Credit: +European Space Agency, ESA
November 22, 2013
November 20, 2013
NASA Minotaur liftoff viewed by a Tarheel
As many of you know, there was a launch from NASA
Wallops on the US East Coast and for many it was an unexpected chance to
see a rocket go into orbit even if we were several hundred miles away.
I was following the countdown on +Ustream and went
outside my home about 5 minutes before launch. As Ustream showed the
final seconds I and a neighbour oriented ourselves and saw a bright red
dot ascend into the perfectly clear fall sky very quickly. By the time
the live feed said "LIFTOFF" she was already well up in the sky and
almost out of visual range.
Credits image: +NASA / Brea Reeves
It was over in a matter of just a few seconds and had
you not known where or when to look you would have missed the entire
event. As it was, the launch has kept me smiling even until now.
Although not as thrilling as when myself and 3.5 million others
participated in Curiosity's landing on Mars, this was a true geek-out
moment.
The Minotaur rocket was carrying a hush-hush, what
are you looking at, USAF satellite but launch had been delayed by a
faulty communications station in my home state of North Carolina and one
errant sailboat captain who had wandered into the safety zone.
Article is written by Anthony Scott
November 19, 2013
November 18, 2013
Video of the successful liftoff Atlas 5 carrying MAVEN probe
Dear follower,
This morning, we see that the space rocket Atlas5 was ready on the pad since Saturday November 16th. This afternoon (morning is US), NASA sent with success its last space probe called MAVEN which be sent to Mars. The space probe will analyze and investigate the atmosphere of the red planet. Its travel to Mars will take around 10 months.
Enjoy this great liftoff
Credit:
+NASA
November 17, 2013
Maven ready to take-off tomorrow to Mars
Dear followers,
after the success of Curisoty and its more than 1 year of work on the red planet, +NASA will launch in the following hours a new spacecraft to Mars called MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN). The space probe is ready to be carried by the rocket Atlas 5 which is on the launch pad since Saturday 16th. The new spacecraft arrived on August 3rd at the NASA agency at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. MAVEN was flown to Florida for launch processing from Buckley Air Force base near the +Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, Colorado, where the spacecraft was built.
ONLINE COUNTDOWN
The travel of the spacecraft should be around 10 month. This mission will be the first one dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere and the scientists of NASA and +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory hope to find traces of the ancient environment of the red planet.
We will share more details of the space launch tomorrow, so stay tune
Credits: +NASA / Bill Ingalls
November 14, 2013
Mars panorama taken by Curiosity rover day 437 on the red planet
Update: Panorama was taken few day before Curiosity experienced an unexpected
software reboot. This computer reset occurred about four-and-half hours
after new flight software had been temporarily loaded into the rover's
memory.
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 101 images taken on Sol 437
Source: +NASA
The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 101 images taken on Sol 437
Source: +NASA
November 13, 2013
Successful landing of Soyuz with the expedition 37 crew
Dear followers,
Last week, the Soyuz took-off with success from Baikonur, Kazakhstan with three astronauts and the Olympic torch. This Monday, November 11th, the Soyuz spacecraft has performed its reentry in the atmosphere and it landed in Kazakhstand. The Russian spacecraft brought the member of the expedition 37 crew members, the Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, the European astronaut +Luca Parmitano and the American astronaut Karen Nyberg.
Credits: +SpacevidsTv1
November 12, 2013
November 8, 2013
November 7, 2013
Successful take-off of Soyuz from Baikonur [with video]
Dear followers,
yesterday, the Soyuz was ready on the pad for its launch. This morning the Russian spacecraft took-off with success from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credits: REUTERS / Shamil Zhumatov
Actually, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos successfully launched the Soyuz spacecraft TMA-11M bound for the International Space Station. The crew comprises the Japanese Koichi Wakata, the American +Rick Mastracchio and the Russian Mikhail Tyurin. The trio are carrying a replica of the Olympic torch for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games that are set to take place in Sotchi, Russia.
"It's just an outstanding day and a spectacular launch" said William Gerstenmaier, the NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operation.
Enjoy, the video of the take-off (with French commentary) : the launch starts at 14:30 in the video
November 5, 2013
Successful launch of the Indian spacecraft to Mars
Dear followers,
after the mission sent by +European Space Agency, ESA, Mars Express, and after the mission sent by +NASA, curiosity, and the missions Mars2 and Mars3 sent by Russia, India is the fourth country to send a mission to the red planet. The India's Mars Orbiter Mission, the Mangalyaan probe is a spacecraft powered by solar arrays and packed with five instruments to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars. The 1350 kg of the spacecraft has been launched with success from a pad at the agency's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota this morning.
Credits: +TIME
Those instruments include a color camera for photographic imaging, a spectrometer for surface composition and mineralogy analysis and a methane sensor.
We will provide you more details in the next hours, stay tune.
November 4, 2013
October 31, 2013
October 29, 2013
Amateur photograph of Earth's moon October 22nd 2013
Credits: +Kevin Franklin
Details of the photograph: Waning gibbous phase 22nd October 2013, around 1240 UTC. 18.1 days old, 87.2% illuminated.
Mosaic of 5 .ser video files at 7fps in full resolution in Firecaptue with QHY 5L-II mono CCD.
October 28, 2013
October 24, 2013
October 23, 2013
GOCE satellite will crash on Earth due its lack of fuel
Dear followers,
on October 18th, +European Space Agency, ESA reported a fuel trouble in the GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite. Actually, the pressure in the fuel system of the ion engine had dropped below 2.5 bar, which is the nominal operating pressure required to fire the engine. Last Monday, the end of mission was formally declared when the ion drive stopped working during at 03:16 UTC. The European satellite will reenter in our atmosphere and will be partially destructed before to crash on Earth.
Credits: +European Space Agency, ESA
The GOCE satellite, has been developed by an industrial consortium of 45 companies distributed over 13 European countries. One of the missions was focused on the mapping of Earth’s gravity field in unprecedented detail. In order to achieve its very challenging mission objectives, this 5 meters long satellite was orbiting at a very low altitude of just 260 km because the gravitational variations are stronger closer to Earth. GOCE satellite was launched on March 17th 2009 on a modified Russian intercontinental ballistic missile that had been decommissioned as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
The danger for the population due to the crack of the satellite is very low. Actually the risk to be hit by a debris of a spacecraft is 65 000 times lower than the risk to be struck by lightning.
Sources: ESA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)