In recent years, NASA has been hit pretty hard, and another hit may be coming.

We're a long ways off from the days when JFK told the nation that the United States would put a man on the moon, and in recent years, what with the Great Recession, space exploration seems to have taken a backseat. Hell, it's been rolled up and stuck in the trunk next to that grape soda the U.S. budget took to the beach that time and never bothered to take out of the trunk.

NASA is facing more budget cuts if the sequester goes through next year, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Bolden was in town this week and he told an audience at the Johnson Space Center that if sequester stays in place next year -- bringing automatic budget cuts dropping NASA's budget from $17.7 billion to below the current level of $16.8 billion -- it would hit Johnson Space Center along with the rest of the program, according to what he told KUHF.

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My friend, Frank, is a bit of a space enthusiast and by that I mean the walls of his office are lined with autographed photos of NASA astronauts. When I read about an upcoming auction of space memorabilia, he was the first one I thought of. The auction, hosted by RR Auctions, includes a ton of space-themed items with bids closing May 15.

Included in the lot is a pair of canceled checks from Col. James Irwin, the eighth man to land on the moon. One of the checks for $35 was made out to the Republican National Convention in 1990 from he and his wife's home in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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This is Major Tom to Ground Control...

That shockwave you felt across social media this morning was due to the collective nerdgasm over a video produced by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Before leaving the International Space Station, Hadfield, who is an avid user of social media and clearly gets how to use it, put together a video of himself performing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" (Major Tom to those who know words but not titles).

Hadfield took video of himself and his guitar around the station, even literally "floating in a most peculiar way," along with some breathtaking shots of earth. Best of all, he sang the song himself. No word on if Bowie has seen it, but our guess is he'd be pleased.

While this was not produced by NASA (or even by an American for that matter), this is yet another example of how members of space programs truly understand their nerd brethren. NASA frequently posts videos that are funny, informative and engaging. This time, it was Hadfield, but the fact that the video was posted yesterday and already has over half a million hits (as of this writing) is evidence of another win for astronauts.

Video after the jump.

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Somebody, call Waste Management!

You have to hand it to the folks at NASA. In an effort to educate -- no doubt in part to remind people that, "Hey, people who think science is the devil, it is actually really important -- they produce tons of videos, blog posts and other educational materials that are often times pretty damn fascinating. Case in point: Fermi's (a deep space telescope) close call with a Soviet (in Soviet Russia, telescope look through you) satellite still in orbit after years of spying on America during the cold war.

The video on YouTube, complete with interviews and amazing animation, walks viewers through how NASA scientists were warned of an impending collision and what they did to keep that from happening. Like something out of a movie, they fired the god damn thrusters! Yes! Disaster averted.

But, what struck me while watching it was the still taken from the video above. In case you were wondering, that's space junk.

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Photo by NASA

The sharp-eyed folks at Reddit noticed something odd in a batch of pictures from the Mars Rover. Namely, a penis. The Rover drew a huge freaking penis on the surface of Mars.

The picture apparently is authentic, if possibly old. It's been posted on a NASA site, but there was a meme with a similar picture back in August on weknowmemes.com.

But let's assume it's valid and new. Why would the Rover draw a big dick? We offer five theories:

5. It's lonely at the top.
There are two Rovers -- Spirit and Opportunity. But Spirit went out of commission in 2011, having performed long past its expected use. The two probes were sent to far different parts of Mars, so Opportunity can't even visit its dead colleague's grave.

Such loneliness can inspire, in some, the need for man-meat. Opportunity is just posting a "Casual Encounters" ad. Trouble is, we don't know if the probe drew the equipment he desires to play with or, instead, was boasting of the equipment he's got.

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Hey, who's the beatnik on the left with the fancy (i.e., non-brown) footwear?

Arcadia Publishing is a company specializing in affordable picture-filled books on local history across the country.

They've done books on such Houston institutions as the downtown Foley's, and now they've tackled the institution-alest Houston institution of all, NASA.

See Also:
- "Tatooine" Discovery: Five Other Times NASA Has Drafted Off Star Wars' Heat
- The Five Astronaut Autobiographies Everyone Should Read
- Apollo 15, 40 Years On: Five Odd Facts (Including Faulty Peeing, a Very Irked NASA & the Coolest Lunar Experiment

Johnson Space Center: The First 50 Years is the name, edited by Laura Bruns and Mike Litchfield. It's loaded with photographic goodness; they've let us sample a couple of examples.

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The patch from the fatal flight

Today is the tenth anniversary of the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, which blew apart as it was gliding across Texas to a Florida landing.

All seven crew members died, and Texans were poking around the Piney Woods for weeks looking for debris.

NASA is keeping a low profile for the anniversary, which is its "Day of Remembrance" that includes other space-related disasters. There's a memorial page, and President Obama has issued a statement:

Ten years ago, seven brave astronauts gave their lives in the name of exploration when America's first flight-ready space shuttle, Columbia, failed to return safely to Earth. Each year, on NASA's Day of Remembrance, we honor the crew of that Columbia flight, as well as those of Challenger and Apollo 1, and all the members of the NASA family who gave their lives in the pursuit of expanding our Nation's horizons in space-a cause worthy of their sacrifice and one we must never forget.

As with any NASA foul-up, conspiracy theories bloomed, and Columbia has a doozy.

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From an even earlier spoof: "We're Nasa And We Know It (Mars Curiosity)" video by the YouTube parody group Satire

Nerds have a sense of humor and when those nerds also have cool toys and a desire to get people more interested in their world, they can come up with some pretty damn clever concoctions. In this case, the nerds in question are at our own Johnson Space Center, where they have created a couple of videos recently that are as funny as they are scientifically informative.

The first is basically an "I told you so" video they released last week that explains "from the day after December 21, 2012" why the world didn't end yesterday. It's a clever way to shoot down every single conspiracy related to the Mayan calendar apocalypse, which some believe will have the world ending on Friday.

But the second video is the more interesting one.

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Not Time, but the most dramatic juice-box photo EVER.

Yesterday we wrote about how Houston and Russia are getting together to honor Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn (we listed five awesome Gagarin paintings Houston should have received in place of the artwork it did end up with), and that stirred up a bit of NASA nostalgia.

Face it, the space program has been out of sight, out of mind since the shuttle stopped flying, especially when you throw in the bitter lagniappe of NASA not giving Houston one of the space-flown shuttles to display.

See Also:
- "Tatooine" Discovery: Five Other Times NASA Has Drafted Off Star Wars' Heat
- The Five Astronaut Autobiographies Everyone Should Read
- Apollo 15, 40 Years On: Five Odd Facts (Including Faulty Peeing, a Very Irked NASA & the Coolest Lunar Experiment

So we went on the net for a space fix, ended up checking out Time magazine astronaut covers and eventually found ourselves asking, "What the hell's going on?"

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Yuri in Summer of Love mode

This week Mayor Annise Parker accepted on behalf of the city some artwork commemorating the 50th anniversary of the flights of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the USA's John Glenn.

(Gagarin, of course, was the first human in space, Glenn the first American.)

The donations will be displayed in the Gragg Building at 2999 S. Wayside Drive, the first headquarters of NASA and currently the headquarters of the City of Houston Parks & Recreation Department, which is in no way a comedown for a building.

"Today we see a representation of one of mankind's greatest achievements -- traveling into outer space," Parker said. "Houston is also known as Space City, and what better way to commemorate such a great moment in history than to have artworks at NASA's original headquarters."

See Also:
- "Tatooine" Discovery: Five Other Times NASA Has Drafted Off Star Wars' Heat
- The Five Astronaut Autobiographies Everyone Should Read
- Apollo 15, 40 Years On: Five Odd Facts (Including Faulty Peeing, a Very Irked NASA & the Coolest Lunar Experiment

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