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Dr. Phil Plait selects his favorite space pictures every year, but this year he had a lot to sift through. The top 16 pictures taken from the viewpoint of space include volcanoes, hurricanes, earth formations, the moon, eclipses, and spacecraft, including the final space shuttle missions. Astronaut Ron Garan took this photograph of the moon from the International Space Station. See the rest at Bad Astronomy Blog. Link
The Heathbrow Airport in London has unveiled the future of public transportation with these new shuttle pods. Laser-guided and battery-operated, they mosey at up to 25 miles per hour and are said to be impossible to crash.
In 2003 in the wake of the tragic Shuttle Columbia disaster many pieces of the shuttle were recovered in Texas. Now eight years later due to the intense drought in that state, one more piece of debris has been found in in four feet of lake water.
The recent drought in Texas has caused water levels to drop across the state, which has revealed a piece of American history resting on the bottom of lake. In the East Texas city of Nacogdoches, NASA has confirmed that a part of Columbia has been discovered. The piece of debris is a power reactant storage and distribution system (PRSD), which looks like a badly battered disco ball.
According to Lisa Malone, a NASA spokeswoman the PRSD is four feet in diameter, and was used on the Space Shuttle as a tank to provide power and water during missions. NASA is looking into how to recover the object.
The shuttle’s days are over, but its impact on daily life is by no means diminished. Since NASA began development of new tech for astronauts, we the people have gotten trickle-down innovations from the science implemented in shuttle missions. PopSci has rounded up ten inventions originally used on the shuttle that are implemented right now by non-astronauts. From baby formula to fishing nets, check out the gallery at Popular Science. Link
Image: Goodyear Tires
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We all are still in mourning for Space Bat who took the ultimate ride to the Heavens and beyond by holding on to dear life to the Discovery Space Shuttle. This is a tribute to remember what the brave little guy did by being the first and tragically last Bat to go to space…we’ll always remember you Space Bat…Godspeed! 
