Saturday, June 23, 2007

Sunita Williams


Williams considers Needham, Massachusetts to be her hometown. She is married to Michael J. Williams, she is Indian-Slovenian American and has a pet Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby. Her recreational interests include running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting. She is an avid Boston Red Sox fan. Her parents are Deepak Pandya and Bonnie Pandya, who reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Dr. Deepak Pandya is a famous neuroanatomist. Williams' roots on her father's side go back to Gujarat in India and she has been to India to visit her father's family. She is of Slovenian descent from her mother's side.[2]
Among the personal items Williams took with her to the International Space Station (ISS) are a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small figurine of Ganesha and some samosas.[3]
After launching aboard Discovery, Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. The haircut by fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham occurred aboard the International Space Station and the ponytail was brought back to earth with the STS-116 crew.[4]
In early March 2007 she received a tube of wasabi in a Progress spacecraft resupply mission in response to her request for more spicy food. Opening the tube, which was packaged at one atmospheric pressure, the gel-like paste was forced out in the lower-pressure of the ISS. In the free-fall environment, the spicy geyser was difficult to contain.[5]

That pics shows a MIRV re-entry.








Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicle, or MIRV is a collection of nuclear weapons carried on a single intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Using a MIRV warhead, a single launched missile can strike several targets, or fewer targets redundantly. By contrast a unitary warhead is a single warhead on a single missile.MIRV Wikipedia articleThe US Minuteman 3 is the only US land-based MIRV ICBM currently in use. These MIRV capable ICBM's are especially used because they are harder to counter with anti ballistic missile systems due to number of independent re-entry vehicles in the re-entry phase. True to keeping the world more on edge, the Russians are developing the Bulava(SS-27 class) sea-launched MIRV ICBM. Supposedly the most advanced MIRV ICBM to date and still under development. This is obviously in response to the US Ballistic missile "Shield" that is under development.Okay enought of this rant, Here is night pic of MIRV re-entry:

Imagine The Universe; The Life Cycles Of Stars

No its not moving, its purely your eyes




netchicken:

Don't know origin of this but he must have been in there a while from the look of his hands

edit: BNoble found the origin of this picture, and its very tragic. I would have removed it ,but seeing its been here for so long I figured to leave it with an explanation...

Omayra Sanchez (the girl pictured) was 12 years old at the time and lived with her parents, her brother and an uncle. However, prior to the tragedy, her mother had traveled to Bogotá on business. Omayra could not escape and was trapped under her own home's concrete plaque and debris.

When rescue teams tried to help her, they realized that her legs were trapped. The only feasible option was to pull her out by breaking and ripping her legs off. Omayra remained strong until the last moment of her life. According to people who were by her side during those moments, the little girl wanted to live, saying her only worry was to go back to school.

The people who were trying to save her life begged the pilots of overflying helicopters to get a pump so the water could have been drained out. After two days a pump was delivered, but unfortunately it did not work properly and finally got stuck because of the mud and debris.