Early Spring
I
Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plow'd hills
With loving blue;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The throstles too.
II
Opens a door in Heaven;
From skies of glass
A Jacob's ladder falls
On greening grass,
And o'er the mountain-walls
Young angles pass.
III
Before them fleets the shower,
And burst the buds,
And shine the level lands,
And flash the floods;
The stars are from their hands
Flung thro' the woods,
IV
The woods with living airs
How softly fann'd,
Light airs from where the deep,
All down the sand,
Is breathing in his sleep,
Heard by the land.
V
O follow, leaping blood,
The season's lure!
O heart, look down and up
Serene, secure
Warm as the crocus cup,
Like snowdrops, pure!
VI
Past, Future glimpse and fade
Thro' some slight spell,
A gleam from yonder vale,
Some far blue fell,
And sympathies, how frail,
In sound and smell!
VII
Till at thy chuckled note,
Thou twinkling bird,
The fairy fancies range,
And, lightly stirr'd,
Ring little bells of change
From word to word.
VIII
For now the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And thaws the cold, and fills
The flower with dew;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The poets too.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
|
- April
- From the Latin word aperio, "to open (bud)" because plants begin to grow in this month.
- Aprilis, month of opening (aperture) or, according to the Romans, of the goddess Aphrodite (Venus).
I found a couple places where there are some good images from STS-123:
This is a picture of ISS taken on the STS-122 mission on their flyaround before returning to earth.
Here is the picture of the current configuration of ISS which was taken on the flyaround at the end of the STS-123 mission. It looks like that is a Soyuz lifeboat at the top center of the structure and the boom STS-123 left there to be picked up by STS-124 below the truss just to the left of the Station’s articulated arm. You can also see that the lower left solar panel on the right end of the structure is not aligned with the other three. That must be the one that has the damaged SARJ bearing.
ATV Jules Verne has performed successfully on its two docking approach demonstrations and is scheduled to dock with ISS for real on 3Apr08. The docking will be broadcast live by NASA but it will happen before the library opens.
TMA-12 is scheduled to launch for ISS on 8Apr08 and should dock on 10Apr08. They will be bringing up two crew members of Expedition 17 and returning with two crew members from Expedition 16 when they depart ISS on 19Apr08.
ISS is going to need a space traffic controller soon.
The mission to launch the next component of the Japanese module of ISS has been postponed until late May08 due to problems producing the improved External Tanks on time. There is likely to be a trickle down effect on the launch dates of the remaining 2008 missions including the HST Servicing Mission. I found that the
Space Travel is saying the mission is scheduled for 25May08 while
Spaceflight Now has it delayed until 31May08 (which I have subsequently confirmed at the NASA web page).
NASA has a slick PR piece for the upcoming HST servicing mission.
Spaceflight Now is still showing the launch scheduled for 28Aug08.
