posted 03-24-2005 03:09 PM               

Credit: NASA

STS-45's EarthBall

During their nine day, 143 orbit and 3.7 million mile mission, the crew of STS-45 deployed the inflatable EarthBall as an assistant in filming the educational video "The Atmosphere Below."

You can watch a QuickTime clip from that film here. (1 mb)

According to the manufacturer:
The Orbis/NASA Blue Marble imagery represents the most visually authentic global view of Planet Earth ever created, combining NASA's newest generation of satellite imaging with Orbis' cutting-edge globe-making technology. The resulting creation represents a new level of global cartography -- photorealistic world globes, enabling millions of would-be space travelers to experience the astronauts' perspective of observing our home planet from outer space.

posted 01-11-2010 06:21 PM               

Credit: CBS News

CBS Evening News: Everyone in the World Has a Story

...last November, when the shuttle Atlantis took off from the Kennedy space center, it was not only carrying supplies for the international space station, it was carrying a special payload for us -- a plastic inflatable globe - that Commander Jeff Williams would use to select our random locations.

Obviously, NASA scientists don't normally work on social experiments like ours, but the agency says it wanted to be part of this -- partly because it's the one thing all astronauts have always been curious about when they look out that window.

"We often wonder what those people are doing, what they think, how they live," said Williams. "Is it much different that us or are there a lot of things in common?"