This is the morning of Kepler. I’m currently sitting in a the Marriot Ballroom watching the speaker, William J Borucki (NASA/Ames) gear up to announcing planets.
This amazing mission has been imaging the same rich stellar field over and over looking for planetary transits: the slight dimming of light...
It feels like a lifetime has passed since the Shuttle Launch, but I need to finish telling that story before I can move onto something new. That November the shuttle Atlantis launched flawlessly.
It is all a mosaic of moments: the shuttle astronauts drove past and waved; we all piled out for a group picture;...
We’re here. We’re actually here.
It is launch day for STS-129, the next to last launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. We settled into our seats at T-3 hours and holding, waiting for the crew to head out the vehicle and load up and get locked in (a new meaning for load & lock?)
It is a fair...
It’s morning and none of us have had enough coffee, but the approximately 100 of us in a conference room in the Rocket part are wide awake. Jon Cowart, Ares 1X deputy mission director, is currently going from table to table asking us to identify mystery items in a run morning mixer.
Earlier this...
A few weeks ago one of my students pointed out, OMG THE NASA TWEETUP PAGE WENT UP EARLY! While most of us in the room had alarms set off to go off at noon to register for this special event, it wasn’t yet noon, and in a rush of adrenaline and typing we went to the sign in page and used are various...
If all goes well, next week a team of well trained astronauts will be working to refurbish the first of the Great Observatories. Astronomers all across the world will be holding their breath in anticipation of the word that all is A-OK and a first glimpse of the first downloaded images. In Tuscaloosa, AL, a...
Dr. Pamela L. Gay is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science & technology. Hear her on Astronomy Cast. 
