Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking is an epic new kind of cosmology series, a Planet Earth of the heavens. It takes the world’s most famous scientific mind and sets it free, powered by the limitless possibilities of computer animation.

Hawking gives us the ultimate guide to the universe, a ripping yarn based on real science, spanning the whole of space and time; from the nature of the universe itself, to the chances of alien life, and the real possibility of time travel.

There are some truly mind-blowing video clips of the show at
dsc.discovery.com/tv/

The Official Website for Professor Stephen W. Hawking at hawking.org.uk

Only three more shuttle missions remain in the space program. U.S. astronauts will then be riding with the Russian cosmonauts to get back and forth from the International Space Station. Let’s just hope private aerospace engineers and companies will be able to carry NASA’s space program forward, since the administration won’t.

Source: NASA TV

NASA on Facebook

They’ve retrieved a science experiment on the Japanese Kibo Laboratory, replaced a rate gyro assembly on the center segment of the station’s truss, and removed an ammonia tank used to help cool the station.

The accuracy and co-ordination between the astronauts while working in space is amazing. Imagine floating weightless in space for six-and-a-half-hours, while orbiting the earth at 17,000 miles an hour. Often they have to use the grappling robotic arm from the shuttle’s payload bay to latch onto a moving target. It’s a real tribute to the teamwork between the flight and ground crews.

Mission STS-131 continues with the transfer of science lab racks inside the space station.

Source: NASA TV on YouTube

Liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center took place at 6:21 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 5th.

Here is the video of the lift-off on NASA TV’s YouTube Channel.

Mission STS-131 Press Kit

The closing ceremony will be held in the Aula Magna of the University of Padova, where Galileo taught astronomy and physics, in Padova, Italy. It’s the final event of a year long global celebration of astronomy and its contribution to society and culture.

Official Website: www.astronomy2009.org/

IYA YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/astronomy2009

Follow Live Streaming Video on www.beyond2009.org

This video was aired when NASA Television was honored with a Primetime Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The 2009 Philo T. Farnsworth Award recognizes the agency for engineering excellence and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the technological innovations that made possible the first live TV broadcast from the moon by the Apollo 11 crew on July 20, 1969.
(Source YouTube:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYyENdNiAPM

NASA is celebrating with multiple events surrounding the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing; check out the following links for more information on this historic event!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/

http://wechoosethemoon.org/

http://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision

http://twitter.com/AP11_CAPCOM

http://twitter.com/AP11_SPACECRAFT

I was wondering what it must be like to celebrate a holiday like Thanksgiving in space.  A quick search discovered this year-old video from the collectspace YouTube Channel. It shows two of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station describing their Thanksgiving dinner and counting their blessings.

The current astronauts have bid farewell to the space station crew, as they prepare to undock and depart the station Friday morning for a return to earth.  The Endeavour shuttle mission was declared a success with four spacewalks completed in eleven days.  More info at www.nasa.gov

The International Space Station will now receive the new Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, from Europe. The ATV is scheduled to dock with the station on April 3rd.

Andrew Potter reports via Reuters Video