With photos shared on social media and down-to-earth video interviews, Commander Chris Hadfield is surely inspiring many young people to become astronauts and to work in other areas of the space industry, writes Colm Quinn.
The inspirational Canadian is into his first full day as Commander of the International Space Station – the first from his home country to take on the role.
NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin face what may be the heaviest workload in the 12-year history of the space station.
The commercial cargo ship is bringing 1,000 science experiments and gear to the inhabitants of the ISS – as well as a freezer of chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream.
Saturday’s first attempt at a launch was abandoned after engine trouble – but no such problems this time, with a payload of food – and 300 temporarily spacebound astronomy buffs.
The SpaceX mission was to be the first attempt by private US companies vying to take over the supply route following the end of NASA’s shuttle missions.
A MOTION OF no confidence in the Minister for Justice will be debated in the Dáil next week with Fianna Fáil claiming Alan Shatter’s position is now “untenable”.
The opposition party has been fiercely critical of the Fine Gael deputy’s handling of an ongoing row with Independent TD Mick Wallace.
“The Minister has shown extremely poor judgement of late. In particular, he used private information he received from the Garda Commissioner to undermine an opposition TD on Prime Time last week,” Niall Collins charged.
Shatter is currently facing two investigations by the Data Protection Commissioner and the Standards in Public Office Commission over his actions. He was also forced to clarify the nature of an incident where he was breathalysed by gardaí but could not complete the test because of asthma.
Although the motion of no confidence is unlikely to pass (as the government can table a counter-motion), TheJournal.ie wants to know what you think. Is Alan Shatter’s position as minister untenable?
A brief shower or two this afternoon
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Mostly cloudy with rain possible
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