As we wait for the space shuttle to return safely to earth – delayed until Tuesday, according to a BBC News report – we can listen to the first podcast from space, recorded on Sunday:
Hello, this is Mission Specialist Number 2 Steve Robinson from the Space Shuttle Discovery. We’re high in orbit on our last day of orbit. Tomorrow we come home…
What a great example of the informality of a medium that enables you to get such an insight into the humanness and personality of someone you’d be very unlikely to get otherwise:
[…] That was, I would have to say, the most fantastic experience of my life. Just incredible to be way out there on the end of that arm all by myself and see no evidence of humans anywhere. Just me and the Space Station and the Space Shuttle from a view that neither I nor anybody else has ever seen, and watch the sun come up over the bottom of the Space Shuttle, and get to sort of drink in that big view. I’ll never forget it, and I’ll never be able to describe it adequately, I’m sure. But I feel very fortunate to have been able to get a chance to do that. And also very glad that it worked!
You can read a transcript of the recording as well as download the file. There’s no RSS feed for the MP3 file on the NASA website so strictly speaking it’s not a podcast. But who’s going to quibble over strict interpretations? It’s just terrific.
NASA | Steve Robinson: First Podcaster From Space (MP3, 3.5Mb)
First(?) podcast(?) from space
But who’s going to quibble over strict interpretations?
Certainly not guys able to use two different systems for measurements causing loss of spacecrafts [do you remember the Mars Climate Orbiter? back in 1999?].
So The Old Dog Can Learn A New Trick … I Listen To A Podcast
While hip Earthlings are listening to the first podcast from space, some of us are just now beginning to figure out the technology for more mundane topics.
Yes, with some extra time on my hands this weekend — and seeing a subject I was interested i…