SpaceShipTwo Unveiled By Virgin Galactic

We're probably a long way off before the scenes of commercial space travel you remember from the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey or Battlestar Galactica become a reality, but we came one step closer to it today.

"We want this program to be a whole new beginning in a commercial era of space travel," said British billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

He has partnered with aircraft designer Burt Rutan to form Virgin Galactic with the goal of creating an aircraft capable of making space travel as routine as commercial aviation flight.

SpaceShipTwo is based on Rutan's design of a stubby white prototype called SpaceShipOne. In 2004, the Rutan designed craft captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first privately manned craft to reach space.

Engineers from Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC have been laboring in a Mojave Desert hangar to commercialize the SpaceShipTwo prototype in heavy secrecy. They are hoping to begin the flights in 2011 after rigorous safety testing.

The first passengers on board the maiden flight of SpaceShipTwo will be Branson, his family and Rutan.

Branson is hoping to tap into a potentially lucrative market for would be space travelers. Several people have shelled out millions for rides on Russian rockets to the International Space Station, and according to Virgin Galactic some 300 clients have paid the $200,000 ticket price or placed a deposit.

"NASA spent billions upon billions of dollars on space travel and has only managed to send 480 people," Branson said. "We're literally hoping to send thousands of people into space over the next couple of years. We want to make sure that we build a spaceship that is 100 percent safe."

I wouldn't mind taking that ultimate plane ride either.

STS-129 Mission Includes Two African-American Astronauts

The TransGriot will be tuned in later today to watch the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis at 2:28 PM EST assuming there are no delays or problems.

STS-129's all male crew for this 11 day mission includes two African-American astronauts, Mission Specialists Leland Melvin and Robert Satcher, Jr. It is also Melvin and Satcher's first trips into space.

STS-129 also has experiments on board created by the minds at Texas Southern University, the HBCU in my hometown.

STS-129 is slated to be the 31st and final space shuttle crew rotation flight to or from the space station. In addition to transporting parts and a spare gyroscope to the International Space Station, it will include three spacewalks.

Atlantis will be returning station crew member Nicole Stott to Earth.

You space junkies like me will only have five more opportunities after today to watch a shuttle launch before they retire the shuttle fleet in 2010.

NASA Finds Water On The Moon!

There's water on the moon!

More precisely, there's frozen water in the permanently shadowed Cabeus Crater at the lunar South pole.

Project lead investigative scientist Anthony Colaprete announced at a midday NASA news conference at the Ames Research Center about the LCROSS Centaur project, I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, back on October 9 intentionally crashed into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.

So what's the significance of this discovery that has the scientific world buzzing?

Finding significant frozen water amounts means that a permanent manned lunar base just made a giant leap forward toward becoming a reality by 2020.

That's assuming NASA's effort to establish a US base gets properly funded by the federal government

The Chinese space program has set a goal of placing taikonauts on the moon by 2020 as well.

Water on the moon means we humans don't have to transport it up there from Earth. It is also one of the ingredients for making rocket fuel.

Previous spacecraft have detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the poles, which could be evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water mixed into the lunar soil all over the lunar surface.

"We've had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it," said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.

Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the mile high moon dust plume the impact temporarily stirred up.

"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began.

Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system.

Yeah, if we can get the funding to do so past the GOP Know-Nothings and Neo-Luddites in Congress.

Unexpectedly, I find myself floating...to a new dimension?

Occasionally, in a moment of reflection, I unexpectedly push the limits and my sense of reality goes beyond this realm of perception.



In a prone position on the bed, with eyes closed, while quietly freeing my focus - suddenly - an image appears in my mind...or so it would appear. It's kind-of a ball of energy, of sorts. But, the sphere is not perfectly round in shape or form.



Nor is the "light" dazzling; instead, it is muted or opaque.



It is an entity of sorts, but not of a religious origin, such as an angel or deity.



As I focus on the somewhat elusive object, I unexpectedly find myself floating in space, moving forward - into it - with my body.



The experience is not unlike a dream where you fly through a vivid sky aware of your physical body floating, flapping your arms like wings all-the-while, and propelling yourself forward.



Except, here - there is a smooth, effortless transition.



I maintain a sense of my physical self; but mostly, there is an awareness of an uplifting ultra-consciousness - expanding outwards, sideways, forwards - in all directions... without depleting or expanding the inner center or core of the essential being.



I go beyond the realm of existence in this relative plane.



It is an experience that is difficult to describe or put into words. It is not like astral-travelling, different - somehow.



An orb kind-of guides me, like a tug boat would, to another "sea" on a far shore.



Then, there is a release, and a calm prevails.



The episode lasts about twenty or thirty minutes without difficult sustaining.



I feel as if a "being" is preparing me for an event, a breakthrough to the other side, or something of that nature.



Curiously, I happened to switch the channel on Television one night this past week, and came across on an informative Science program on time travel.



Astoundingly, a handful of the images the scientists imagined in respect to the concept, were strikingly similar to those I have been encountering.



So, I have to wonder, am I preparing for a sojourn through time?



A recent article on dark energy also cast some light on the issue, as well.



In response to a theory that the universe is accelerating (which results in dark energy being pushed out) astronomers contend that gravity may be leaking out - putting the brakes on cosmic expansion.



They then theorize...if gravity leaked out anywhere in the universe, it would still make itself felt, leaving unexpected dimensions...a whole space time astronomers never expected to encounter.



Heh, If I disappear, you'll know that's what happened to me...

First Brotha In Space

Today is the 26th anniversary of the launch of the first brotha in space. And no, it wasn't Guy Bluford. His launch into space on the NASA STS-8 mission didn't occur until August 30, 1983.

That honor goes to Cuban cosmonaut Colonel Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez. On September 18, 1980 he was launched into space as part of the Soyuz 38 mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Cuban Air Force pilot was selected on March 1, 1978 as part of the Intercosmos program the Russian (then Soviet) space program was conducting to allow fellow Eastern Bloc nations to take part in space exploration.

After docking with the Salyut 6 space station, Tamayo and his Russian counterpart Yuri Romanenko remained on board to conduct experiments into what causes a form of motion sickness in some space travelers called SAS or space adaptation sickness.

After 120 orbits of the earth covering a total of 7 days, 20 hours and 43 minutes, Tamayo and Romamenko executed a risky night landing. They returned safely to earth 180 kilometers from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on September 26, 1980.

The Guantanamo born (January 29, 1942) Tamayo-Mendez was not only the first person of African descent into space, he was also the first Hispanic and the first person from a Western Hemisphere nation other than the United States to fly a space mission.

After his cosmonaut career he was promoted to brigadier general in the Cuban Air Force and settled into married life with his wife and two sons.