Core Dump 2.0

We don’t see a lot of pictures of Russia’s space launch centre, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, despite the fact that it’s now the world’s primary manned spaceflight centre. The Atlantic’s Big Picture blog has a great series of photos from  Baikonur and the cosmonaut training centre, Star City, featuring preparation for and launches to the International Space Station.

Earlier today, a Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying an International Space Station (ISS) crew into orbit. Baikonur, Russia’s primary space launch facility since the 1950s, is the largest in the world, and supports multiple launches of both manned and unmanned rockets every year. With the U.S. manned space program currently on hold, Baikonur is now the sole launching point for trips to the ISS. Gathered here is a look at the facility, some of the cosmonaut training programs in Star City outside of Moscow, and a few recent launches and landings — plus a bonus: 3 spectacular long-exposure images of Earth from the ISS.

It’s amazing to see these photos considering how secretive the early days of the Soviet space program were.

Here’s a bit of space history for you – a very nice photo essay on Project Gemini.

Fifty years ago, NASA began a program called Project Gemini, developing deep space travel techniques and equipment to prepare for the upcoming Apollo program. Two unmanned and ten manned missions were flown, and astronauts and engineers accomplished hundreds of goals, including the first American spacewalk, a 14-day endurance test in orbit, space docking, and the highest-ever manned orbit at 1,369 km (850 mi). After the project ended in 1966, many Gemini astronauts brought their experiences with them as they went on to fly Apollo missions to the Moon. Collected here are remarkable images of Project Gemini half a century ago — some beautiful, some technical, and a few surprisingly intimate.

I got in trouble at school over Project Gemini. I was in science class and listening to one of the launches on my little orange Sony transistor radio with it’s tinny little single earplug speaker. The teacher didn’t say anything at the time, but I got called out the next day, so I figure one of the other kids in the class must have said something. He thought I was listening to a baseball game, but I really was listening to s apace launch and figured that was a perfectly valid use of my time in a science class. I probably just should have asked him if I could listen – it wasn’t like I was missing anything as I was carrying something like a 95 percent average.