Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral mistaken for UFO

Dear reader and followers,

In order to stop rumors on social network, such as facebook about UFO over an US airport, the explanation has been released:

It was Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, over the Miami Airport, in Florida, USA.

Actually, As the rocket climbed into the atmosphere, the combination of the pre-dawn light and the atmospheric conditions meant that the plume of the rocket formed an elongated shape as it climbed into space. 

In some videos, like the one below, as the rockets travels upwards at an angle it almost looks like the rocket is moving horizontal across the sky – although this is just an illusion, and it is actually travelling into the distance.

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MAVEN delivered the first observations of Mars atmosphere

Dear readers and followers,

the NASA’s spacecraft called MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) has obtained its first observations of the extended upper atmosphere surrounding Mars. Piling on to the good news from Mars this week, the US spacecraft Maven sent home its first ultraviolet images from Mars. While they may not be flashy, these images will help determine the composition and variability of the upper atmosphere, and investigate the mystery when the water escaped.

The Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument obtained these false-color images eight hours after the successful completion of Mars orbit insertion by the spacecraft at 10:24 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday, September 21th. 

Credit image: NASA

The MAVEN spacecraft has been sent with success by the space rocket Atlas 5 last November 2013. Its travel to Mars took 10 months.

The image shows the planet from an altitude of 36500 km in three ultraviolet wavelength bands:

• Blue shows the ultraviolet light from the sun scattered from atomic hydrogen gas in an extended cloud that goes to thousands of kilometers above the planet’s surface.
• Green shows a different wavelength of ultraviolet light that is primarily sunlight reflected off of atomic oxygen, showing the smaller oxygen cloud. 
• Red shows ultraviolet sunlight reflected from the planet’s surface; the bright spot in the lower right is light reflected either from polar ice or clouds.

The oxygen gas is held close to the planet by Mars’ gravity, while lighter hydrogen gas is present to higher altitudes and extends past the edges of the image. These gases derive from the breakdown of water and carbon dioxide in Mars’ atmosphere. Over the course of its one-Earth-year primary science mission, MAVEN observations like these will be used to determine the loss rate of hydrogen and oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. 

Tracking the spacial and temporal variation of these gases, along with carbon, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and ionized carbon dioxide, will help scientists better understand what processes are driving the atmosphere's composition. The particularly interesting part for the water history of the planet involves measuring the ratio between light water and heavy water: hydrogen (121.567 nm) and deuterium (121.533 nm). 

That's a task that requires a high level of precision, and has been successfully accomplished for the lower atmosphere on Mars before, but never for the upper atmosphere where gas loss is actually taking place. These observations will allow us to determine the amount of water that has escaped from the planet over time.

Source: NASA

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Atlas 5 lift-off carrying TDRS-L Satellite from Cape Canaveral

Credit: +NASA 

TDRS-L mission launched today

Dear followers,

Today, the rocket ATLAS V 401 with its payload TDRS-L will lift-off from the launch pad Station Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The space launcher will be launched on an easterly trajectory and the spacecraft will be released into a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit. The mission from launch to vehicle separation is scheduled to take just over 1 hour 45 minutes.

Credit image : America space

The payload of the rocket is the TDRS-L (Tracking and Data Relay Satellites) satellite of the third generation. The TDRS satellites are operated by +NASA , and are used for communication between NASA facilities and spacecraft including the Space Shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope, and International Space Station.

The launch window is planned today between 9:05pm - 9:45pm EDT (2:05 - 2:45 GMT 24th)

HTTP://COUNTINGDOWNTO.COM

Stay tuned for its launch

Amazing successful liftoff Atlas5 rocket with NROL-39 And 12 CubeSats

Credits: Matthew travis

You could find below the badge of the Atlas5 with NROL-39 mission

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.

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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

Successful Atlas5 liftoff in pictures

Thanks to +Elizabeth Therese Niwel
Source

Atlas 5 take-off livestream now

Dear followers,

today, United Launch Alliance will perform its seventy-fifth launch with the space-launcher Atlas V with the aim of deploying the AEHF-3 satellite for the US Air Force.

The Liftoff is scheduled from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in few minutes. You could follow the liftoff in livesteam below.

Watch live streaming video from spaceflightnow at livestream.com

Source

The next NASA's spacecraft to Mars arrived at Kennedy Space Center

Dear follower,

After Curiosity, the rover sent to the red planet by +NASA to explore the land of Mars, the American space agency, works on a new spacecraft : MAVEN. This spacecraft should be sent before the end of this year.

Credits: +NASA / Tim Jacobs

The new Mars spacecraft called MAVEN for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution 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.

The next Mars mission should lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in November 2013. 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.

An Atlas 5 rocket successfully took-off from Cape Canaveral

Dear follower,

2 days ago, in Baikonur the Proton rocket had liftoff. Today, in Cape Canaveral, the Atlas 5 has successfully carried a replacement Global Positioning System satellite for the United States Air Force.
The Centaur upper stage completed its second burn and released the Global Positioning System 2F-4 satellite into the navigation network.

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II 

Credit: NASAgovVideo

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