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Thursday, 30 June 2005
RTF Update
T -13 days, 8 minutes.And counting.
Background Information
Yep, it's that Hatbag time of the week again. Go, read, vote! Thanks!Especially you, Richie!
Today In History
On this date in 1971, cosmonauts Viktor Patsayev, Georgi Dobrovolsky and Vladislav Volkov died during the return to Earth in their Soyuz 11 vehicle after leaving the Salyut 1 space station, due to decompression of the Soyuz spacecraft during descent.
Impact Astronomy
For any skywatchers in the audience, here's some info on watching the Deep Impact comet collision Monday.
RTF Update
Today's the day.NASA senior managers are currently winding down the two-day Flight Readiness Review for the STS-114 Return to Flight mission, during which they will decide if and when Discovery will be ready to launch.
An announcement of an official launch date could come as early as 11:30 a.m. CDT.
Addendum: Make that no earlier than 1:30 p.m. CDT.
iPhone Update
So according to this article, Motorala's iTunes-equipped phone will be unveiled within the next few weeks and will begin shipping by the end of the year.The article also posits that an entire line of iTunes phone -- from low end to high end -- will be announced, which is news I like, because there's a limit to how much I would pay for it.
Still unsure as to how interested I am in the phone. To be tempting, it would ideally have iTunes, a camera, possibly Bluetooth, and, of course, an Apple logo somewhere.
Addendum: Additional information -- some interesting, some dubious -- at Cult of Mac.
Wednesday, 29 June 2005
The Last Planet
You can send your name to Pluto on NASA's New Horizons mission.
Web Ring
When I saw this link, it struck me as sounding almost like one of those too-good-to-true Web things, but I tried it last night, and it works. Mobile17 will let you turn an mp3 file into a ringtone and send it to your phone for free. Pretty darned cool.(Now all we need is for Joe to compose a special limited-edition ATW ringtone.)
Editorial Note
After several months of growth, traffic at hatbag.net slumped the last couple of months (pretty significantly in April), but my webstats are showing that, with two days left in the month, June already holds the record for most unique IP visits to the domain. Thanks, all!
Today In History
On this date 10 years ago, the Space Shuttle docked with Mir for the first time, on the STS-71 mission of Atlantis (roughly 20 years after the previous international space docking).
Fly Buy
With the issue of U.S. access to ISS nearing a crisis point, the White House is petitioning Congress for relief. After earlier remarks indicating it would not reach this point, the administration has asked Congress to amend the Iran Nonproliferation Act to allow NASA to purchase Soyuz seats from Russia. Without the amendment or some other agreement, NASA would no longer be able to use the Russian vehicles starting next spring. While the agency would be able