The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) is an astronaut training facility and neutral buoyancy pool operated by NASA. The NBL's main feature is a large indoor pool of water,[3] in which astronauts may perform simulated EVA tasks in preparation for upcoming missions. Trainees wear suits designed to provide neutral buoyancy to simulate the microgravity that astronauts experience during spaceflight.
The 2suit is a garment designed to facilitate sex in weightless environments. It has been tested in microgravity during a parabolic flight.
Leland Devon Melvin is an American engineer and a retired NASA astronaut. He served on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-122, and as mission specialist 1 on STS-129. Melvin was named the NASA Associate Administrator for Education in October 2010. Prior to joining NASA, he was a professional football player.
In aerobatics, Pugachev's Cobra is a dramatic and demanding maneuver in which an airplane flying at a moderate speed suddenly raises the nose momentarily to the vertical position and slightly beyond, before dropping it back to normal flight. It uses potent engine thrust to maintain approximately constant altitude through the entire move. Some have speculated that the maneuver may have use in close range combat, although it has never been used in combat. It is an impressive trick to demonstrate an aircraft's pitch control authority, high angle of attack stability and engine-versus-inlet compatibility, as well as the pilot's skill. The maneuver is named after the Soviet test pilot Viktor Pugachyov, who performed it in 1989 at the Paris Le Bourget air show.
Cosmic microwave background radiation is a faint glow of light that fills the universe, falling on Earth from every direction with nearly uniform intensity. It is the residual heat of creation--the afterglow of the big bang -streaming through space these last 14 billion years like the heat from a sun-warmed rock, reradiated at night.
Jack Parsons was an American rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. An enthusiastic occultist, he was one of the earliest American devotees of Aleister Crowley, and a leading member of his organization, Ordo Templi Orientis. Amongst many other things, Parsons and an associate attempted to bring about some sort of incarnation of the goddess Babalon. Parsons performed rituals (reportedly to the background music of Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff records) for 11 days in a process known as the Babalon Working.
Recorded near twilight on August 13, the bright streak is not the flash of a meteor trail but sunlight glinting from a satellite. The satellite, Iridium 52, is one of a constellation of Iridium digital communication satellites in Earth orbit known for producing stunning, predictable flares as they momentarily reflect sunlight from shiny antenna surfaces.
The Voyager Golden Records are phonograph records which were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. They contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find them. The Voyager spacecraft are not heading towards any particular star, but Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888 in the Ophiuchus constellation in about 40,000 years.
The Jantar Mantar is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Maharaja Jai Singh II at his then new capital of Jaipur between 1727 and 1734. It is modeled after the one that he had built for him at the then Mughal capital of Delhi.
Bernal Spheres are a type of space habitat intended as a long-term home for permanent residents, first proposed in 1929 by John Desmond Bernal.