Editor: A teacher from Scotland sent an email to let us know that her class has been making mission badges of their own. Here they are!

MAGNUS:

It is very easy to get busy up here and forget to "stop and smell the roses" as it were. (I think that is probably true for all of us everywhere!) So after dinner and before bedtime tonight I finally stopped and took a moment to watch the world go by during a night pass. It seems like it has been a while since I have done this. There are always excuses...other things that have to get done, e-mails to write, feet to warm up, too tired, there is always another day...blah, blah, blah. But I put my foot down, figuratively speaking, and took the time.

We were passing up through the Atlantic going north across Africa and Europe and arcing down through Asia to come out east of Australia and New Zealand into the Pacific. I do not know exactly where we were but it was already night when I positioned myself at the docking compartment window. I think it was the one facing more starboard. I always get myself mixed up when I go into that module; I can never easily find the hatch again. Even though the lights in the docking compartment were off, reflections from the lights in the SM and FGB interfered with the view so I had to put my hands up around my glasses and then wait for my eyes to adjust.

It is completely night. There are thunderstorms across Africa and lightening is  everywhere; bright flashes are going cloud to cloud illuminating the clouds as it arcs from one to the other. It is a private fireworks show. The storm is large and very spread out and at any moment you see 4 or 5 flashes occurring at one time, each one only lasting a moment. The colors range from something orange-ish to blue-white. Some are more like balls of light while others have that characteristic streak shape that you can observe on Earth. It goes on for several minutes. Occasionally a city goes by with lights shining brightly against the backdrop of flashing pulses of light. The cities come in all shapes, sizes and colors and light patterns. Some cities have clouds over them and all that can be seen is a haze of light. For the cities with clear skies, street patterns are apparent - outlined by streetlights. Some cities have very bright orange lights that stand out as beacons. The thunderstorms have finally passed by but still the Earth remains illuminated as the ISS continues to fly over densely populated areas. Population centers are easy to see at night; there are cities all around. Coastlines go by and you can tell because of the outline in city lights.
 
The night sky, the heavens, though is what really catches the eye. Even though the Earth's horizon is dark, light provided by the clouds and the city lights reflecting off of the clouds provide enough illumination to discern the difference between the Earth and space. The night sky is inky black against the night horizon of the Earth. In the night sky, though, sparkle uncounted points of light, some white, some red, some orange, all of different sizes. They are everywhere. The mMilky wWay is clearly evident. It rises up from behind the Earth like a glowing white path leading off into the distance, inviting you to follow. The stars surrounded the Earth and wrap around her horizon - a blanket of light illustrating that we are not alone. You are swimming in a sea of beautiful lights that can only be seen in the dark. As you gaze at the multitude of points glittering in the night, it is hard to imagine that each one is a world or worlds or stars like our sun. They are so remote and seem so tiny. The vastness of space is truly evident as you watch the Earth turn slowly beneath. It is awe inspiring and overwhelming all at once and, oh, so beautiful!
 
The illumination on the Earth changes depending on whether the Station flies over a city or not, but the inky dark curtain of the night sky remains and the twinkling stars do not change. There are so many. Every now and then it is possible to see a satellite in the distance; a blinking red light moving faster than an airplane and in a higher orbit. They pass by quickly. 

You stay at the window spell-bound as you pass by in the night. For that is what the ISS is doing - it is passing through the night, unaffected and untouched, merely observing the play of darkness across the planet. As the terminator approaches the Station catches the sun's rays first. That is how you know that you approach the dawn. The solar arrays start to glow faintly red, then orange, then bright white as they capture the first light of the sun coming up over the horizon. It is still dark below, even darker, and the night sky, with its twinkling diamonds, disappears as the brightness of the sun reflecting off of the arrays completely erases any other views.
 
Thus, right before dawn there is total black and as you look out the window it is as if neither the Earth nor the heavens are there. You just exist, floating in an endless sea of black with one bright light, the sun, illuminating the way. Nothing beyond the light exists. It only lasts a moment, though, as the sun rises higher over the nearing horizon. The Earth starts to pick up some of the rays at last and reappears out of the darkness awash in a faint gray color. Drawing closer you can notice that any high clouds in the atmosphere glow orange or red as they too find the morning sun. It is possible to see the terminator as you cross it. The grey of dawn gives way to the bright blues and whites of day that are so distinctive of our water planet. Looking back in the direction from whence you came, the darkness of night is still noticeable. Only looking forward does the day shine clearly. Soon the night is gone as the Space Station continues on its never-ending trek across the planet. The heavens are now just a dark velvety curtain against the brilliant colors of Earth. No stars are visible. They are there, though, waiting for the night which will come in another 45 minutes or so, to show themselves again.

Space shuttle Discovery was successfully launched to the International Space Station at 7:43 p.m. (EDT) tonight, March 15.

The three American and Russian astronauts aboard the international space station took shelter in their Soyuz escape capsule briefly today to wait out the close approach of debris from an old U.S. commercial rocket stage, NASA said today.

The debris, about 4 inches long, whizzed within three miles of the orbital outpost at 11:39 a.m., CDT, causing no damage.

MAGNUS:

You know, we humans have an amazing ability to adapt. After having been here for several months, the routine is so "normal" to me that I do not even think about the fact that when I get up in the morning, I am in fact, floating up and out of my sleeping bag. I do not contemplate the significance of doing the "Superman fly" down the center of the U.S. Lab to get from one end to the other. The strangeness of being able to "hand" a tool to Mike by just gently pushing it in his general direction never crosses my mind; that is just how life is here. 
 
But every now and then I have a moment where I stop, step back, and look at the big picture and it hits me and I have a "hey, this is NOT normal, this is absolutely weird and amazing and what are you doing here!" kind of moment. That usually gets me started on a line of thought about humans and our desire and compulsion to explore and do new things.

As we push the boundaries of exploration further and further, the technology, equipment, and techniques that are required become more and more complex, so we go off and develop them and test them, use them, and then refine them. The boundaries get pushed more as a result and consequently newer things need to be developed. In the meantime, the previously developed technology gets incorporated into mainstream life. Such is the synergy between the advancement of human knowledge and the evolution of exploration. They drive each other.
 
Here we are flying through the vacuum of space somewhere between 200-250 miles above the Earth in a fancy tin can that embodies the most modern technology that we humans can build today. We get our power from the sun using solar energy and battery storage technology. On Earth, solar technology is striving to become a more utilized source of energy. Here it is 100%. It is slowly moving more into the mainstream as some of the implementation problems, not just fundamental technology problems, start to get addressed. We have just installed a system to recycle all waste water aboard the sStation, including urine, to make it potable; in effect coming up with a closed loop environmental system. While it is not 100% operational yet, it will be soon. On Earth we have many parts of the world where the access to clean water is a major issue. Perhaps, as we gain knowledge about the operational and logistical characteristics of this new on-board system, someone will find applications that transfer to the water problems on Earth. The list could go on.
 
Alternatively, in some ways our lives here are quite primitive and draw more parallels with the early explorers mentioned previously. We do not have showers - to get clean (more or less) you take a sponge bath. We do not have a method of washing clothes and tend to wear them until they are ready to be thrown away. We do not have a way to recycle solid waste or garbage and essentially have the equivalent of "throw it over the side of the ship," since it all gets burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. For emergency medical care we are dependent on ourselves. We do not have a system for storing food for the long term so all food has to be prepared and shipped with the ability to stay edible over several months or more. (OK, we do have a small fridge that allows us to cool drinks, something that was brought up on the STS-126 with me.) Interestingly enough, I think that the fact that we now have a small refrigerator up here means that maybe we are not on the frontier now as much as we were before; after all, it is a luxury - the ability to have a cold drink.

Does that mean that the frontier is already passing by low Earth orbit and is now at the moon or further? How long into the future will it be before people look back fondly at our "quaint" technology and primitive living conditions and wonder also "how could they have done that?"! I hope soon, since it will mean that we are advancing even further and increasing our knowledge at an ever faster rate.

Well inside the ISS we have a climate controlled environment. When we do spacewalks the temperature of our surroundings can swing from -200 to +200 degrees, but our space suits protect us. I guess the closest we come is when coming in from a spacewalk the equipment we have with us has the temperature that it experienced while on the spacewalk.