For those of us who have a little astronaut/cosmonaut/taikonaut in us, the International Space Station has been streaming live feed of Earth since October 2016. You can follow it here. I find this absolutely fascinating.
Our family watched Felix Baumgartner jump off a balloon from space via live feed, and I was stunned. As much as I was stunned watching with my kids Curiosity land on Mars, live again on the Tubes. We have the privilege to live a 45 min drive away from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and with their annual open house, I can’t wait to show my girls the #nerdcampus once more – only seen it once some years back and the free tickets sell out in minutes.
I fly airliners for a living, been doing it over a decade now; at 38,000-40,000 feet space is just a tad closer on a regular office day. At night, above all clouds, you can easily see the Milky Way, spot major constellations, and every so often, the fast moving ISS. It’s an uncanny sight when you spot it. For a second your mind goes “wtf is that, a shooting star?” And then you wonder if the spacedude/gal on ISS is looking at my puny craft going “wtf is that slow poke, a blimp?”.