the other big draw.)

Who can pass up Russian Tea Cookies... with TANG??

The highlight of the Yuri's Night celebration will be a LIVE Skype session with astronaut Dan Bursch at 5:00pm, to reflect on the significance of Yuri Gagarin's historical flight into space and answer questions from any and all space enthusiasts.

Please feel free to come in a space-themed costume! And bring your camera. There will be lots of good photo ops!

FREE YURI STICKERS. FREE ADMISSION, FREE PARKING.

Tickets are not actually needed, but TSSM would like an estimate for attendance, so please register a free ticket at the Event Brite website if you plan to attend.

Star Talk Radio Live!

Star Talk Radio is on the road again! And this week, Bill Nye The Science Guy will be hosting Neil deGrasse Tyson's usual gig in Los Angeles and San Francisco!  Lucky, lucky audiences in California.

Okay, okay, don't say it... if it's Star Talk Radio LIVE and ONSTAGE, it's... not.. exactly RADIO. But who's quibbling with the best radio show and podcast around?

StarTalk, from Curved Light Productions, is the first (and still only) popular commercial radio broadcast devoted to space exploration, the search for life in the universe, astrophysics, and cosmology -- and they manage to make all these subjects accessible to listeners of all ages and backgrounds with facts, humor, celebrities, and occasional co-hosts.

If you are not a regular StarTalk listener... um, who are you and what are you doing on my blog?? No seriously, if you're new to the show, you can brush up on the format and fun by seeing their greatest hits: TOP TEN Most Listened To StarTalk Radio Shows in 2014.

There's one episode where NdT had a conversation with GOD. Make time.

I'm so very flattered to tell all my readers and followers that the StarTalk social media team invited me to "guest-host" their Twitter account during Bill Nye's show on Friday, January 23rd.

Engineer, comedian, Emmy-winning TV host, and owner of 150+ bow ties, Bill Nye is also the current CEO of The Planetary Society.  I happen to be a proud, card-carrying member. It will be my distinct pleasure to put all my Nye-rich knowledge into describing the show on Friday night at the historic Nourse Theatre in San Francisco.

If you're local to the Bay Area, you can purchase tickets to come live-tweet #StarTalkRadio with us, or follow along with all the great sciency comedy from home by following the social media hashtag #StarTalkLive.

The above video is from Nye's 2014 San Francisco StarTalk show, at the annual SF Sketchfest. Watch this if you want to get an idea of what's in store!

For all the news this week about #StarTalkLive, you can follow the major players on Twitter at @Pillownaut, @ScientificScott, @TheScienceGuy, @EugeneMirman, and of course the Big Guns: @StarTalkRadio.

Orion Space Craft Tests

Spacey awesomeness continued from yesterday's Orion crash tests by NASA Langley's Project Splash! Just when you think it can't get any cooler, I and some other enthusiastic SpaceTweeps visited the Norfolk Naval Air Station at Sewell's Point on the Elizabeth River.

Can you say, "largest naval complex in the world"?!  Also, if you're into American history, we were near the site of the battle of the Monitor and Merrimac (CSS Virginia). We felt very honored to be allowed on base, with a knowledgeable Navy escort who took us along the 14 piers, where we spied various Destroyers, Aircraft Carriers, and Cargo Ships.

Said piers regularly support 75 ships in total, and 134 aircraft, amid the highest concentration of U.S. Navy forces. Port Services controls more than three thousand ships' movements annually as they arrive and depart their berths. You want to be on your best behavior, here.

Once situated among Navy, Marines, Lockheed-Martin personnel, local press and even Virginia Congressmen(!), we witnessed a by-the-book Stationery Recovery Test of an Orion capsule from ocean into the USS Arlington, San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (also called landing/platform dock), designed to transport troops and helicopters by sea.

This class of ship also has a wide "well deck" that can take on (up to) 14 feet of water in ballast, and quickly deballast, to capture or release water crafts... or in our case, the new class of space capsules being developed by NASA and Lockheed for the next generation of missions. We hope!

In this second video, Commander Brett Moyes, Future Plans Branch chief, U.S. Fleet Forces, narrates the guiding of tending lines to attach-points, so the capsule can be loaded into the well deck -- free of tangles, without smashing into walls, and without killing or drowning any of the Navy sailors or Navy Dive Team involved.

Some men above water, and some men below water -- all worked together to maneuver the module.  It may look slow and simple, but don't be fooled. This is a precision operation of many complex procedural checklists when you're on the water -- and when genuine capsule recoveries are performed, it will most certainly be with higher waves, higher winds, and perhaps less forgiving weather.

What a rush to see the very capsule from crash test films up close, in the ocean for the next testing phase! Next year, the U.S. Navy will team with NASA again to recover a capsule out to sea, so the word "stationery" will be dropped from the recovery test.  We're seeing mission experiments in action!

For photographs of the entire day, see the NASA Langley album in my Pillownaut Picasa galleries.  Includes snaps around LaRC, Orion sea recovery, plus older pictures of Orion mockup crafts at the final Space Shuttle launch (STS-135) and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) in Houston, Texas.

NASA Langley Project SPLASH!

Awesome trip to Virginia! I often despaired that I might never get to see the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), but I not only finally had the opportunity -- I was able to cross a major space site off my bucket list in the process. THE GANTRY!

This "Gantry" is 240 feet high, 400 feet long, 265 feet wide, and it's massive A-frame  won't fit in any photographs unless you take one from a helicopter!

Built in 1963, and operational by 1965, it was initially used to model the Moon's 1/6th gravity level with complex suspension systems. 

Originally called the Lunar Landing Research Facility (LLRF),  it was upon this sacred site where all 24 Apollo astronauts trained to land on the Moon with Lunar Excursion Model Simulators (LEMS). 

The suspension systems also allowed all the potential Moonwalkers to practice walking in low gravity in their life support suits-- as uncomfortably evidenced here by astronaut  Roger Chaffee in 1965.

Still actively used for testing, the area is now a National Historical Landmark, and has recently been re-named the Landing and Impact Research Facility (LandIR).

Can you remember all those acronyms? There will be a test later. 

Our host at the Gantry was Richard Boitnott, 7-year veteran of the Structural Dynamics Branch at NASA Langley, and he inspired the most laughter I've ever heard at a NASA presentation, as he treated us to fascinating films of Orion space capsule drop-testing at the LandIR. Oh, the hilarity.

Watch Richard narrate dry-lake bed landings, animal mishaps, NASCAR comparison crashes, airbag blowouts, sand & honeycomb decelerations, slow-motion impacts from different angles, water landings (the first in a toddler wading pool!), and finally, a time-lapsed video of the construction of the Hydro Impact Basin used for advanced capsule water landings.

The video is just short of 9 minutes, but undeniably one of the best ways to see how Orion is being prepared for space travel, and how it will return to Earth. And funny. So funny. Can you spot the dragonfly?

The capsule used in the final drops was the same one we saw later in the day at the Norfolk Naval Air Station, being pulled from the ocean into the USS Arlington, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. I'll upload those videos tomorrow!

If you enjoyed these films, you can see all the originals at the NASA Langley Hydro Impact Basin website, where the last 2 years of tests are archived.

For photographs of the entire day, see the NASA Langley album in my Pillownaut Picasa galleries!  Includes snaps around LaRC, Orion sea recovery, plus older pictures of Orion mockup crafts at the final Space Shuttle launch (STS-135) and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) in Houston, Texas.

The Year of Curiosity

One year ago today, Curiosity Rover, carrying the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), landed on Mars. There were 127 landing parties in the USA and 15 other countries, and thousands of people watched breathlessly until news of the successful landing gave way to raucous celebrations all over the globe!


NASA Television had a record number of viewers. NASA.gov went DOWN. Ustream froze. Live data feeds tanked due to the onslaught of online demand. The world watched. Together. And believe it or not, the fun has just barely begun...!

Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted the risky Entry, Descent, & Landing (EDL) would fail. Many of us writers considered preparing two articles -- one for success and one for a crash. I spent days feeling sick to my stomach at the idea of what would happen to the NASA budget for Mars missions if Curiosity didn't land safely. (Humanity doesn't exactly have a stellar success rate with missions to the red planet!)

Everything that could have gone right, went right. Every expected signal arrived. Everyone who worked on this magnificent mission of space exploration can be proud, choked up, relieved and sleepless-for-days jubilant! And millions of us who had followed this mission for years could finally say that our most cutting edge technology now roves on the fourth rock from the sun.

I saw the very first images on a huge screen at the largest landing party on Earth. By the time the EDL was in progress, more than 7,000+ people had congregated at NASA Ames Research Center near Moffett Field in California. The cheer that rose from that crowd when we knew Curiosity had landed safely was utterly EPIC!  The roar upon receiving the first photograph on Martian terrain...? Well, I'm pretty sure people in Las Vegas heard us.


MSL Curiosity has since drilled rocks, fired lasers at soil target, photographed landslides, ound streambeds, and even photographed the Martian moon Phobos overhead!

From Bradbury to Glenelg,from Rocknest to Point Lake, from Shaler to Cumberland, and on to the base of Mt, Sharp, MSL is making herself at home in Gale Crater, teaching us more about Mars than we ever thought possible: radiation, what was once under water, volcanic vs. sedimentary rocks, determined temperature and humidity, nature of Martian minerals, and most importantly -- what is now almost certainly proof of ancient habitability.

This advanced rover found evidence that geochemical conditions were once suitable for microbial life.  MSL Curiosity detected water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, chloromethane, and dichloromethane.What happened to the Martian atmosphere over the last billion years? We know it was there.  And now, thanks to MSL, scientists finally know why Mars changed!

Curiosity, which may last as long as a decade on Mars, may be able to tell us so much more! So stay tuned for good science.  A toast to the first 354 sols!  May there be thousands!

NOTE: The anniversary being celebrated today and tomorrow represent one Earth year. 668 sols of the Martian year (687 equivalent Earth days) would put the Martian Anniversary on July 14, 2014 .

NASA Ames K10 Telerobotics Test from the ISS

This has been so exciting! I finally joined Instagram! Just kidding. Well, I did join Instagram, but that was the exciting part. I decided to try it out, and use it to publish all my pictures while visiting NASA Ames Research Center for the Rover tests by the Intelligent Robotics Group.

K10 Rover at NASA Ames Roverscape
Click to see album of pictures!

I also dusted off my YouTube channel and took some videos of the most amazing rover test I've ever seen up close!

With coordinated help and checklists from NASA Ames Multi-Mission Operations Center (MMOC), and NASA Marshall's ISS Payload Operations, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano remotely tested the K10 Telerobotics Lunar Rover from the International Space Station (ISS)!

Every time you see this little guy move, it was being controlled from an astronaut in orbit around the Earth! So very awesome. Listen for the Mission Control chatter at the end, as well as the amusing Pac-Man sound effects.  It did a funny R2-D2 impression as well, though I didn't happen to catch it on-camera.

Note the giant Wind Tunnel in the background of the NASA Ames Roverscape, the research facility used to design and test new (commercial and military) aircraft, as well as NASA space vehicles, including the Space Shuttle. At 80x120, it's the largest wind tunnel in the world!

After Luca Parmitano completed his remote Telerobotics tests, and a survey of the terrain that will hopefully someday be used on the Moon, we went out into the roverscape to see the K10 up close.  Close enough to touch, even. And, when it started moving again, to hear it hum and beep. Can't wait for one of these to explore the Lunar surface!

After the robot fun in the morning, we also saw the IRIS and LADEE mission control centers, the new exhibits at the Ames Visitor Center, and the Lunar Science Institute. Not a bad way to pass the time in sunny California!

To see the robotics tests video clips in larger frames, visit my Pillownaut YouTube Channel, and to see the rest of our day in pictures, please visit my Pillownaut Picasa photo albums.

NASA Social Number Nine!

I'm truly blessed to be able to attend or work so many amazing NASA events, and today, it's back to NASA Ames! I grew up in the shadow of Hangar One, so the Ames Research Center (ARC) holds a special place in my heart.

NASA ARC at Moffett Field, California

Today's event will be all about NASA's newest moon project, the robotic Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. The acronym for the mission, LADEE, is generally pronounced "laa-dee" (as opposed to "lady") by the designers and scientists.

The hardware will launch on a Minotaur V to our beautiful Moon from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia this September (and there is another social for the launch, too!)

NASA LADEE Vibration Testing

This is actually one of the smaller socials held, with only 15 attendees given social media credentials to learn about current Ames projects.

Aside from LADEE launch preparations, tours will include spacecraft hardware and missions operations facilities, and also a trek to the Ames "Roverscape" field, where astronauts on the International Space Station will remote control telerobotics rovers!

Try moving this from... ORBIT!

Throughout the day, follow these accounts and hashtags on Twitter to see all the moony and roboty goodness: @NASASocial, @NASAAmes, and @NASALADEE.

Of course, I'll be live-tweeting all day long from Ames, so you can also follow Pillownaut twitter for commentary. My fellow tweeters for tomorrow's events are listed on the LADEE / Rovers Test Twitter list, follow any and all of them for NASA Social updates!

NASA Social with Astronaut Joe Acaba

Another day, another Tweetup! Of course, they're called "Socials" now, but some verbal habits die hard.  I say "social". I think "tweetup". Regardless, astronauts are always worth the travel trouble.  During a rare winter heat wave in the nation's capital and surrounded by fellow SpaceTweeps, I enjoyed meeting Astronaut Joe Acaba at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC.

LIVE on NASA television, Acaba showed a slideshow of his two missions (one on Space Shuttle Discovery and one on Soyuz) to the ISS, describing many of his adventures with his crewmates in his cumulative 138 days in space.

Joe was part of NEAP, or NASA's Educator Astronaut Program, having been a middle school and high school science teacher... also, a geologist, Peace Corps volunteer, and... well, I'd give you his entire resume, but it would break the internet.

Suffice to say, Joe is incredibly accomplished both on Earth and in orbit!  He is also the very first Puerto Rican astronaut to travel into space.  Among his many humorous anecdotes that we tweeted madly through the Spacetweep crowd, he cracked that many fellow Puerto Ricans had attended to hear him speak, but lamented that none had brought him any Puerto Rican food!

He is a very funny speaker, though only spent about 20 minutes describing his work. He spent the remaining TV time answering questions from the studio audience in English, then questions from the @NASA_ES twitter account in Spanish.

He also speaks a bit of Russian, having spent most of his last mission with two Russian crew-mates. Multi-talented, and multi-lingual!

You can watch the show on NASA TV's YouTube Channel: Astronaut Joe Acaba Sits Down with Followers in DC at NASA Social.

I also managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to see the Apollo 11 Command Service Module "Columbia"!  Haven't seen this one since I was in grade school, but it never disappoints. Enjoyed many other wonderful artifacts there, including Sally Ride and John Glenn's suits, Moonwalk memories,

Click on any of the pictures above, or the link right here, to see the entire NASA HQ gallery over at Pillownaut Picasa!

Bed Rest Studies Revisited

Many moons ago, the European Space Agency operated bedrest studies as "space flight simulations" in Toulouse, France, which were very similar to those conducted by the scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center. They specialized in data based on women's needs at the time, as the trials also served pregnancy-related bedrest concerns and osteoporosis.

 Space-Travel.com reported recently that the ESA will be re-starting a new program for 12 participants of both genders that will stretch into 2013.

Four will spend 21 days in bed while engaging in recumbent weight-training and a vibrating exercise contraption. Another group of four will engage in the same, but add whey protein to their diets to see if there is any difference in muscle building. A final four will spend the same amount of time in bed, but lacking any of these attempts at "countermeasures".

21 days in bed may sound like a lot. I once spent 54 days in bed for the sake of a similar Space Flight Simulation, so I like to think 21 would be no problem. However, any amount of bedrest can be a challenge to the body!

As we age, our bodies lose bone density and muscle strength. Astronauts in space suffer similar changes but at a much faster rate than on Earth.

Finding ways to combat this process is important to space agencies, hospital patients and everyone who plans on growing old.

That would be... all of us. So, hey, all in the name of science, right?  My kudos and congrats to the amazing people who screens and qualified for this wonderful project.  NASA should soon be announcing their new bed rest flight sims for 2013 as well! Stay tuned for news if you want to apply!

NASA Ames Social

Back at the Cathedral of Flow! Yes, NASA Ames, land of the Wind Tunnels.

The last awesome event at Ames Research Center (ARC) centered around Kepler, but this time, it's all about the Mars Curiosity Rover!

Ames from the Air, from my Cessna Skyhawk Tour!

As per my description of all the onboard science equipment and the EDL sequence for the newest and largest-ever Mars rover, much of the design came from ARC!

Ames engineers conducted a full-scale MSL parachute deployment, small-scale verification tests, as well as supersonic tests to study the interaction between the MSL Capsule and parachute during atmospheric entry. All tested in the famed Supersonic Wind Tunnels... and rumor has it we may get to see one.

We are beginning bright and early today, and will start by hooking up with the other 5 NASA socials being held today in various NASA field centers. The lead center for the Mars Science Laboratory events will be the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California.

Mission Emblem & Pins, designed by Susan Bell

To follow along throughout the weekend, see the NASA Television Schedule for engineering and science briefings, live streams from the media socials, the Sunday landing, and recaps up until August 10th. Our sturdy MSL buddy should be roving madly by then, and taking all manner of awesome panoramic pictures near Gale Crater.

For my and Team Camilla's updates, you can follow @Pillownaut, @Camilla_SDO and @acwynn!

Mojave Air & Space Port

Gateway to space! That's what the sign says when you enter Mojave, California. And why not? Good a place as any for the Mojave Air & Space Port -- also sometimes known as the "Civilian Aerospace Test Center". Following the social events at NASA Dryden this past week, a few of us stragglers had a mini #SpaceGirlTweetup on our way home!

We wound up realizing we should do this more often.

Mojave Air & Space Port

MHV, formerly a WWII Marine air station, is now the up-n-comin' Space Oasis! Or at least, that is what we're all hoping as space start-ups congregate to test vehicles and develop new technologies. It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2004.

Later that same year, the first private spacecraft, named SpaceShipOne, was launched by Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo, which will host tourist trips to the "62-mile-high" club, is currently being developed. Other space port inhabitants include Stratolaunch, Interorbital System, Orbital Sciences, Masten Space Systems, XCOR Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, and Firestar Technologies.

The ROTON - Rotary Rocket

The port has a long history of military service, test programs and world records; perhaps not as importantly, but still rather novel: it has been a filming site for 18 television shows and 16 movies, including the Hey Let's See Keanu Reeves Blow Up a Huge Plane scene in Speed (1994).

Since 1981, the site has also housed the civilian National Test Pilot School (NTPS), and since 1994, the affiliated National Flight Test Institute.

Sign me up!

For tourists interested in visiting, one of the very new features of the port is "Legacy Park", a lovely mirage covered with lawns and wild flowers -- quite the odd site in the desert!

Created on behalf of all the Mojave workers who have contributed to the site, the lovely park houses memorials to fallen test pilots, a composite of the SpaceShipOne craft, the flown ROTOR rocket and a mockup of the Rutan Model 76 Voyager -- the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.

Julie, Heather, Camilla, Jane & Annie

Another fun "don't miss" item is the aviation-themed diner with many dishes named after aircrafts and pilots! Voyager Restaurant overlooks the runways, where we ate lunch while watching planes taking off and landing.

Besides being right on top of the flightline, your dining experience includes great food, local aeronautics newspapers and periodicals, Tower Radio at each table, and free wifi. Okay, it was no NASA Social, but not a bad show!

Dryden NASA Social

Tweetups turned into Socials, and Dryden Research Center's first official gathering was a rousing success! What a ride!

Dr. Hugh L. Dryden would probably have been amazed at the frenzy created by these events, given his reputation for calm countenance... hmm, I wonder if he would have joined us on Facebook?

OMG! Chicken in the Cockpit!

I got to sit in the cockpit of an FA-18 Super Hornet twin-engine carrier-based multi-role fighter aircraft! And I really just want everyone in the world to know it. Thank you.

We saw, either up close or in slides & videos, many retired and active aircraft, so I kept the link to the Dryden Historical Aircraft Photograph Collection handy throughout the day in order to identify everything. It's a bit surreal to visit a largely isolated place where millions of dollars worth of flying machines are just sitting around everywhere! And even more surreal is that, by the end of the day, you've gotten entirely too used to it.

Mojave desert in California

Edwards Air Force Base is just east of the middle of nowhere, but SO well worth the trip to see a place not many people are allowed to visit. There were speeches, there were songs, there were many hours of walking and tweeting and ... wow, there was even a flight-suit fashion show.

We were treated to SONIC BOOMS, and a test pilot named Jim Less (his aviator callsign is "Clue", LOL!) performed a fast, roaring flyby in an F/A-18 just for our waiting cameras!

Afterward, we roamed from hangar to hangar to see currently used aircraft, new designs in the making by General Atomics, Northrup Grumman, McDonnell Douglas, and Boeing, plus many historical artifacts back to the Apollo era.

Test Pilot Helmet!

We were allowed to sample flight food (tubes similar to those used on space missions), try on various helmets, board the CTV, mingle with research and test pilots, and of course meet many other aeronautics enthusiasts from all over the US!

After hours, we headed to the local test pilot hangout in Boron, CA for dinner and ... okay, singing & sombreros after a little tequila time ;)

Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV)

Click on any picture to go to the full gallery, or click this link to see the NASA Dryden album in my Pillownaut Picasa site, which also includes last year's trip to the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale to see SOFIA!

NASA Tweetup #5

New Tweetup on Friday, May 4! Now called the NASA Social! Back in MY DAY they were called Tweetups, anyway. Just kidding, don't want to sound like a geezer 50 years before I should.

Anyway, it's ROAD TRIP time again, and this time I'll be headed to Monterey, where I'm excited to show Camilla the Apollo Moon Tree in Friendly Plaza, and then on to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) on Edwards Air Force Base in California.


Seems pretty big on the ground, but if you check out all of Edwards AFB on Google Maps, you'll see it's only a very tiny portion of the base! And pretty far inside the boundaries, so you'll never trip over it.

Sadly, Dryden is one of the very view NASA sites that is not open to the public, partly due to the classified nature of some aeronautical research, and partly due to budget concerns on the base. One used to be able to reserve pre-arranged tours at Dryden with specific dates, but those small allowances were also cancelled as of December 2011.


So, if you are interested in the first "A" of the NASA acronym, follow me Friday on Blogspot, Twitter, Facebook and Picasa this week for all things Dryden! Most of the Tweetups I've been to thus far have been about Space, but the agency's Aeronautics research and manufacturing branches are also crucial to the whole!

I'm already on the road, now -- and eagerly anticipating Star Wars Day (anyone think that was a coincidence?) at Dryden, perhaps seeing experimental aircraft, perhaps getting to meet real live test pilots, and... would an Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration be too much to ask?

A girl can dream.


Last summer, it was my honor and pleasure to visit the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility to see SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. That was rather a short and sweet affair off the base. This time, however, the crowd of 75 social media (mongers? maulers?) ... okay, let's call us "enthusiasts", will be able to spend the entire day seeing the aircraft fleet!

All participants have been told we can photograph static aircraft, though no word yet on what we will see or be able to record in flight. Stay tuned for more updates! On twitter, you can also follow hashtags #DrydenSocial and #NASASocial, or follow the @NASADryden feed.

For my and Team Camilla's updates, you can follow @Pillownaut, @Camilla_SDO and @jotolluch!