The latest EU member of the ISS crew — running a near daily all internet media log of her time in space — and thrilling millions of schoolkids, in the process [with over 210 million views, thus far]… has reached the half-way point, of her stay — in the international “hotel” for near Earth orbit / space travel. [With one of my several prior backgrounders, here.]
She is inspiring STEM kids the globe over, with real, hands on looks at what space-life is like: ocassionally very exciting, sometimes mundane and boring — maitenence work… but never the same thing, more than a few days in a row. And then, there are those endlessly breath-taking views, out the cupola window. Here (below) is the latest video installment from the European Space Agency’s feed:
…Sophie is halfway through the εpsilon mission onboard the ISS, and she has already accomplished so much. Between hundreds of hours of scientific research and thousands of photographs taken from space, she has taken the time to share many unforgettable moments with us — inspiring millions along the way on social media.
“Many thanks to all of you following along on social media, and to all the incredible teams behind εpsilon! It’s been an amazing adventure so far, and I couldn’t be more grateful for your support. Looking forward to sharing the second half of the journey with you all!”, says Sophie….
And… a lil’ closer to home, on a Zoom last night — we learned that our youngest son had endured another bike crash — he’s fine — except for some limited mobility in his left shoulder, which means he’ll skip swim workouts for a few weeks. We are thrilled the cut under his chin is the only thing that will leave a more permanent scar… but at mid-day, in sunny weather, a pickup truck (without the right of way) didn’t see him, and turned left dead in front of him — as he was pedaling straight ahead at ~22 miles an hour. It T-Boned him, but he mostly flew onto/into the truck bed, and had a pretty soft landing, relatively speaking. The carbon-fiber race bike did its intended job, and provided a crush zone for him — it can be replaced. [This is a common hazard, even in the very-biker friendly environs around Eugene, Oregon — especially at the smaller county road intersections.]
But at 30, he is now less-inclined to ride at absolute max speed on the very mountainous, shaply curved bike course outside Nice, France — this September for the Half Iron world championships.
He says he still intends to enter and finish the race — but may pull his “go fast, or go home” horns in — just a bit. [His prior two crashes were more serious, most recently having to have surgical steel plates and screws put into his right elbow three years ago, and two years before that, having to have his left shoulder repaired with cadaver tendons, from an extremely severely-separated shoulder.] So, crashes are a part of life, for him — but he is now of an age that he does not want to be debilitated, should he ever suffer a serious crash again.
And we are grateful that he is coming to that conclusion, all on his own. We will still do the full month in France in September with extended family in tow — but it will more a vacation, and a lil’ less an intensely competitive nerve wracker. [Paris, and now Florence and Sienna, Italy in Tuscany are all likely to be one week stays, in addition to the week (or so) in Nice, proper.] All in all, all good. Onward — and back to Sophie, now:
नमस्ते
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