Giant 6-Foot Death Star Beach Ball: That’s No Moon

Because nothing says fun in the sun like a giant space station designed to obliterate planets with a single blast of its superlaser, NINOSTAR is selling this 6-foot diameter Death Star beach ball on Amazon (affiliate link) for $75. It’s no moon, but it will be the talk of everyone at the beach provided you can inflate it without passing out.

From what I gathered from the product description on Amazon, they’re not actually calling it a Death Star beach ball, which in layman’s terms means it’s not an officially licensed Star Wars product. Of course, if it were, it would probably cost $150, and $300+ from greedy resellers on eBay.

Obviously, it will be my duty to ion torpedo any Death Stars I see on the beach to prevent any other planets from suffering the fate of Alderaan. And by ion torpedo, I mean pop with the pointy end of beach umbrella pretending it’s a lightsaber. Will children cry and parents yell at me? Probably, but such is the life of a Jedi.

[via DudeIWantThat]

Christina Koch will set a record for longest spaceflight by a woman

Thanks to NASA's recent schedule changes, astronaut Christina Koch will soon hold the record for the longest space flight by a woman. Koch arrived at the International Space Station on March 14 and has already conducted one spacewalk. She'll now rema...

Astronauts Eat First Veggies Grown in Space


Fresh vegetables have been grown in the near zero gravity environment of space. This space produce will get sampled by the astronauts aboard the ISS. The members of Expedition 44 will engage in this...

Check the International Space Station from the inside

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The ESA (European Space Agency) has made possible to virtually take a stroll on the International Space Station (ISS). This is somewhat like a Google Maps service inside the spaceship.

The ESA came up with a simple yet really cool concept: to let users virtually walk around, using the zoom, turning around and exploring every inch of the ISS, just as if the people on the other side of their computers were on the space station themselves.

Recently, Samantha Cristoforetti broke the female record of permanence in space with some 199 outside our planet, and before coming back to Earth performed a mission where she had to take 15 images of each one of the modules of the International Space Station.  After some time in processing, they created a virtual model of the ISS in 360º degrees, which users can check out from the ESA‘s official website.

The only part we won’t be able to visit is the sector that corresponds to the Russian modules, which will be added this year – so no conspiracy theories, there.

This experience isn’t only about checking out the space station, but also having a certain degree of interaction. Depending on where users place their cursos, they will be able to check out videos and text that explain what is going on on screen, as if it was a new version of the old Encarta encyclopedia.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Cube i7 Remix or the UNU M7006 gaming Android tablet.

NASA to Test Inflatable Space Housing at ISS

The International Space Station was a massively expensive construction project. Part of that huge cost was the expense of getting the individual modules into space. Those things were massive and very heavy. In the future, astronauts in space might not need a hard construct to live in.

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NASA plans to test out new inflatable housing modules made by Bigelow Aerospace. The module will be tethered to the ISS and measures 13-feet long by 11-feet wide, and weighs only about 3,000 pounds – a 70% weight reduction from similar rigid modules. The module will launch as a folded bit of Kevlar-like material and will inflate using nitrogen and oxygen in orbit.

If the tests are successful, the inflatable modules could someday be used alone without the ISS. At the ISS, the modules could be used to house more astronauts or even tourists.

[via The Space Reporter]

NASA Cuts Ties With Russia For Most Space Operations


It seems that space isn’t immune from Earth-side politics. In a statement issued today, NASA confirmed that due to “Russia’s ongoing violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial...