Return to Everest 2009

Astronaut and Everest climber Scott Parazynski recently posted some new images of the Everest summit rock and Apollo Moon rocks that were installed inside the cupola attached to the ISS node Tranquility last month. You can see more of them here.

NASA astronaut Robert Behnken, STS-130 mission specialist, poses for a photo near the windows in the Cupola of the International Space Station while space shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the station. Next to him is the plaque containing Apollo 11 Moon rocks and a piece of the summit of Mt. Everest. high res (0.9 M) low res (118 K).

More photos below

Recently you may have heard about former astronaut Scott Parazynski's adventure to climb Mt. Everest. He carried a sliver of a moon rock from Apollo 11 with him, and then picked up a sliver of a rock from the top of the highest mountain in the world. These two rocks were encased in plastic, handed over to NASA, and flew aboard the space shuttle to be installed in the new Tranquility module of the International Space Station. All very inspiring and good.

"A ribbon-cutting ceremony with Endeavour commander George Zamka and station commander Jeff Williams to celebrate the arrival of Tranquility and its seven-windowed cupola on the International Space Station includes the placement on permanent display in the node of a rock brought back from the moon's Tranquility Base by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, and carried by shuttle astronaut Scott Parazynski to the summit of Mt. Everest in 2009."

- Video: Moon Rock and Everest Rock Ready for Trip to the Space Station
- Preview: Confessions of a Moon Rock Courier
- Moon Rock Gains Traveling Companion for Historic Return to Space
- Playing With Moon Rocks and Duct Tape at the Dinner Table
- Photos From Moon and Everest Rock Event at NASA

Mementos from canceled NASA moon plan flying on space shuttle, Collectspace

"Together with a piece of Everest's summit, also retrieved by Parazynski, the plaque-mounted moon rocks will be displayed inside Tranquility's new seven-windowed Cupola to inspire the astronauts working there. "Imagine being in the Cupola and looking out this huge series of windows and looking at the Moon and having a piece of the Moon right next to you. What's that going to be like? I have no idea. I'll come back and tell you," said STS-130 mission specialist Stephen Robinson. Robinson had a role in including aboard the flight another, albeit subtle, nod to NASA's lunar exploration history in the form of his and his crewmates' mission patch. The six-sided emblem, which was shaped to resemble the Cupola viewing port attached to Tranquility's side, depicts the Earth as it was first seen in a photograph taken from the Moon by Lunar Orbiter I."

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project

Keith's update: here is our BGAN in operation in Haiti.

Keith's earlier note: Earlier today I had a telecon with Miles O'Brien and David Waters. You have seen them both (along with Leroy Chiao) on SpaceflightNow.com's shuttle launch webcasts. David is headed for Haiti on Saturday - and he is taking the HNS9201 BGAN satellite phone (image below) that Scott Parazynski and I took to Mt. Everest last year. I will be giving David a quick intro on BGAN ops in remote locations tomorrow morning.

STS-130 Commander George Zamka receives a plaque containing a piece of the summit of Mt. Everest and the Apollo 11 moon rocks that Scott Parazynski carried to the summit of Mt. Everest.

Scott Parazynski, Miles O'Brien, and Keith Cowing were in Houston Texas on Wednesday for the formal return of the Moon rocks we brought to Everest and the presentation of a piece of the summit of Everest to NASA. Both rocks will ride into space on the STS-130 Space Shuttle mission and will reside as a permanent exhibit inside the new International Space Station Node "Tranquility". The rocks will be mounted next to a large window or cupola inside the node such that anyone looking at the Earth below will see the Moon and Everest rocks at the same time. By a curious coincidence the Moon rocks were collected during the Apollo 11 mission from the Sea of "Tranquility".

More photos below