Space debris, the rubbish from old, defunct, or shattered satellites circling the Earth in an expanding sphere, has been a hot topic these last few weeks. Back in 2007 China came under fire for demonstrating its military muscle by shooting one of its satellites to pieces from the ground. In February two satellites collided in orbit at high velocity, spraying debris throughout space and causing fears of some of the rubble crashing down to Earth. While our growing extraterrestrial rubbish tip may seem like a pretty trivial thing to concern ourselves with, the threat it poses to our scientific and technological endeavours in outer space has become worryingly clear.
Awesome ISS pictures
November 26, 2008 By
Some really amazing pictures celebrating 10 years of the International Space Station over on The Big Picture. Enjoy!
Image credit: NASA
Belgium rule the Galaxy
November 25, 2008 By
Well, not quite perhaps…. But good news!
ESA announced last week that Belgium’s second man in space, Frank Dewinne, will become the first non-American or non-Russian to command the International Space Station. After a first visit in 2002, Dewinne, 47, will be returning to the ISS on board a Russian Soyuz in May next year. He’ll be part of the first 6-man crew on board the station, taking advantage of the upgrades taking place during the current ongoing mission. He may even be able to drink his own pee! During the last few weeks of his 6-month stay, the Belgian civil engineer and pilot will take command of the ISS crew, ending the Americo-Russian dominance of the post.
If you read Dutch you can read more here.
Incidentally, Belgium’s first man in space was Dirk Frimout (in English here!), who travelled on Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992. Dirk has since been immortalised in Suske & Wiske, one of Belgium’s most popular comics. He was voted the 161st and 26th Greatest Belgian by the Flemish and Wallonian communities respectively. Placed higher in Wallonia than in Flanders – ha, who says we can’t get along?!
Go Frank, go Belgium!
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