Made in China

While Spacex is justly celebrating the Dragon docking with ISS, this month China plans a docking to their Space station with a crew, including one woman. This will be China's fourth human mission in Space, and the second with a 3-person crew. One crewmember will remain in the orbital module while two occupy the Space station. The Chinese Space program openly advertises their intention to land people on the Moon by 2024. Does the US even care?

Shuttlebration

The passing of an era: Friday June 1 the mockup Shuttle Explorer, which had previously been displayed at Kennedy Space Center, arrived by barge to be displayed at Space Center Houston. From the patio at Outrigger's Grill and Bar I photographed Explorer passing under the Kemah bridge into Clear Lake. Explorer's destination was the Clear Lake dock South of Johnson Space Center, which once saw Saturn V stages arrive. Thousands of people lined Clear Lake to see Explorer arrive. Friday afternoon became a Shuttlebration for the arriving mockup. Sunday June 3 Explorer travelled by road past the JSC main gate to its final home at Space Center Houston. That's JSC Building 4 in the background. Houston was quite disappointed not to receive a flying Shuttle for display. The greater disappointment is that they are being retired with millions of useful miles left in them.