Successful launch of the new NASA Sun-watching spacecraft IRIS

Dear followers,

few days ago, we proposed you a picture of the incoming new probe developed by +NASA for the Sun observation, called IRIS. Yesterday afternoon, after a delayed launch, the Sun-watching probe has been launched in orbit with success.

Credits: +NASA 

This new space rocket, called Pegasus, has been dropped by a plane at around 12 km above the Pacific Ocean, about 160 km northwest of Vandenberg. After a five second freefall, the Pegasus rocket started and carried the Sun-watching, IRIS, into Earth orbit.
The +NASA engineers and scientists hope that the observations performed by IRIS will help them to understand more in details how energy and material move around the Sun.

You could find above the video of the launch :

Credits: +NASA 

Remarkable remains of a recent supernova

Credits: X-ray (NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.Borkowski et al.); Optical (DSS)

Future of NASA: Orion Crew Module

Credits: +NASA 

Shenzhou-10 and its three crew members are back to Earth safely

Dear follower,

two weeks ago, the Chinese Space Agency sent in orbit 3 taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) with success. After, 15 days of mission in space, The Chinese Shenzhou-10 spacecraft has returned its three crew members safely back to Earth following a 15 day mission in space, most of which involved docked operations with the Tiangong-1 space module.

The crew is comprised of Nie Haisheng (Commander), Zhang Xiaoguan (Operator) and Wang Yaping (Laboratory Assistant).

Credits: ©CHINA MANNED SPACE ENGINEERING

Successful launch of Soyuz from Kourou Space Center

Credits: SpaceVids.tv and +Arianespace 

Reschedule of Soyuz launch for today at 18h54 GMT

Dear follower,

yesterday, the Russian rocket launcher, Soyuz should lift-off from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. However, potential winds shear at 12 to 14 kilometers in altitude forced the delay. The launch has been rescheduled for today, June 25 at 18h54 GMT.

Credits : AFP 2013

The Soyuz will carry four satellites for O3b Networks, which will provide broadband service to developing countries. The O3b Networks satellites are designed and built by Thales Alenia Space to become a part of the first medium Earth orbit satellite constellation providing broadband internet access in remote areas of the world.

Live Stream here :

Soyuz launch from Kourou space Center Today

Dear followers,

An +Arianespace Soyuz rocket, designated VS05, will launch on a mission from the Guiana Space Center in South America this night. The Soyuz will carry four satellites for O3b Networks, which will provide broadband service to developing countries. Usually Soyuz rockets lifts off from Baikonur in Russia, However, Since October 2011  Soyuz could be launched from Kourou in Guiana. Actually, the first Soyuz launch from ELS was postponed several times, but launched on October 21, 2011.

Credits: AFP 2013 - Jody Amiet

The O3b Networks satellites are designed and built by Thales Alenia Space to become a part of the first medium Earth orbit satellite constellation providing broadband internet access in remote areas of the world.

Four O3b satellites are to be taken to orbit this year and four in 2014. To reduce cost and latency, the satellites will be orbiting at an average altitude of about 8,000 km, or about four times closer than regular geostationary satellites.

The Soyuz 2-1b rocket will use a Fregat upper stage. +Arianespace will oversee the launch.

The launch is scheduled for 6:53 p.m. GMT.

[Edit] : You could follow the live steam below: start of the live @ 8:33 pm lift-off @ 8:53

Super Moon June 23 2013

Credits: Ann Thomas Grant

Credits: Priya Kumar

Milky Way Galactic Center region

Credits: Stéphane Guisard

Mercury from MDIS aboard NASA's MESSENGER mission

Credits: Image of the Day from +NASA 

3 Asteroids found Orbiting Uranus

Dear followers,

Scientists has found that the 70km asteroid, called Crantor and two other smaller asteroids, called respectively 2010 EU65 and 2011 QF99 are orbiting Uranus.

In 2006, Uruguayan astronomer Tabaré Gallardo suggested the asteroids Crantor and 2000 SN331 complete their orbits of the Sun in the same time period as Uranus, i.e., an orbit around 84 Earth years.

Credits: artistic view of Uranus with asteroid Crantor SINC

Today, two astrophysicists from the Complutense University of Madrid have confirmed that Crantor, a large asteroid with a diameter of 70 km has an orbit similar to that of Uranus and takes the same amount of time to orbit the Sun. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that this and a further two objects of the group of the Centaurs are co-orbital with Uranus.

Credits: Lawrence Sromovky from University of Winsconsin-Madison, Keck Observatory

References:

Carlos de la Fuente Marcos y Raúl de la Fuente Marcos. “Crantor, a short-lived horseshoe companion to Uranus”. Astronomy & Astrophysics 551: A114, March 2013. DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201220646

Carlos de la Fuente Marcos y Raúl de la Fuente Marcos. “Three new stable L5 Mars Trojans”. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters 432: 31-35, May 2013. DOI:10.1093/mnrasl/slt028

NASA announces first-ever human mission to an asteroid

Dear followers,

today +NASA announces the first ever human mission to an asteroid. Before today +NASA  never hasn't made any official announcements. However, some anonymous White House official have both made public America’s plans for its next phase of human space exploration. The ambitious proposal calls for a spacecraft to capture a small asteroid in incoming years. The project is also to bring it near the Moon. Astronauts would then explore the asteroid in the following year after its capture. 

This great announcement has been done by Charles Frank Bolden, the current Administrator of NASA 

Credits: +NASA 

ATV4 hatch is open !

Credits: +European Space Agency, ESA 

ATV4 approache to ISS last Saturday

Credits: +European Space Agency, ESA 

ATV-4 Docking sequence to ISS

Credits: +European Space Agency, ESA 

Virgin Galactic is close to be ready - Who wants to be part of that?

Credits: +Virgin Galactic 

Sun and Moon by Solar Dynamics Observatory from NASA

Credits: +NASA 

Remains of the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft found

Dear followers,

3 days ago, the Chinese space rocket, Long March 2F rocket, took off, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, carrying 3 cosmonauts for the Chinese space station. Yesterday, the Chinese authorities founds some pieces of the space rocket lost during the successful liftoff of Shenzhou-10 mission.

 Credits: www.news.cn/www.chinanews.com

The escape tower remains of Shenzhou-10 spacecraft have been found in Badain Jaran desert. The desert is located in the northwest of north China's Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region.

Ladder-like Ring around Saturn

Credits: +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Total eclipse over ahu NauNau, Pacific Island in 2010

Credits : Stéphane Guisard