Welcome Home, Discovery!

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Discovery touched down on Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, completing the 13-day, 5.3-million mile journey on the STS-119 mission. Discovery delivered the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and the S6 truss segment. The mission was the 28th flight to the station, the 36th flight of Discovery and the 125th in the Space Shuttle Program, as well as the 70th landing at Kennedy.

Discovery Lights Up the Night

Image credit: NASA

Space shuttle Discovery lit up the sky at sunset as it roared off Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on its mission to the International Space Station. The STS-119 mission is the 28th to the space station and Discovery's 36th flight. Discovery will deliver the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and the S6 truss segment. Installation of S6 will enable the station to house a six-member crew.

Capt. Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper is on the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, which takes off on Nov. 14, two days earlier than originally planned.

By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune

Last update: October 9, 2008 - 9:15 AM

A St. Paul native is poised leave Earth two days earlier than initially scheduled and add to her 12 days already spent in space.

Capt. Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper is on the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled for nighttime launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 14.

Endeavour's launch had been scheduled for Nov. 16, but that date was moved up last week after shuttle Atlantis' Oct. 14 blastoff was delayed.

On this 15-day mission, Endeavour will carry a reusable logistics module that will hold supplies and equipment, including additional crew quarters, a second treadmill, equipment for the regenerative life support system and spare hardware.

Stefanyshyn-Piper, 45, made her first trip into space in 2006 as a mission specialist on the shuttle Atlantis. She logged more than 12 days in space and made two spacewalks to assist in work on the Space Station.

Stefanyshyn-Piper grew up with four brothers in St. Paul, where she graduated in 1980 from Derham Hall High School. Her mother, Adelheid Stefanyshyn, still lives in St. Paul.

--Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

Minneapolis (May 30, 2008) – The Minnesota Planetarium Society today announced
that Paul Douglas, meteorologist and entrepreneur, has been named to the board of directors.

Douglas, 49, is the co-founder of Singular Logic, a patent holding company focused on internet news and advertising.

His current entrepreneurial pursuits include WeatherNation, which will syndicate weather reports for web sites, cable channels and broadcasters from a new studio in the western suburbs of the Twin Cities and NoozMe LLC, a new approach to providing news and advertising on the web. He is also the director of meteorology for LaCrosse Technology, an electronic products and weather instruments manufacturer based in LaCrosse, WI. Douglas served the Twin Cities market as a broadcast meteorologist for 22 years, most recently for WCCO-TV. Prior to that time he was associated with WBBM-TV in Chicago and KARE-TV.

“Paul’s body of knowledge, visionary pursuits and obvious lifetime passion for science make him a tremendous addition to the board and our efforts to make the new Minnesota Planetarium and Space Center a reality for our state,” said Peggy Leppik, president of the Minnesota Planetarium Society.
Douglas is heavily involved in addressing climate change, speaking to schools and nonprofits as well as being active in the Boys Scouts of America and “SAVE” (Suicide Awareness, Voices of Education), a national suicide prevention outreach program based in Bloomington, MN.

He is the author of two books, Prairie Skies (1981) and Restless Skies (2004) and made a cameo appearance in the 1996 movie Twister, playing himself. A graduate of Penn State, University Park, PA, Douglas holds a bachelor’s degree in meteorology.
The appointment of Douglas increases the number serving on the board to 18 members.

Last August, Larry Rudnick announced the discovery of a gaping hole in space, far larger than any previously found.
See our Announcement here

Astronomers have known for years that the universe contains spaces devoid of normal matter and mysterious "dark matter." But this newly found hole is one billion light years across! That's an expanse of 6 billion trillion miles of.nothing. Not to be confused with a black hole, this void is so enormous that current astrophysical theories simply can't explain it. Rudnick's recent findings made headlines around the world and raised intriguing questions about the origins of the universe.