Virgin Atlantic and Google have teamed up to announce Project Virgle: the first permanent human settlement on Mars. They are now taking applications.

I have got to follow the space news better… I didn’t know there was a Japanese probe up there taking HD pictures of the moon…

Some Browncoats donated copies of Firefly and Serenity for the ISS to keep in their permanent collection. They went up there last week. (h/t Bad Astronomy and Bloggity)

Five years ago, an amateur astronomer discovered an asteroid he designated J0002E3. However, on closer investigation, it turned out to be an asteroid covered with titanium dioxide paint.

In other words, the third stage from the Saturn V that launched Apollo 12. :-)

I didn’t know about the Sagan memorial blog-a-thon until today, but I suppose this would be a good time to pull out the autographed copy of Cosmos I liberated from my parents’ bookshelf on Thanksgiving and review it with da gulls.

Or maybe, since I’m at the Bangor library, I should check and see if they have videos of the series…

My most annoying answering machine message ever involved the opening theme music to Cosmos, in its entirety. I knew the trick to skip the outgoing, but nobody else who called me did… :-)

Thanks to Alex for the link.

At some point, the ISS went over Cape Canaveral while the Shuttle was being rolled out.

Thanks to the folks at Jeremy Zawodny’s LJ for the various pointers.

Ok, this is pretty much the coolest thing I’ve seen since watching the shuttle launch in Imax 3D — from inside the cabin.

Update: Oops, those weren’t from the ISS: they were from a high-altitude chase plane. Sorry. Still really cool pics, though.

Like to donate your liver, by any chance?

Xeni@BoingBoing links to a shot of the astronaut repairing the bottom of the shuttle.

Leslie Fish’s song “Hope Eyrie”, in honor of the Apollo 11 mission, has recently been turned into a music video, complete with some NASA footage I hadn’t seen before. It’s linked from the page about To Touch the Stars, a CD of space-related music.

Another of the songs, “Fire in the Sky”, was quoted by Buzz Aldrin on national tv the day the Columbia fell.