The Labor Day long weekend meant a car trip from Toronto to Chicago and the fulfillment of a long-overdue promise to my wife to visit the Windy City. Walking back to our hotel tonight, we passed by WGN Radio (the home of the Chicago Cubs on Michigan Avenue). The station had a nice display about the NASA mission to the moon in July of 1969, when Aldrin and Armstrong spent 2.5 hours exploring the lunar surface.

And that was a great intro to a story that I read earlier this weekend, about two astronauts who went on a spacewalk on Friday to plug in new antennas and replace a worn-out piece of cooling equipment.  This is the fourth and final spacewalk of a six-month mission for the current crew of the ISS (International Space Station).  American Michael Fincke and Russian commander Gennady Padalka will be replaced by a crew next month. The antennas will guide a new unmanned cargo ship built by the European Space Agency that will be launched to the ISS in late 2005.  Incredible how much science and space travel have evolved since 1969!