Discover Magazine points out another beautiful image from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The images produced by this camera are evocative, stunning, and truly out-of-this world. I love the statement that the HiRISE instrument is his favorite camera in the solar system right now.

The true nature of the universe spoke about 50,000 years ago in our galactic neighborhood. We heard its echoes on December 27, 2004, and we had heard nothing like it before. Mankind truly is fragile. I think we overestimate our durability in the face of the vastness of the universe. That this amount of destructive energy could be so concentrated really boggles my mind, and yet we were over 50,000 lightyears away when it happened. Can you imagine what this would do at closer distances?!

“SpaceShipOne”:http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm, along with pilot Mike Melvill, soared 100 km above the Earth’s surface today, marking the first time a privately-funded and built space craft carrying a human being entered into orbit. This marks the beginnings of commercial, manned space flight, just as the Wright brothers did just over 100 years ago with air flight.

I woke up early this morning (6:30 am :???:) just to see the launch. It was interesting how this craft takes off with the assistance of a plane (Knight One)—very slowly albeit—separates at 50,000 feet, and then engages its rocket for a single burn to reach about mach 3 and the edge of space. An interesting approach.

This is huge! Given the deadline of the Ansari X Prize in the next year, we should be seeing more such flights soon. And lately, to think, I’ve been more sceptical of anything like this in my lifetime. I like to have my scepticism proved wrong.

Check out more with this “Scaled Composites press release”:http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=14315.