“I would have been here ten minutes earlier if I hadn’t been stuck behind that Meanderthal.”
Humankind has been fascinated with space for our entire existence, and it seems as soon as we could start sending things up there — be it animal, toy or food — we did. Here’s a list of some of the more bizarre things humans have launched into space.
Eight Strangest Things Sent Into Space
The Moon illusion is an optical illusion which causes the Moon to appear larger near the horizon than it does higher up in the sky. It has been known since ancient times and recorded by various cultures.[1][2] The explanation of this illusion is still debated.[2][3][4]
Source: Moon illusion – Wikipedia
The far side of the moon is an attention grabber for many reasons. A new mission idea capitalizes on those reasons in a project dubbed the Farside Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark ages and Exoplanets, shortened to this enlightened abbreviation: FARSIDE.
The concept would place a low-radio-frequency interferometric array on the far side of the moon. Jack Burns of the University of Colorado Boulder and Gregg Hallinan of the California Institute of Technology have sketched out a way to execute the mission in a NASA-funded report published last month.
Source: Moon FARSIDE: Lunar Astronomy Proposal Takes Aim at Cosmic Dark Ages and Exoplanets | Space
Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, will launch a spacecraft filled with science experiments — and thousands of postcards from kids — on Tuesday (Dec. 10), but only if Mother Nature allows. The company’s reusable New Shepard spacecraft is scheduled to launch on the suborbital NS-12 mission at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) from Blue Origin’s West Texas proving grounds. You can watch Blue Origin’s launch here and on Space.com’s homepage, courtesy of the company’s webcast, beginning at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT). You can also watch the launch directly from Blue Origin’s website here.
Source: Blue Origin Will Launch (and Land) a Reusable Spacecraft Tuesday. How to Watch | Space
The SpaceX Dragon space freighter, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply ship, and Russia’s Soyuz MS-13 and MS-15 crew ships are already there. The Russian Progress 74 that launched Friday at 4:34 a.m. is expected to dock to the Pirs compartment on the station’s Russian segment at 5:38 a.m. Monday, Dec. 9.
NASA TV and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of Progress rendezvous and docking at 4:45 a.m.
Dragon and Progress are two of four robotic spaceships that currently fly resupply missions to the ISS. The other two are Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle and Cygnus, which is operated by Virginia-based Northrop Grumman.
See also:Â https://www.space.com/russian-progress-cargo-spacecraft-launches-space-station.html
Though not a freighter itself, the Bigelow BEAM is also docked there… Bigelow_Expandable_Activity_Module The BEAM is an inflatable module that is being used as extra storage space and carrying out some experiments to judge the suitability of inflatable/expandable modules for use in space as habitats and utility compartments.
