Sushi For Breakfast

Yesterday I travelled north to Durham, to attend an event at Durham County Hall - billed as An audience with NASA astronaut Colonel Ron Garan. Ron is one of the astronauts I met in 2008, a few months after their Space Shuttle mission. This time, we would hear about Ron's five-and-a-half months living in space, a time which included his performing an EVA (with Mike Fossum) and the final two space shuttle missions.

( The full story, with pic and video )

It has been an eventful two days, meeting Ron Garan again and reading this book have made deep imprints on me. I'm sure the passing scenery from the train would have done so too, if I'd given it a chance and not been too engrossed in reading. But I'd like to revisit Durham sometime, it did look a very interesting place to explore - although not before I've found the walking boots of my (and my knee's) dreams.

Soyuz TMA-21 - whose crew includes NASA astronaut Ron Garan - has launched and is now in its initial orbit. So thrilling to watch the build-up activities and then the launch itself. Ron Garan is one of the astronauts I met a few years back from STS-124, he's been tweeting about his training and preparations for his ISS residency, and also regularly updates a blog, Fragile Oasis. During the final preparation stages today, his backup, Canadian astronaut Dan Burbank, has been tweeting on his behalf - there was a moment where while waiting to have his Sokol spacesuit checked for leaks, he was explaining something on his iPhone to Dan Burbank.

It's such a thrill to see the crew in orbit after all this time training. They - Ron Garan, Aleksandr Samokutyayev & Andrei Borisenko - have always looked like such an enthusiastic trio, and so proud of the opportunity they have in their mission to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight.

Late Wednesday/early Thursday they're due to dock at the ISS, so after that time, expect to see more posts from me (DDoS attacks on LJ permitting) about the mission, likely to include not a little fangirling from me. When an astronaut has such a wonderful smile and bright bronze-brown eyes like Ron Garan has, I suppose it's only to be expected.