At some point everyone of a certain age must have dreamed of being an astronaut, of flying into space, boldly going where man had gone before. I grew up with a dad who was a human factor specialist for NASA, basically an on-earth test astronaut. Richard Garriott–one of our guests tonight and the subject of Man on a Mission–is the son of an astronaut, Owen Garriott who rode aboard Skylab 2; he wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps. Fate, and bad eyesight, prevented him from becoming an official astronaut so he set off to make his dreams come true (and along the way, he became the father of a whole generation of computer gamers.)

This whole Maya calendar end of the world whoohaa has reached such a pitch that White House.gov for goodness sakes created a link about the idiocy which sends you/me to the answers.USA.gov site with further links to NASA’s point of view on the subject.

With all the other bad stuff that has been happening, the stock market crash, Georgia murdering Troy Davis and Mr. 0 keeping the wars going, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the sky really is falling this time. You probably won’t get hit by any of the pieces, but just to be on the safe side, don’t look up if you are outside tomorrow.

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, my thoughts turn to peace. It’s hard to keep them there, though, because of the chorus of voices that scream for violence and war.

I grieve for those who died ten years ago in New York, DC, and Pennsylvania, as well as all who have died — and continue to die — in the wars spawned out of that attack. I long for the day when military fly-overs at football games become a thing of the past, and our cities have more statues to teachers than generals.

But the cheers for executions, and the willingness to spend billions of dollars on weapons to dole out death but mere pennies on social services that preserve life in one way or another for the most needy among us tell me that the day I long for is quite a ways off.

In June the Dawn probe from NASA decelerated into orbit around the mini-planet. Since then we have been getting more and more images. The picture above is one such. It is three large craters that overlap just enough make them look like a snowman.

Tonight is the peak night of the Perseid Meteor shower! It is one of my favorite things of the whole summer, the night when you either stay up really late or get up really early, go to some darkened field and watch little flecks of fire streak across the sky.

Now, not everyone can get out of their Mega-City to watch this yearly occurrence; but not to worry, the guys at NASA will hook you up! That is what we have at the top of this post a live composite of the meteors that have streaked across the sky.

Say what you like about the things the the US is no longer great at, we still are the Big Dogs when it comes to building and running long term space missions. Today the Opportunity Mars Rover finished a two year trip to the Endeavour Crater. There it will look for signs that water persisted on the surface of Mars for long periods of time. Not bad for a probe with a 3 month estimated mission life, eh?

We had a massive solar flare this week, starting on Tuesday — the biggest since December 2006 — and the chart you see here indicates the possibility that some auroral activity may be visible tonight as far south as Indianapolis, Indiana. You might not get a spectacular light show, maybe just a shimmer you can’t define, but it will be more than I can see under this cloud cover.

Next week is the State of the Union address, and I thought I’d offer a little last minute, unsolicited advice to the president and the White House speechwriters. Some may think it presumptuous, but as one of “we, the people,” I think it’s allowable. It’s not like they have to take the advice, after all . . . but it sure would be nice to see and hear something like this.

On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Arizona and this great nation for their unbelievable outpouring of support. Gabby was doing what she loved most — hearing from her constituents — when this tragedy occurred. Serving Southern Arizonans is her passion, and nothing makes her more proud than representing them in Congress.