International Spaceflight Museum

Thanks to ISM visitor KikoHunniton, a new video of the ISM has been posted to CNN’s iReport site. Click on that link to read the article, and enjoy the video here:

Kimberly Rufer-Bach’s new book, The Second Life Grid: The Official Guide to Communication, Collaboration, and Community Engagement, includes prominent mention of the International Spaceflight Museum, according to Dave Taylor (Davee Commerce in Second Life).

Kim knows what she’s talking about. This is her second book about Second Life®, and she has been a member of the ISM Planning Group for several years. Kim’s in-world development consulting group, The Magicians, has done some of the most original and effective builds in the virtual world.

Our congratulations and best wishes to MICA-VW (Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics – Virtual Worlds), the first professional scientific society formed entirely within virtual worlds. This week they were featured in Wired and Tish Shute’s blog.

When MICA’s founder, Piet Hut of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, first came to Second Life in late 2006, the ISM provided meeting space and an introduction to the culture and mechanics of our world to Piet and some of his astrophysicist friends. MICA met in the ISM Clubhouse and ISM Workshop for about a year until they acquired their own island, StellaNova, and joined the SciLands group in SL.

We at the ISM are very proud to be associated with this illustrious and innovative group, and are glad we were able to help them get started.

Blogger Kabalyero posted an entry to his “Exploring Second Life” site this week, about his Visit to Spaceport Alpha, following an invitation from a friend to attend the ISM’s Anniversary Party. He missed the party, but says he enjoyed exploring the museum after the fact.

He’s just scratched the surface, but so far he says he likes what he’s seen. Hope you come back soon, Kabalyero, and don’t miss the “upper sim” over Spaceport Alpha, which is accessible by Titan IV rocket. Beginning at the LEO platform, with the newly updated International Space Station and Hubble Telescope models, you can tour a scale model of our solar system, with a special giant-sphere-encapsulated exhibit for each planet, including Pluto and the Asteroid Belt.

Thanks to ISM planning group member Bremen Republic (SL name) for the link to this blog post.

On Saturday, June 14th, the ISM will celebrate anniversaries of both our sims, and launch the sponsorship auction for the Saturn V rocket model, gantry and tractor (crawler) it sits on. The new Gift Shop Annex will also be opened officially that day, with a special raffle (free to enter) with great prizes including a desktop model of the Saturn V!

As well as a full page ad in the June 10th edition of Metaverse Messenger, the event has been covered by Tateru Nino’s blog. Thanks, Tateru!

There will be live music all afternoon and evening, with some of the top acts in Second Life volunteering their support for the not-for-profit museum.

Come have fun, explore the museum, and help us commemorate over two years of Second Life space science and technology!

One of the people from the MICA-VW Astrophysics group (MICA = Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics) posted a link to this article in the CAP Journal from October 2007 that includes a link to the ISM. (CAP = Communicating Astronomy with the Public, a publication of the IAU).  Spaceport Alpha is the 3rd SLURL from the top.