Monthly Archives: September 2012

endeavour, griffith observatory

Endeavour’s Last Landing

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At Home in LA

I spent a few hours on Friday watching the space shuttle Endeavour fly from her final stop at Edwards Air Force Base in California up to Sacramento, San Francisco, and finally to Los Angeles. If I had any way to do it, I would have gone out to LA to watch her final landing. I was in Florida for her final launch last year, and it would have been a fitting way to celebrate her final flight.

But, I couldn’t get out there, so I did the next best thing: I watched on the Web. NASA TV wasn’t carrying all of the flight, so I tuned into local TV stations online and observed folks observing the shuttle as she swooped her way around the LA basin. It was a beautiful sight.

I’m one of those people who loves to watch planes land. There’s just something majestic about a huge airliner float to the ground and gently touch down. And, when you count the fact that NASA’s Astro 95 was carrying a shuttle on her back, and was being accompanied by two chase jets… well, it’s irresistable to watch!

The folks at Griffith Observatory had a huge crowd of people watching from their perch on the Hollywood Hills. I have a special affinity for Griffith (I wrote their exhibits), and it’s just one of my favorite places in LA.  So, when their Deputy Director wrote me today and mentioned that they had some great video of the flyovers online, I indulged in a few pass-throughs of the show.  It’s the ultimate air show folks. Never coming this way again.

So, here it is. Enjoy!

astronomy, Uwingu, Uwingu Fund

Help Uwingu Take Wing

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Crowd-sourcing Science Research

A few entries ago I talked about a unique new crowd-sourcing project for science research that needs to be done but isn’t getting funded as well as it should be. The group doing the crowd-sourcing is called Uwingu, and you can read more about them here.

On the crowdsourcing page (on Indiegogo), Uwingu describes itself as “a small start-up company, a for-profit LLC, consisting of prominent astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators who passionately want to create new ways for space exploration, research, and education to be funded.”

Now the cool thing about this group is that they’re planning to create some very cool products and projects that the company will sell to help fund ongoing research. It’s a private-sector funding stream that the founders hope will bring in millions or even tens of millions of dollars annually for space projects of all kinds. This “Uwingu Fund” will eventually  provide grants to people who propose meritorious projects in space exploration, space research, or space education.

The money Uwingu is raising right now will help put the financial and business structure in place to administer those grants and produce the products.  They’ve raised just over $63,000 toward a goal of $75,000.  They have four days left to raise the rest.  If you go to the Indiegogo page, you’ll see that the beginning amount is a mere $10.00.  Or, you can give thousands. Or anything in between.  $10.00 is a small price to pay, but in the aggregate, if YOU give, and you have some of YOUR friends give, it adds up pretty fast.

So, check it out. I’m a fan of the group, friends and colleagues with some of them, and I think they’ve got a great idea going here.  And, then, once you’ve given, they’ll keep you informed about the product release, the science research they fund, and much more.