Spaced Out

I'm not much of an astronomy nerd, but I love space. Could be my deep and abiding love for Star Trek, or just sci-fi in general, but I get excited about the possibility of space travel, even though I won't live to see the day an ordinary guy can take a trip to the moon.

But that doesn't mean I can't celebrate exciting events in space history. This week (on LG's 7-month birthday, in fact) marks two separate space travel milestones. On April 12, 1961, a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin was the first man to travel in space. Twenty years later, on April 12, 1981, NASA launched space shuttle Columbia, the first reusable space vehicle.

Adding to the excitement this week, NASA announced which museums would receive the three retiring space shuttles. Shortly after that announcement, Sotheby's auctioned off a Russian space capsule that sent a dog and a mannequin in a flight suit into space and back again. Safely.

It's a good week to be a fan of space. And I'm celebrating the only way I know how. Doing silly things on Twitter. Check out the feed to the right of the blog, or visit my feed directly at http://twitter.com/SolvingForG.

I promise more pictures like this one of LG in her reusable spaceship: