Our Face, in Space!

On July 8, 2011 NASA launched STS-135, the final mission of the space shuttle program. The shuttle might have only had 4 actual crew members but did you know that over three hundred thousand virtual folks also went to space? In fact, Janet's Planet was one of them! By signing up on NASA's 'Face in Space' site, we were able to send our name to space. Guess that's the next best thing to actually going ourselves, huh?


Apparently the commander and crew enjoyed having us aboard. It says so right on the site. For those folks who weren't able to send their name or face to space, don't fret! Commercial space travel is becoming more and more of a possibility each day...your real face might be smiling out of a shuttle window before too long!

Charting the Course: STS-135 Atlantis

Are you like us here at Janet’s Planet and excited to follow every move of the final shuttle STS-135 on its adventure in space? Never fear fellow space lovers! Thanks to a fun interactive tool on NASA’s website, we can all follow along as if we were right there with the team aboard the shuttle Atlantis! The above image shows the final spacewalk of the shuttle era. We're watching history in the making friends!

Currently on day 7 of the 12-day mission, the crew got the wakeup call of R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe singing his hit song “Man on the Moon.” Stipe also issued a personal message wishing “a very good morning” to the crew.

Here we see the space shuttle Atlantis over the clear blue waters of the Bahamas before it completed a perfect docking operation with the International Space Station. Wait, Atlantis crew…no time for a snorkeling expedition?

[all images via NASA.gov]