As we wrote in April, ESA is looking for new European candidates to their astronaut training program. ESA asked all member countries to send applications for the upcoming training program. From Finland they will receive over 300 applications. This is the first time Finns have a change to become an astronaut and fly to the space.

ESA received 8.400 applications in total, and out of those thousands of applications only few will be picked up and given astronaut training. Most of the applications ESA received from Germany and France. I am really looking for to see someone from my home country entering the space. I did not apply

My dream might come true. ESA has announced that after their initial selection few Finns are still in the game. The process continues with a series of psychological tests, and those who pass the tests will continue with medical tests. Finally only four people out of 8.400 applicants will become ESA astronauts.

This is the first ESA candidate search since 1992. Those four new astronauts will fly to the International Space Station (ISS), but might also go to Moon one day.

Heh.. now my four years old son wants to become an astronaut..

There has been a really unusual problem in the International Space Station (ISS). The one and only toilet of ISS has been broken. Imagine how difficult the situation can be when astronomers cannot go to toilet and Nasa is not able to send a service man up there..

Ok, it is not that tragic anymore. The toilet is ISS got broken last week and the crew was first forced to use the toilet facilities of Soyuz but can now use the main toilet as it has been repaired by replacing a micro-processor valve. Although the toilet can be used now, it is still broken. There are several backup solutions available, so no worry guys.

Discovery will fly to ISS next week and currently it seems that Discovery will carry some extra toilet parts. Meanwhile ground specialists will continue troubleshooting the problem and station crew continue preparing for the arrival of STS-124. Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman have been practicing photography techniques they will use when filming the Rendezvouz Pitch Manouver of STS-124. If you wonder what the “Rendezvouz Pitch Manouver” means, it is a “back-flip” performed before docking with the station. The reason for photographing Discovery is to analyze if heat shields have broken during lift-off.

Oh boy, next week we will be able to watch directly the lift-off of STS-124. I guess I will have some troubles to do my work because every now and then I need to watch Nasa TV. I have watched several lift-offs directly after Nasa launched their TV in the Internet. Nasa TV is one of those great things Internet can offer. 10 years ago I could have not imagined that in few years I will be able to watch STS flights directly on my computer. Man, these things develop so fast..

If you are one of my daily readers, you probably have noticed that I have not been blogging actively lately. I have been too busy with my job and family. There have been so many things ongoing that my blogging has suffered very much. Another reason for my blogging hiatus is that here on northern hemisphere we suffer from the lack of dark nights. For example in Finland the Sun does not set at all on midsummer. Because of this amateur astronomers of northern countries don’t go stargazing that much on summer time. This applies with me as well. I hope I will be able to stick to my blogging pace in the future and avoid these breaks.

Have you ever seen a tiny little lights moving slowly across the sky? They are satellites and they move across the sky in about one or two minutes. Since 1957 countries have launched thousands of satellites to orbit the planet. Some of those satellites have already powered off and dropped to the atmosphere in which they have burned. Some of those satellites are still there, operating or not. In early 2000 there were about 9500 items orbiting the Earth. Most of those are satellites, but also the debris of rockets.

Satellites can be seen best during tow hours right after sun set and before sun rise. During the midnight satellites cannot be seen because on that time they do not reflect sun light. As the night begins, the satellites orbiting on low levels disappear first and then those orbiting on upper levels. Satellites you can see in night sky have different speeds and magnitudes. Satellites orbiting on lover levels usually move faster than those located in upper layers. Most of the satellites move in West-East direction.

For long we were able to observe the Russian space station MIR travelling in the sky, but few years ago it was drawn down to Earth and it was destroyed. Now we can observe the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttles docking to the station. Right now the space shuttle Atlantis is on its way to ISS.

More interesting targets to observe provide the Iridium satellites that have been launched since 1997. Iridium satellites have big antennas that can cause a flash that lasts up to 10 seconds. The flash of an Iridium satellite can be as bright as half moon. In order to see such a flash, you need to predict the passing of the satellite. This can be done in Heavens-Above.Com.

Satellites and space stations are not the only targets to observe. Every now and then space debris drops into the atmosphere causing a phenomenon similar to meteorite. Dropping debris can also look colorful due to various colorful devices of the debris. In some countries like Finland people can have a chance observe rocket launches. Finland is located close to rocket centers in Russia, Sweden and Norway. Sometimes when a rocket is launched we can observe it from Finland. Sometimes we can also observe the water vapor of the rocket. Last time I saw a large water vapor in the night sky was in September 1998 in Lapland in Finland. That vapor was left by a Russian rocket launched only few hundred kilometers away from my location.

There are lots of wonderful things to observe in the sky. Just keep your eye open!