Learning to Fly

Today, er...yesterday, I watched the new residents of the ISS (Oleg Kotov and the new commander Fyodor Yurchikhin) and a tourist (Charles Simonyi) enter their new home. There was much joy and celebration, the excitement of one crew seeing their new home, the excitement that another crew is that much closer to home, and a tourist who is soaking up every second of his $20M vacation.

It was quite interesting (and funny) to watch the newbies "fly" around their new home. They fumbled and tumbled and bounced off off the walls trying to keep up with their graceful counterparts. I suppose flying is a learned trick; for the longtime residents can orient themselves in any position with little overshoot. Their motion is true and graceful. As for the new residents, well, their wings have just unfolded and they exert a little too much force in going from place to place. In due time, they will have found their wings and will be just as graceful as crew before them. Perhaps one day i can stretch my wings and fumble and tumble and bounce off walls ... and learn how to fly.

I'll get you the links to the new crew members and the tourist sometime later today. I need to get some sleep since i have to be back at work in less than 8 hours now.