Maggie and I were watching a documentary earlier on Apollo 8. The Saturn V rocket, the guidance computer and DSKY input, the space sextant — it was all a technological marvel.

And then I remembered when I was 10 or 11 and finally got my highly anticipated NASA Space Shuttle game for my Atari 2600.

Activision worked with NASA to ensure the accuracy and challenge of Space Shuttle. It is one of the most complicated games ever made for the Atari 2600.

Get the fuck out. One had to successfully launch, pilot the craft into outer space, and then return home. Activision made the best games and I was overly excited to be an 8-bit astronaut.

I played it for about an hour and then never again. Because I didn’t get to shoot any aliens or even get outta the damn cockpit for some moon-walking.

#NASA #games

‘Planet Bonanza’ Indeed: NASA Unveils 715 New Worlds

The job of NASA’s Kepler mission is to peek at the far reaches of space in the hopes of finding potentially habitable planets. The space agency announced a stunning success, saying that Kepler had identified 715 new planets that orbit 305 stars. The discovery boosts the number of verified planets by around 70 percent.

“Four of the planets are about twice the size of Earth and orbit in their star’s so-called habitable zone,” NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce reports for our Newscast unit, “where temperatures might be suitable for liquid water.”

#NASA needs more funding.

#cosmos