yuri

The scientists aboard the International Space Station "have the best view in the solar system," videographer Alex Rivest says. Maybe that is why he created this time-lapse video of exactly what the scientists see so people around the world can also gaze at the same view.

Hovering close to Earth and completing 15 orbits per day, the ISS provides dozens of photos and videos of the views it records -- the same stunning scenes captured in Rivest's video. The habitable satellite tracks rolling scenes of the multi-colored planet with images of long winding rivers, high mountain ranges, … Read more

The anniversaries this week of the first man in space and the launch of NASA's first space shuttle missions come at time when commercial spacecraft are ushering in a new era of space flight.

Thursday was the 51st anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's 108-minute orbit around the Earth, an event that shocked the world and ratcheted up the speed of the Cold War-fed space race.

And 31 years ago on April 12, the space shuttle Columbia lifted off, the inaugural flight of NASA's shuttle program which drew to a close last year.

Astronauts from different countries on the … Read more

As far as the United States was concerned, John Glenn's Feb. 20, 1962, flight aboard Friendship 7 could not have been more important.

Less than a year earlier, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space, and by the time of Glenn's launch, Americans Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom had already made their way into the heavens, if only briefly.

But with his 4 hour, 56 minute flight, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, doing so three times at an altitude of up to 162 statute miles and speeds of up to … Read more

On the anniversary of Russia's triumphant manned space flight, Donald and Eric scheme to put America back on top by building a life-size, fully functioning Imperial AT-AT. Less ambitious projects are also covered, including a Lego Ghostbusters car, a 360 video capture lens for the iPhone, and a digital film roll to give analog cameras new life.

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In case you didn't know, today marks the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's journey into space. The Russian cosmonaut became the first man to orbit the earth on April 12, 1961. A high-end luxury watch called the Gagarin Tourbillon celebrates that great day in history with a delightfully complex design.

The highlight is the flying tourbillon, an intricate mechanical device that keeps time in more expensive watches. Unlike in other mechanical watches, this tourbillon doesn't stay in one place, but "orbits" around the watch dial, which bears the names of places and cities Gagarin passed in his Vostok-1 spacecraft back in 1961.

As a bonus for Gagarin fans and horologists, the tourbillon takes exactly 108 minutes to make a complete revolution around the watch face, the time that the cosmonaut stayed in orbit around the earth. Swiss designer Bernhard Lederer also threw in a magnifying glass to closely observe the intricate movements of the tourbillon mechanism.

If you want to see The Gagarin Tourbillon in action--trust us, it's worth it--check out the promotional video below. … Read more

"They've got a man up there. It's Gagarin."

With those fictionalized words (see video below), spoken by actor Jeff Goldblum in Philip Kaufman's terrific 1983 screen adaptation of Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff," millions of viewers were ushered into the era of manned space flight.

Goldblum's harried alert to a roomful of top American policymakers represents just a little of the reaction in the United States to what happened 50 years ago today, on April 12, 1961, when 27-year-old Flight Major Yuri Gagarin, who was born on a collective farm west of Moscow … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Few in Silicon Valley had heard of Russian investor Yuri Milner when, in spring 2009, his investment firm Digital Sky Technologies bought a $200 million stake in Facebook and announced plans to buy more through employee stock buybacks.

Now, with stakes in Zynga and Groupon as well as the acquisition of the ICQ messaging client from AOL, Digital Sky Technologies and its sister company Mail.ru have become impossible to ignore in the industry. DST's stake in Facebook is rumored to approach 10 percent. The firm has itself gone public. It's pioneered a new kind of investment … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Corey Fro is chasing a large metal orb across the pavement at the NASA Ames Research Center here. He is desperately trying to make sure that the orb doesn't crush a nearby robot.

The orb in question is being remotely directed by a kid wielding an Xbox-like wireless controller, but it's the kid's first time using the device, and he really doesn't have any idea what he's doing.

And that's why the orb has rolled away and is bearing down rapidly on the unsuspecting and defenseless robot a few yards away. … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.--In April 2006, NASA announced that it was bringing in University of Arizona astronomy professor and former brigadier general Simon "Pete" Worden to be the director of its NASA Ames Research Center here.

Since then, Worden has brought a fresh perspective to the helm of one of NASA's most important research facilities, demonstrated through initiatives such as giving a keynote address to the International Space Development Conference from the virtual world Second Life. (Note: My wife works at Second Life publisher Linden Lab).

But along with administrators at several other NASA facilities, Worden has … Read more