Earth framing the International Space Station in May 2010 following undocking of Atlantis during the STS-132 mission. (Photo: NASA)
The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite in low orbit (205 to 270 miles) above the Earth, completing 15.54 orbits per day. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, the ISS is the largest artificial body in orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets as well as U.S. Space Shuttles.
The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, as well as the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.
ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US. The station has been continuously occupied for 15 years and 150 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000. This is the longest continuous human presence in space, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir. The station is serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft: Soyuz, Progress, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, the H-II Transfer Vehicle, Dragon, and Cygnus. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 17 different countries.
On August 15, 2013, for 20 minutes, three astronauts in the International Space Station were interviewed live via satellite by high school students at the Riverside Preparatory Academy in Oro Grande, California.
A student named Bailey asked astronaut Christopher “Chris” Cassidy (man in black shirt on the right in video below) about what high school was like for him.
This is what Cassidy said (beg. at the 0:13 mark):
“Well, it was the 1980s, so the music was different, the hairstyle was different, the clothes we wore were different than today, but probably in 5 to 10 years, it’ll be the same. And in school I was just like you, probably all of you there. I tried my best. I didn’t always succeed, didn’t always do well, but I put my best effort into school. Math and science were kinda my favorite subjects. I didn’t really like English and reading too much, but I’ve since grown out of that, I do everything now. And I played a lot of sports. And all of that happened in a little town called York, Maine across the United States from where we’re talking to you right now.“
So astronaut Cassidy said he was not in space, but somewhere in continental America — “across the United States” from his hometown of York, Maine? WTF!
Or did Cassidy mean that York, Maine is “across the United States” from Oro Grande, California, where the high school students were? Afterall, he did say English and reading were not his favorite subjects in school.
This is the sort of stuff that feeds the “NASA and Moon landing are fake” meme.
Wikipedia says Christopher John “Chris” Cassidy, 46, is a NASA astronaut and Navy SEAL. He achieved the rank of Captain in the U.S. Navy, and currently serves as Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA. Cassidy attended York High School, in York, Maine, where he lives with his wife and three children.
Cassidy’s first spaceflight was on Space Shuttle mission STS-127, and his second was as a flight engineer for Expedition 35/36, launched aboard Soyuz TMA-08M. He was in space between July 15–31, 2009 and March 28 – September 10, 2013.
On September 10, 2013, Cassidy returned to Earth after more than five months in the International Space Station. (Source: NASA)
See also my post “NASA’s ‘Blue Marble’ Earth is a fake”.
H/t FOTM‘s bongiornoc
~Eowyn
