Successful launch of the ESA's mission SWARM

Credit: +European Space Agency, ESA 

ISON Comet taken from Buenos Aires Argentina

Credits image: +Ariel Kachuka 

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

Near-Earth Object 2013 US10 is a long period Comet

Credit: +NASA 

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 

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