This week the “stranded astronauts” Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to earth after an unscheduled nine months in space when Boeing’s Starliner (which they test piloted) was deemed unsafe to bring them back. I’ve been following their journey with interest, because as I repeatedly tell everyone who will listen Commander “Suni” Williams is my favourite astronaut. How do I have a favourite astronaut? So glad you asked.
Twenty-five years ago, the three crew members of Expedition 1 launched to the International Space Station atop a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan.
Here’s a cool fact you can share at the pub. That was the last time all of humanity was together on planet earth.
Since then the ISS has been continuously occupied, with 280 people from 23 countries visiting. The station itself has been gradually expanded over the decades of spaceflights and crews into the orbiting research lab we know now.
One of the many things I love about the ISS is how easy it is to see with the naked eye. There are a bunch of sites that will tell you when it’s passing over your location (I like Heavens Above) and you can go outside and wave to the astronauts overhead. This is one of the coolest ways to introduce the wonder of space to the little people in your life.
This is how I first came across Suni Williams. She does this great half-hour tour on Youtube showing kids around the ISS and answering all the questions you’d expect like “where do you sleep?” and “what do you eat?” and “how do you go to the bathroom?”. Anyway, Suni is a certified badass. She flew helicopter combat support in Desert Shield. She ran the first marathon in space, and followed it up with the first triathlon — treadmill and stationary bike, and for the swimming portion of the race, she used the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) to do weightlifting and resistance exercises that approximate swimming in microgravity. She’s completed nine spacewalks. In short, she rules.
Anyway here’s some more cool ISS facts to dazzle your friends with:
the ISS stays in orbit by getting little “reboosts” from the visiting spacecraft that dock with it. It also has to complete emergency manoeuvres to get out of the way of the increasing amounts of space junk
the new Crew Dragon is a lot more spacious than the Soyuz capsule everyone has used since the end of the Shuttle programme. Here’s a tour filmed on the way to the ISS. Yes, it has a toilet which recently leaked, but not like that. SpaceX ran a series of ground tests to make sure the Crew Dragon’s aluminum structure could hold up to the leaked urine and that the substance hadn’t become dangerously corrosive. Science!
actually, most of what the astronauts do on the ISS is science, and they’re responsible for some cool stuff.
this super interesting Webstock talk about designing for crew autonomy is how I learned that ISS crew have their six month stints planned out in five minute increments(!) for the entire duration of their stay. It’s also how I learned about NEEMO, the underwater facility off Florida where astronauts practice for being on the ISS.
they have movie nights on the ISS and got Star Wars:The Last Jedi sent up on its release in 2017.
the ISS will be decommissioned in 2030 and will be crashed back to earth. Reading this makes me unaccountably sad!
but you can still make it out of lego, and if you’re me, make it so it lights up when the real ISS is overhead.
and if you’re looking for something soothing, NASA livestreams the view of earth from the ISS.
(also, no, they weren’t actually stranded. there are spacecraft attached to the ISS at all times with enough capacity to bring the astronauts home)
Everyone recommended this a week or so ago, but I finally sat down and played the text adventure Type Help. It’s a lovely, nostalgic little puzzle, which I found exactly hard enough to be challenging without having to cheat.
Absolutely gorgeous LEGO art from Vancouver-based artist Katherine Duclos.
Hot firefighter show update: Eddie’s moving to Texas, and Buck is devastated, leading to whatever the hell this is.
Finally, Jolisa wrote me after last week’s newsletter and recommended I go see Antonio!
Antonio! reimagines all of Shakespeare's Antonios as one proudly queer pirate stealing hearts and booty on the high seas - that is, when he's not in London, regaling his playwright lover William Shakespeare with tales of love and adventure. Fed up with Will taking his stories but erasing their gay content, Antonio takes the stage with his band The Fools for Love to take the audience on a journey through the love stories that inspired The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and The Tempest.
She said, ’Tis funny, raunchy, tender, witty, and I suspect you might love it too. She was right! If you’re in Tāmaki Makaurau tonight or tomorrow night, go see it at the Basement Theatre. It will make your week.
