Um feito notável!

Esta manhã, a sonda-robô Philae separou-se de Rosetta, e demorou aproximadamente sete horas até à superfície do cometa 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, uma viagem de 22,5 quilómetros, onde pousou com sucesso.

A área onde aterrou foi baptizada como Agilkia.

Vangelis compôs o tema Rosetta's Waltz  especialmente para a ESA (Agência Espacial Europeia), tendo como inspiração a missão Rosetta.

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O robô Philae separa-se da sonda Rosetta.

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Robô Philae pousa na superfície do cometa

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LER MAIS AQUI

E AQUI

E AINDA AQUI

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Rosetta's waltz, Vangelis

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"Uma boa cabeça e um bom coração são sempre uma combinação formidável."

Nelson Mandela

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O Grande Homem Nelson Mandela, Nobel da Paz, que durante 27 longos anos foi o número 46664, partiu hoje.

Uma enorme perda para todos nós. 

Ensinou-nos o que significa Liberdade. E esteve preso por isso.

Ensinou-nos a Lutar. E não guardou rancores aos seus algozes.

Mesmo enquanto 46664 foi um Líder como poucos.

Um HOMEM com todas as letras maiúsculas, que nos deixa um extraordinário legado.

Até sempre, Madiba

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 "Não existe nenhum passeio fácil para a liberdade em lado nenhum, e muitos de nós teremos que atravessar o vale da sombra da morte vezes sem conta até que consigamos atingir o cume da montanha dos nossos desejos."

Nelson Mandela

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"Tudo parece impossível até que seja feito."

Nelson Mandela

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 U2 - Ordinary Love (From Mandela OST) Lyric Video

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"Deixem reinar a liberdade. O Sol nunca se põe em tal façanha humana."

Nelson Mandela

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"A prioridade é sermos honestos connosco. Nunca poderemos ter um impacto na sociedade se não nos mudarmos primeiro. Os grandes pacificadores são todos gente de grande integridade e honestidade mas, também, de humildade."

Nelson Mandela

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"Ninguém nasce a odiar outra pessoa devido à cor da sua pele, ao seu passado ou religião. As pessoas aprendem a odiar, e, se o podem fazer, também podem ser ensinadas a amar, porque o amor é mais natural no coração humano do que o seu oposto."

Nelson Mandela

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"Será que alguém pensa genuinamente que se não conseguiu algo foi por não ter tido o talento, a força, a resistência e a determinação nesse sentido?"

Nelson Mandela

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"Ser pela liberdade não é apenas tirar as correntes de alguém, mas viver de forma que respeite e melhore a liberdade dos outros."

Nelson Mandela

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"Eu aprendi que a coragem não é a ausência de medo, mas o triunfo sobre ele. O homem corajoso não é aquele que não sente medo, mas aquele que conquista por cima do medo."

Nelson Mandela

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"Se tu queres fazer as pazes com o teu inimigo, tens que trabalhar com o teu inimigo. E então ele torna-se o teu parceiro."

Nelson Mandela

"Mandela’s remarkable life changed history

and its legacy resonates around the world."

[TIME World]

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Prodigal Son
Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the village of Mviza in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. His father was a counselor to a local king. He chose for his son the name Rolihlahla, which translated from Xhosa means literally “pulling a branch off a tree” — or, more colloquially, “troublemaker.” A schoolteacher would confer upon him the name Nelson. [TIME World]

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Fighting the Law
Mandela and other co-defendants appear at the famous Treason Trial in Johannesburg, 1956. Mandela, along with his longtime ally Oliver Thambo and 154 others, was charged with treason. The case, which dragged on for five years, by which time all were acquitted, brought the struggle of the ANC to international attention. [TIME World]

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The Long Wait
Mandela sews prison clothes by the shore in 1964. He was sent to the infamous jail at Robben Island, a barren rock off the coast near Cape Town, in 1963 in part for his activities supporting the ANC’s militant wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation). His 27-year-long imprisonment made him the world’s most famous political prisoner. [TIME World]

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Free at Last
Mandela walks with his wife Winnie after being released from prison, Feb. 11, 1990. [TIME World]

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Eye on the Prize
In 1993, Mandela is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside then South African President F.W. de Klerk, whose rapprochement with Mandela and the ANC helped engineer the end of apartheid. [TIME World]

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Electioneering
Mandela greets the crowds on the campaign trail in February 1994 as South Africa readies for its first all-race general election. [TIME World]

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 Simple Message
Mandela supporters perch on a billboard in Durban, April 1994. [TIME World]

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Swearing In
Mandela, 75, takes the oath of office in the political capital Pretoria as the first democratically elected President of South Africa. De Klerk, once an adversary, joined government as Mandela’s deputy. [TIME World]

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 Nelson Mandela's Life and Leadership,
Narrated by TIME's Managing Editor, Rick Stengel

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Valentina Tereshkova

At the age of 26,  she was the first woman in Space.

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First woman in space: Valentina

 

 

Valentina Tereshkova

 

 

 

16 June 2013

 

 

Valentina Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo, near Yaroslavl, in Russia on 6 March 1937. Her father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile factory. Interested in parachuting from a young age, Tereshkova began skydiving at a local flying club, making her first jump at the age of 22 in May 1959. At the time of her selection as a cosmonaut, she was working as a textile worker in a local factory.

After the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin, the selection of female cosmonaut trainees was authorised by the Soviet government, with the aim of ensuring the first woman in space was a Soviet citizen.

On 16 February 1962, out of more than 400 applicants, five women were selected to join the cosmonaut corps: Tatyana Kuznetsova, Irina Solovyova, Zhanna Yorkina, Valentina Ponomaryova and Valentina Tereshkova. The group spent several months in training, which included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, 120 parachute jumps and pilot training in jet aircraft.

Four candidates passed the final examinations in November 1962, after which they were commissioned as lieutenants in the Soviet air force (meaning Tereshkova also became the first civilian to fly in space, since technically these were only honorary ranks).

Originally a joint mission was planned that would see two women launched on solo Vostok flights on consecutive days in March or April 1963. Tereshkova, Solovyova and Ponomaryova were the leading candidates. It was intended that Tereshkova would be launched first in Vostok 5, with Ponomaryova following her in Vostok 6.

However, this plan was changed in March 1963: Vostok 5 would carry a male cosmonaut, Valeri Bykovsky, flying the mission with a woman in Vostok 6 in June. The Russian space authorities nominated Tereshkova to make the joint flight.

 

 

Flight of the ‘Seagull’

 

Valentina Tereshkova

 

 

After watching the launch of Vostok 5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome on 14 June, Tereshkova completed preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June, Tereshkova and her backup Solovyova both dressed in spacesuits and were taken to the launch pad by bus. After completing checks of communication and life support systems, she was sealed inside her spacecraft. 

After a two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 lifted off without fault and, within hours, she was in communication with Bykovsky in Vostok 5, marking the second time that two manned spacecraft were in space at the same time. With the radio call sign ‘Chaika’ (‘seagull’), Tereshkova had become the first woman in space. She was 26. 

Tereshkova’s televised image was broadcast throughout the Soviet Union and she spoke to Khrushchev by radio. She maintained a flight log and performed various tests to collect data on her body’s reaction to spaceflight. Her photographs of Earth and the horizon were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere.

Her mission lasted just under three days (two days, 23 hours, and 12 minutes). With a single flight, she had logged more flight time than the all the US Mercury astronauts who had flown to that date combined. Both Tereshkova and Bykovsky were record-holders. Bykovsky had spent nearly five days in orbit and even today he retains the record for having spent the longest period of time in space alone.

 

 

[Article from ESA]

 

 

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Carl Sagan

9 de novembro de 1934 - 20 de Dezembro de 1996 

Até Sempre!

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Heaven and Hell, Movement 1 (excerto)

Vangelis

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Amar é admirar com o coração. Admirar é amar com o cérebro.

Theophile Gautier