1.
Working in a big tank full of water allows astronauts
to pretend they are working in space where they are weightless.
2.
The word astronaut means "star sailor" in
Latin.
3. An astronaut's salary is based on the civil service
pay scale. Astronauts are ranked between a GS11, which
earns $40,000 a year, and a GS14 that earns $82,000 a
year.
4. Astronauts' foot prints and Lunar Rover tire tracks
will stay on the Moon for millions of years because there
is no wind to blow them away.
5. When astronauts sleep in space, they are zipped into
sleeping bags which are then attached to the walls of
their spacecraft. This keeps them from floating around
in their sleep.
6. All muscles become weaker and the bones become more
brittle while in space.
7. As the Space Shuttle returns to Earth from space,
its belly glows red hot for about 10 minutes. The temperature
of the Shuttle belly is over 1,200 degrees Celsius.
8. The special silicon based insulation serving as the
primary heat shield for the orbiter sheds heat so rapidly
that one side can be held in bare hands while the other
side is red hot.
9. It takes about twelve minutes for the Space Shuttle
to pass over the continental United States from California
to New York. A Shuttle trip around the world takes only
ninety minutes.
10. The Hubble Space Telescope was named after the astronomer
Edwin Hubble, who, as a boy, had a paper route.
11. When Hubble was first launched it had a bad mirror
which made all of its pictures look fuzzy. Astronauts
from the Space Shuttle repaired Hubble during a spacewalk.
12. Some of the technology created in the construction
of the Hubble Space Telescope has been applied to create
advances in medicine, computer chips, and the prevention
of electrical power outages.
13. Space Shuttle Columbia was the first shuttle to
go into orbit around the Earth. It first launched on
April 12, 1981.
14. Asteroids were named
after the Columbia crew members as a "celestial memorial".
Orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, the seven
asteroids
- one for
each crew member - were discovered in July 2001 by astronomer
Eleanor F. Helin.
15.The spacesuits that today's astronauts wear while
on a spacewalk have changeable parts just like a Lego
set does
.
16. Before each launch, the astronauts are given their
own space wardrobe. It includes shirts, pants, sleep
shorts, slippers, and even underwear!
17. On Earth, the EMU could weigh as much as 107 pounds
while the MMU would weigh 310 pounds. In the weightlessness
of space, though, this is not a concern.
18. Some space probes, such as Pioneer 10, fly out of
our solar system and never come back. Other space probes,
like the Hubble Space Telescope, stay in orbit around
the same planet their whole life.
19.The space probe Galileo traveled for over six years
before it reached Jupiter in December 1995.
20. Footprints left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts
will still be visible to Moon visitors 1 million years
from now!
21. An important function of the Skylab space station
was to take photographs of the Earth using special infrared
cameras. One of the pictures enabled scientists to help
famine victims in Africa find water.
22. In the weightless conditions experienced in orbit,
all muscles, including the heart, become weaker and start
to waste away.
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