Blogging from space

Posted by Budi Putra on September 18th, 2006 filed in Blog, Bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, News, Space, Tech Idea, Weblog, Weblogs

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Anousheh Ansari, an American businesswoman born in Iran, who will become on September 18 the first female space tourist. She had to pay about $20 million for 10 days in space. After a trip in a Soyuz spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, she will spend some time inside the International Space Station (ISS). But what will she do on the ISS? She’ll become the first person to blog from space and tell us her thoughts from far above us!

Here is what she wrote in her first post, “The Road to Baikonur.”

In any case, whoever you are and for whatever reason you happen to be reading this page… Welcome to my blog…

This is the first blog I have ever written. I’m usually a private person, but with what has happened in my life, I feel an obligation to share this experience with everyone out there.

As you probably know I am, in “space lingo,” at L-9. (Translation: 9 days before Launch ). I have been in Quarantine in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, since September 2nd.

His colleague Peter described the preparation of Soyuz launch in the blog today:

At L-30 seconds… I can feel my breathing change… the control arms have just pulled away from the vehicle… the cosmonauts are shaking hands.

L-0… Ignition, launch… the vehicle looks perfect climbing into the sky… the plume is now looking like a star rising into the sky.

L+5 minutes. I can see Anousheh from the onboard cameras. Amazingly the TV signal is clear and strong. Anousheh still has her permanent grin. She is following along on the check list. Mission control is saying that all is operating nominal, g-forces are normal, vibration is minimal. Stage 2 has just completed its burn and Stage 3 is now operating nominal. At 7 minutes into the flight the speed is now 13,000 miles per hour, on the way to orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour.

The magic moment has arrived — 8.5 minutes into the flight. The third stage has completed its task — Soyz TMA-9, Expedition-14 is now safe in orbit.

Congratulations Anousheh, your dream has come true. You are in orbit! You have made it to space. You are one of only 500 humans who have ever traveled to space.

I can’t wait to go too. Keep my seat warm