Nan Axelton

Writing historical fiction-first novel in progress- while a cozy mysteries series with historical elements, waits to be put on the page.

[Maky2 ❤️🇺🇸💙🇮🇱🧡🎗️ @maki2may2]

@Daytobehappy Millions More of these Evil beasts are here after 9-11, unbelievable and disgusting.

[Adenot Sophie @Soph_astro]

Day 196, orbit 3037 — I’m so excited to be supporting European physiology research in orbit through the EasyMotion-2 study! For six weeks, I’ve been wearing an EMS suit during my cardio sessions. Putting it on and taking it off feels like squeezing into a wetsuit 🏄 Who can relate? 😄

Using whole-body electro-myostimulation (EMS), the suit activates muscles throughout the body while I exercise, helping make each training session even more effective. That’s especially important in space. The more efficient our training, the more time we have for science or maintenance, and the better prepared we are for living and working in gravity, back on Earth or one day on the Moon or Mars!

ESA astronaut @astro_matthias Maurer first tested the concept during his Cosmic Kiss mission, and researchers are now exploring whether EMS can help maintain muscle tone, stiffness and functional strength during long stays in space.

🌏 And while this research could support future exploration missions, the results may also benefit people on Earth – from patients recovering after surgery to anyone with reduced mobility. Go science!

🎥 @esa / @NASA

#εpsilon • @esaspaceflight • @Space_Station • @NASAJohnson • @DLR_SpaceAgency • @ChariteBerlin • OHB

[Adenot Sophie @Soph_astro]

Jour 195, orbite 3025 – Youhou ! Deuxième sortie dans l’espace, seulement sept jours après la première : mission accomplie ! ✅

Je cumule désormais 12 heures et 53 minutes à l’extérieur de la Station au cours de deux EVA ! Tout ne s’est pas déroulé exactement comme prévu 😅, mais dans l’ensemble, l’EVA-98 a été beaucoup plus fluide que l’EVA-97.

Physiquement, cette deuxième EVA était plus exigeante 💪 car j’ai dû me déplacer plusieurs fois d’un bout à l’autre de la Station. En micropesanteur, les objets semblent doués de leur propre volonté… Ils sont reliés à nous par des longes rétractables, et ils ont tendance soit à dériver au loin, soit à revenir vers nous à toute vitesse, soit à chercher l’endroit le plus inopportun possible pour se coincer. On peut très facilement se retrouver emmêlé, alors j’ai tout systématiquement vérifié deux ou trois fois. Et cela a payé : je suis particulièrement heureuse de ne pas m’être empêtrée dans les longes et les sangles !

Cette deuxième EVA a également été plus exigeante mentalement. Pour l’EVA-97, nous avions abordé le remplacement de l’antenne SGANT avec un regard neuf et beaucoup d’optimisme... Pour la seconde, nous savions d’expérience quelles difficultés pouvaient nous attendre. Dans les deux cas, nous étions prêts à 100 % (et même davantage !), mais nous ressentions clairement un peu plus de pression pour l’EVA-98.

Les équipes au sol ont été exceptionnelles. Tout le week-end précédent, les équipes à bord comme au sol ont travaillé d’arrache-pied, et nous avons fait plusieurs réunions pour nous assurer que chacun serait prêt à réagir au mieux en cas de situation non nominale. Ce travail de préparation intense crée des liens très forts, qui sont très précieux lors de la sortie dans l’espace.

Dehors, chaque cri de joie vient du cœur, chaque compliment redonne un boost d’énergie, et les plaisanteiries entre nous aident à relâcher la pression. C’est là que l’on mesure la force d’une équipe : savoir veiller les uns sur les autres, proposer son aide ou simplement dire « Tu vas y arriver ! » exactement au bon moment.

Immense gratitude envers mes coéquipiers de l’Expédition 75 et envers les équipes du Mission Control Center 🫶

🎥 @esa / @NASA

#εpsilon • @space_station • @nasajohnson •@esaspaceflight • @astro_anil • @Astro_Jessica • @astro_hathaway • @ESA_fr • @CNES

[Hector Resendez - Trade School Secrets @TS_Secrets]

One of my buddy’s sons skipped college and became an electrician at 18.

He was told either college or military were his only two options.

His parents weren’t exactly excited when he went to trade school. Actually they were a little embarrassed.

Most of their friends’ kids were going off to universities. Their son was showing up to job sites at 6am.

By 21 he was making $90k

By 24 he had his master electrician license making over $120k

At 27 he started taking his own jobs on the side for a total of $200k

Last year at 29 his little “electrician business” did $1.8M with 4 vans.

Funny how that works.

His parents used to explain why he didn’t go to college.

Now they tell everyone he owns an electrical company.

We need more 18-year-olds to know this path exists.

Day 229 tagging @mikeroweworks until more parents start bragging about trade school too.

Consider to RT if you agree.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

This is one of the most beloved paintings in America, and it captures something we rarely see anymore: a person unafraid to be exactly who they are, in front of a room full of strangers...

The painting is Saying Grace, made by Norman Rockwell for the Thanksgiving cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1951. In a crowded railway-station diner, an old woman and a small boy sit at a table, heads bowed, hands folded, saying grace before they eat.

At the same table, two young men pause and look at them, and you can see the whole range of a human emotion crossing their faces, curiosity, awkwardness, maybe a flicker of something they had forgotten and just remembered…

The little island of faith at the center of the room has commanded the whole space.

What Rockwell captures here is a kind of courage we do not usually call by that name: the courage to be openly, unashamedly yourself in a world that is watching and might not approve. The old woman is not performing her prayer and not hiding it either. She is simply doing what she has always done, with a child at her side learning to do the same, and her calm dignity is so complete that it turns a filthy train-station diner into something like a chapel.

In 1955 the readers of the Post voted Saying Grace their single favourite Rockwell cover of all time. And decades later, in 2013, this picture of two strangers praying over a meal sold for 46 million dollars, a record for Rockwell and, at the time, for any American painting ever sold at auction.

Of this painting Rockwell himself said he had "just naturally made the people respectful." He had spent his life among ordinary people, and he believed that is what most of them, given the chance, truly are. And he was right. If most of us were cruel, the world would not last a single day. It lasts because of what this old woman knows, and what the strangers around her remember when they see her: that most people, most of the time, are good...

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

This guy built over 1,000 homes for squirrels and fitted some of them with cameras so he could see how they live

Welcome to the cutest reality TV show out there

Writer: Ian

[Jessica Meir @Astro_Jessica]

Mid tricep extension today, the coast of Mozambique appeared in the cupola. I couldn’t resist a break from my weight-lifting to snap a few photos of this magnificent Earth Art. The views from the @Space_Station never get old!

[Adenot Sophie @Soph_astro]

Jour 190, orbite 2945 – Youhou ! Première sortie extravéhiculaire : ✅

Cela s’entendait sans doute à ma voix à la radio, mais j’ai A-D-O-R-É travailler dans le vide spatial ! C’est une véritable aventure dans l’aventure, d’autant plus belle qu’elle se vit en équipe !

👨‍🚀👩‍🚀 Nous ne sommes que deux à sortir, mais nous sommes portés par une immense équipe: le Centre de contrôle de mission de Houston, dont @AstroAnnimal s’est fait le relais à la radio, sans oublier nos camarades à bord de la Station. Nous savons combien de temps et d’énergie ont été consacrés à planifier chaque action, tester tous les scénarios possibles, préparer des plans B, C et D pour faire face aux contingences, et être capables de réorienter les objectifs en temps réel si nécessaire. Nous sommes deux en scaphandre, mais nous bénéficions du travail, du savoir-faire et de l’expérience cumulée de centaines de personnes, et cela rend les EVA encore plus intenses !

J’étais aussi très heureuse de partager cette sortie avec @astro_anil. Nous le savions puisque nous nous étions déjà entraînés ensemble dans le NBL, mais cette EVA a confirmé à quel point nous sommes complémentaires. Nous avons chacun nos points forts, et cela nous a permis de surmonter les difficultés avec efficacité et bonne humeur.

Nous étions extrêmement bien préparés, et heureusement, car tout ne s’est pas déroulé exactement comme prévu ! Les bricoleurs, les mécaniciens et toutes celles et ceux qui exercent un métier manuel le savent : entre la théorie 📚 et la pratique 🛠️ , il y a parfois un écart. Il faut essayer plusieurs approches avant de trouver la bonne, ou parfois y mettre toute sa force et toute son énergie. En sortie extravéhiculaire, c’est exactement pareil !

🎥 Capture d’écran de la caméra du casque d’Anil.
Credit: @esa / @NASA

#εpsilon • @esaspaceflight • @Space_Station • @NASAJohnson • @ESA_fr • @CNES

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

This is one of the most romantic paintings in American history, but the artist hid a second story in it, one that only reveals itself once you know who the tired old man in the corner really was...

The painting is Marriage License, made by Norman Rockwell for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1955. It is late on a Saturday afternoon in a small-town clerk's office. A young couple leans over the desk to fill out the paperwork for their marriage license, the man's arm around her, the woman up on tiptoe in a yellow dress to sign her name. The whole room is dim and brown, and a shaft of golden light falls through the window and lands on just the two of them, as if the day itself knows what is happening here.

Rockwell built it out of contrast: the couple glow with the beginning of everything, and, slumped in the corner, the old clerk waits, ready to go home, because for him, couples in love are just the ordinary traffic of an ordinary day.

But here is what almost no one knows: the clerk was a real man, a local shopkeeper named Jason Braman, and Rockwell chose him for a reason. Braman had recently lost his wife. Rockwell knew it, and he asked him to pose, in his own words, "as a way to give him something else to think about."

So the tired old man watching two young people promise themselves to each other is not acting. He is a widower placed by Rockwell right beside the very thing he has just lost.

Once you know that, the whole painting deepens because it is no longer only about young love. It is about the full arc of it, the beginning and the end in one room, the couple who have everything ahead and the man who had it and lost it, sitting a few feet apart in the same afternoon light.

And here's the best part: the young couple were real too, engaged in life, Joan and Francis Mahoney, and Rockwell gave them the oil sketch as a wedding present. They married. And they stayed married for the rest of their lives...

[Adenot Sophie @Soph_astro]

[🇫🇷 version FR 👇] Day 188 orbit 2915 — A few pictures from my first EVA, straight from Anil's camera... and mine!

📸 @esa / @NASA

Jour 188, orbite 2915 – Quelques photos de ma première sortie dans l’espace, tout droit sorties de l’appareil photo d’Anil… et du mien !

#εpsilon •@esaspaceflight • @Space_Station • @NASAJohnson • @ESA_fr • @CNES

[James O'Keefe @JamesOKeefeIII]

@camhigby’s TikTok account was just permanently banned.

The Minnesota vouching story is so big that it’s being censored. Are we back in 2020?

This is war.

[BuffaloRon @BuffaloRon]

T just sent me this.

[Chris Hadfield @Cmdr_Hadfield]

Amazing to watch launch umbilical cords retract in the nick of time.
Rockets need to stay connected to their launch pad right to the last second, for fuel/gases, data and power. But the hot blast from the engines would cook the plumbing parts.
So they unplug, run away and hide in a safe room, slamming the door behind them. Ready to be used again.
(full video https://t.co/x0hmHNVRGJ @DJSnM)

[World's Amazing Things @Hana_b30]

Tira: the zebra that forgot the stripes.

In Kenya’s Maasai Mara, a dark coated foal was born covered in bold white spots instead of the classic black and white pattern. Named Tira, he is one of the rarest and most striking zebras ever photographed in the wild living proof that nature still loves a surprise.

📸 Frank Liu

[European Space Agency @esa]

Spacewalk complete. ✅

After 6 hours and 23 minutes outside the International Space Station, @Soph_astro is safely back inside.

With today's EVA, Sophie becomes the first French woman to perform a spacewalk. 🇫🇷

[U.S. Department of the Interior @Interior]

Today, we remember Rolland Briar of Green Bay, Wisconsin, one of the few remaining survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Rolland recently passed away at the age of 104.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in February 1941. On the morning of December 7, he was aboard the USS Whitney at Pearl Harbor, waiting to head to church services when the attack began.

Rolland survived the attack and helped reassign survivors to other ships before continuing his service aboard the USS Whitney. He later attended officer training before returning to the Pacific, where he served at Naval Air Station Saipan until July 1946.

As the number of Pearl Harbor survivors grows ever smaller, preserving their stories becomes even more important. At @PearlHarborNPS and other historic sites across our country, the Department of the Interior is honored to help protect the places where these defining moments occurred, ensuring future generations can learn from the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of Americans like Rolland Briar.

Fair winds and following seas, Mr. Briar. Thank you for your service, and may your legacy never be forgotten.

[International Space Station @Space_Station]

Two astronauts from @NASA and @ESA are go for a spacewalk on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Expedition 75 worked on cardiac research, artificial intelligence, and Earth observations on Monday. More... https://t.co/5Gd7FhfEg6

[Jessica Meir @Astro_Jessica]

The Richat Structure (or Eye of Africa) in Mauritania is photographed from above by many astronauts, but something about the lighting and coloring on this day captured my artistic eye. This palette and textures of this region of Africa scream pure Earth Art, at least in my brain!

[Adenot Sophie @Soph_astro]

Day 184 orbit 2863 — Thirty years ago, on 17 August 1996, French astronaut Claudie Haigneré lifted off on board a Soyuz on a short duration mission to the Mir space station. I was 14 at the time, and when I saw her heading to the pad in her space suit, I literally thought “If she can do it, maybe I can too!”

And from that time, I did my best to work towards that dream, making sure I enjoyed the journey along the way. Inspiration is key to finding your own path, and I hope the εpsilon mission inspires many careers in STEM and space!

📸 Credits
1, 2: @esa / @NASA – S. Adenot
3: CNES, 1996
4: ESA – S. Corvaja

#εpsilon • @esaspaceflight • @Space_Station • @NASAJohnson • @cnes

[Adenot Sophie @Soph_astro]

[🇫🇷 version FR 👇] Day 183 orbit 2837 — 🚨 Did you know I will be going out on my first EVA on Tuesday 18 August? @astro_anil and I will spacewalk together to replace a Space-to-Ground antenna which (as its name indicates) is a critical piece of hardware, allowing communications between the ground control teams in Houston and the International Space Station.

Spacewalks don't start when the hatch opens. They begin long before that, with countless hours of preparation: readying the spacesuits, charging and replacing batteries, inspecting safety tethers, organizing the equipment we'll carry into space, servicing the SAFER jet packs, and much more.

These photos were taken during suit fit checks. Since our first EVA training sessions in the NBL, each astronaut has worked closely with a dedicated suit engineer who helps customize every detail of the spacesuit 🧑‍🚀 until it feels right, from fingertips to toes. Whether it's relieving a pressure point or adjusting a component, they always seem to have a clever solution. And when you're preparing for one of the most challenging tasks astronauts perform, comfort inside the suit is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

The suit was powered on and pressurised – no leaks – and we successfully checked the biosensors, as well as the communication and life support systems! 👌 I’m ready to go!

📸 @esa / @NASA

Jour 183, orbite 2837 – 🚨 Savez-vous que je vais effectuer ma première sortie extravéhiculaire le 18 août ? @astro_anil et moi sortirons dans le vide spatial pour remplacer une antenne SGANT – un équipement essentiel qui permet les échanges entre le Centre de contrôle à Houston et la Station spatiale internationale.

Une sortie dans l’espace commence bien avant l’ouverture du sas, avec d’innombrables heures de travail en amont : préparation des scaphandres, recharge et remplacement des batteries, inspection des longes de sécurité, organisation du matériel que nous emporterons à l’extérieur, entretien du propulseur de secours (SAFER) et bien plus encore.

Ces photos ont été prises lors d’essais du scaphandre. Depuis les premières séances d'entraînement dans le NBL, chaque astronaute travaille avec un ingénieur dédié qui aide à adapter minutieusement le scaphandre 🧑‍🚀 pour qu’il soit le plus confortable possible, du bout des doigts jusqu’aux orteils. Qu’il s’agisse de soulager un point de pression, d’ajuster un composant ou d’améliorer un détail, ils ont toujours une solution ingénieuse à proposer ! Et lorsqu’on se prépare à l’une des tâches les plus exigeantes du métier d’astronaute, le confort n’est pas un luxe, c’est une nécessité opérationnelle.

Le scaphandre a été mis sous tension puis pressurisé, et aucune fuite n’a été détectée. Nous avons également vérifié avec succès les capteurs biomédicaux, ainsi que les systèmes de communication et de support de vie. 👌 Je suis prête !

#εpsilon • @Space_Station • @NASAJohnson • @CNES • @esaspaceflight • @ESA_fr