THERMOSPHERE, EARTH— On June 7th, 2011, three highly trained astronauts from Ukraine, Japan, and America known as Expedition 29 launched from Earth with a destination for the International Space Station. Their mission: further investigation and experimentation of microgravity on the human body, ecology, physics and resources.

Expedition 29 is a configuration of six astronauts split into two groups, Soyuz TMA-02M (the three men in space until November) and Soyuz TMA-22.

Since the very first expedition crew, the International Space Station (ISS) has been used to examine the impact of microgravity, and other space effects, on humans’ daily lives such as cancer treatment, air purification and vaccine development. For a little over nine years of research, four hundred experiments have been tested on the ISS. It has been an extraordinary success of human advancement to “conceive, plan, build, operate, and utilize a research platform in space,” (NASA).

Not only is it a great achievement of technological development, but in global human relationships. It brings together several different people — from the US, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Japan — and has calculated, organized, and worked wholeheartedly towards an international goal for a universal love.

Lucky for the citizens of Port Angeles, on October 16th through the 27th, the International Space Station will be visible and can be seen flying across the sky. Wednesday, October 26th, at 8:20 PM is when the next sighting will be. Check for other sighting information at NASA’s International Space Station sightings webpage.: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States&region=Washington&city=Port_Angeles

On November 2nd, 2011, the ISS will be marking its tenth anniversary of consecutive human occupation since Expedition 1 in 2000. Lucky for the students of PAHS, space-geek Mr. Gallagher will be hosting an “ISS party” for anyone who’s interested in seeing the International Space Station fly across the night sky. The party will begin at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, October 26th. The station will ascend at 6:45, sailing across the sky for about four minutes and setting on the Northeastern horizon. For more information about “out of this world” sightings, please see NASA’s Space Flight webpage.