Sushi For Breakfast

Captain Mark Kelly announces his retirement from NASA and the US Navy

Oddly, I was thinking this morning about how we'd probably hear an announcement like this at some point before the year is out. A lot of astronauts are leaving or have left NASA because the end of the shuttle programme means their chances of another trip into space are very small (NASA has a group of Astronaut Candidates currently in training, plus there's a group of recently-qualified ESA Astronauts waiting for their first missions), and Kelly's retirement (effective 1st October) means he'll be around to spend time with his wife during her rehabilitation. Also, according to this article from Space.com, they're writing a joint memoir, which would be a fascinating read I'm sure. There can't be many astronauts who have visited the ISS on four separate occasions - I wouldn't be surprised if he's the only individual to have done so.

So, thank you Captain Kelly, for your years of service, and for sharing your awesome spaceflight missions with us. Wishing you and your family all the very best for the future.

Both active Space Shuttles can currently be seen via webcam/web-accessible TV right now (hurry!). Endeavour is now docked to the ISS and can be seen as part of regular mission coverage on NASA TV of STS-134. Atlantis is in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC, being mated to the external tank & solid rocket boosters for STS-135.

Please take a look now, while you can. Note the header - when I say 'both' space shuttles that's what I mean, we're down to two, and in a couple of weeks' time we'll be down to one, then none by the end of the summer :'(

Thankfully I think all the royal wedding coverage is coming to an end. Endeavour launch coverage is quiet because they're in the middle of tanking, but I'm concerned about a rumour of a tanking reading anomaly and about the weather.

I just went downstairs to see what's on TV later tonight after the launch. Saw some of the wedding coverage cos Mum & Dad are watching. I mentioned that if it was only going to be a morning thing, we could've just had a half-day off from work, which Dad said was "stupid". I also said about how there's quite a few people at work who are actually working, because conferences and meetings and university induction days etc couldn't be rescheduled because this royal wedding bank holiday business was thrown upon us really quickly. I thought that meant they were getting married quickly because she's pregnant but Dad yelled at me for even suggesting it. If she is pregnant, she's not far gone because she's got a cinched waist dress, I saw the bit with everyone on the balcony. To sum up, the Queen was the best dressed person there and she was wearing one of her usual single colour coat-and-brimmed-hat outfits. The bride's dress was plain and her hair was a mess (but better I suppose than those ads for cable TV wedding shows with 25-stone women wearing strapless dresses), the groom's military outfit was so garish and hideous you need shades. Apparently it was a special outfit, not his dress uniform from the RAF or Coastguards or whoever he works for. And mother yelled at me because one of the little girl bridesmaids is Prince Edward's daughter, and I said I didn't know he had children and is he married as well.

There's been very little STS-134 launch news, a dramatic-looking weather front is apparently moving away from KSC, concerns are for crosswinds at the landing strip (in the case of a RTLS abort) and for weather at the TAL sites (in the case of an abort landing in Europe). Coverage is ongoing at http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/spacevidcast - just noticed they have a logo of MECO which is cool. I hope Tweeps start tweeting soon about Endeavour (very disappointed in many of them, who yesterday claimed they weren't interested in the royal wedding but have tweeted about it all day) - some of the crew have tweeted, they've had breakfast, and apparently there's a greasy spoon caff at KSC judging by Mike Fincke's breakfast. Saw some coverage of the Tweetup yesterday, some of Clay Anderson's speech/standup routine, he's the one who is fascinated by his own bodily functions and clearly should've been a Carry On film actor. Everyone was tweeting about a guy at the tweetup called Seth Green, who is apparently famous for himself, but I've never heard of him outside tweetups. I went to follow him cos I saw him asking Clay a question and he has a verified twitter account, he's an actor from those Mike Myers films in the 1990s but now does spaceflight twitter stuff. He hasn't followed me back yet.

Just remembered I should be keeping a day diary for Mass Observation. Haven't written a jot. Perhaps will copy stuff from here.

Tried to watch the STS-134 press conference twice, had to stop both times because some of the journalists there are such an embarassment. These things are usually reminiscent of Saturday morning kids TV with the phone-ins and live studio questions from kids to some pop star or actor or whoever, there's always some utterly lame question asked. But this time, despite having issued previous statements that he's not prepared to discuss his wife's, plenty of journalists think this means it's still OK to ask Mark Kelly about his wife. It does the journalists asking proper mission-related questions a disservice. From what I saw, Mark Kelly himself was being polite and diplomatic, but I hate that the rest of us have to put up with a bunch of lame-arse journos who can't think of a proper relevant question to ask.

I think that after today's news we need to focus on good things. At some point in the week, I'll post the posts I'd intended for today - one about my visit to Bedworth (with photos), and one about By The Sea.

Latest on Gabrielle Giffords is that she's out of surgery, is responding and doctors are optimistic but at this stage she's still in a critical condition. Discussion (at least in the twitterfeeds and forums I move in) has shifted to her husband Mark Kelly, who is due to command STS-134 which is currently set for launch in April. People are speculating that either he may request to be stood down from the mission, or NASA doctors may stand him down. A sim (mission simulation, where the crew are trained to cope with emergencies which may happen on-mission by simulating something or several things going wrong) on Monday has been cancelled, according to MCC-H people on my Twitterfeed. Thoughts also lead to the ISS, as Mark's twin brother Scott Kelly is currently commander, I can't imagine how that must feel, being stuck in space when you so desperately want to be supporting your family (they have no other siblings).

So a final, more uplifting thought to end this post on - watch this week's QI XL rather than the standard QI episode (H.15 Hypnosis). Robert Webb is a first-timer on the panel, and was clearly very delighted to be there.