Successful launch and orbiting of 2 satellites by Ariane 5

Dear followers,

yesterday, the European space rocket, Ariane 5, performed its first 2014 launch from Kourou, French Guiana. Ariane 5 orbited 2 telecommunications satellites, Athena-Fidus and ABS-2 at  21:30 UTC (February 6th).

Credit: +CNES 

Athena-Fidus (Access on THeatres for European Nations Allied forces - French Italian Dual Use Satellite) is a telecommunications satellite developped by the large collaboration between France and Italia. Developed for CNES, the Italian space agency ASI, the French Defense agency (DGA) and the Italian Ministry of Defence, it will deliver telecommunications services to French and Italian military and civil protection forces, complementing capacity already provided by the Syracuse and SICRAL satellites.

In an other hand, ABS-2 is a telecommunications satellite that will enable the operator Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) to deliver telecommunications, television, multimedia and data transmission services to Asia, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Enjoy the European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from Kourou in French Guiana

Credit: +Arianespace 

Dingo Gap, the dune of sand taken in 360° by Curiosity on Mars

Dear followers,

after 526 days on Mars, the curiosity rover from +NASA continue to explore the surface for the red planet until a dune of sand called Dingo Gap.

Credit image: +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

A new 360° panorama has been proposed +Andrew Bodrov. The panorama shows the Dingo Gap taken during the 530th Martian day. The dune is about 1 m high.

Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 530 in The World


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Impressive shot of the Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula

Credit image: +Chris Sinclair 

North pole of Saturn from Cassini

Credit: +NASA 

NGC 6357 near NGC 6334 in the constellation Scorpius taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Credit image: +Hubble Space Telescope 

Chinese moon rover Yutu has a mechanical control anomaly

Dear followers,

few days ago, we propose you an amazing work performed thanks to pictures taken by the Chinese moon rover, called Yutu or Change's 3. However, last weekend, an "abnormality occurred due to complicated lunar surface environment," announced the the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) from China. 

The abnormality emerged before the rover entered its second dormancy at dawn on Saturday as the lunar night fell, according to SASTIND. The equipment failure may block the solar panel. If the panels cannot be closed, the rover will almost certainly freeze during the two week span. As said, the moon environment is really critical. Actually, one night on the Moon is about 14 days on Earth, during which the temperature falls below minus 180 Celsius. During the lunar night, there is no sunlight to provide power to Yutu's solar panel.

 Credit: CNSA/CCTV

The Chang'e-3 lunar probe soft-landed on the Moon on December 14th after couple days in lunar orbit. The rover separated from the lander hours later.

The success of the Chang'e-3 mission makes China the third country to soft-land a spacecraft on lunar soil after the United States and the former Soviet Union. During this mission, China collaborates with ESA, the +European Space Agency, ESA for the communication part.

Milky Way taken from the North Coast of Scotland

Credit image : +Chris Sinclair 

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

Credit: +NASA 

Successful lift-off from Cape Canaveral of Atlas 5 carrying TDRS-L satellite

Dear followers,

Last night, the rocket ATLAS V 401 with its payload TDRS-L performed its lift-off from the launch pad Station Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:33pm EDT (2:33 GMT 24th).

Enjoy the video of the space launch :

Credit: +NASA 

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.

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)

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Stay tuned for its launch

Milky Way taken in picture from Iceland

Credit image: Ivrie Belegurscki from iceland-photo tour

360° panorama from the Chinese Moon rover: Change's 3

Dear followers,

after its landing on our Moon, Chang'e3, the Chinese space rover, is exploring the Moon land.  

Lunar panorama: Chang’e 3 lander in The World

Working hard on ISS

Credit: +NASA 

New potential hazardous asteroid discovered by NASA

Dear followers,

for this beginning of 2014, +NASA revealed the discovery of a news potential hazardous asteroid, called 2013 YP139. The asteroid was at a distance of 0.235 astronomical units from Earth by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer from NASA. Its size is estimated around 650 meters.  It orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit along the invariable plane and is currently 42 million kilometers away and is expected to come within 490,000 kilometers of our dear Earth planet, slightly beyond the orbit of the Moon. However, because of some potential uncertainties and this close proximity, the 2013 YP139 asteroid has classified as a potential threat.

Credit: +NASA / +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Stay tuned 

TDRS-L spacecraft encapsulated in its payload at NASA facility in Florida

Credit image : +NASA / Kim Shiflett

Virgin Galactic's third rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo flight at 21 km of altitude !

Dear followers,

+Virgin Galactic successfully completed its third rocket-powered supersonic flight of its passenger carrying reusable space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2) on Jan. 10, 2014 from the spaceport in the Mojave Desert, soaring to a record 21 km of altitude!

Credit: +Virgin Galactic 

All details of the test flight there : http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/virgin-galactic-reaches-new-heights-in-third-supersonic-test-flight/

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo was berthed and installed with success to ISS

Dear followers,

after its successful lift-off from Earth 3 days ago, the Antares rocket developed by Orbital Sciences released its payload and the Cygnus was berthed and installed with success to the International Science Station. 

Credit image : Orbital Sciences

The module will remain for around one month while the crew of the space station transfers the 1.5 tons of provisions and experiments delivered by the private capsule, Cygnus. Enjoy the video:

Credit : +NASA 

Successful lift-off of the Antares rocket carrying equipments for ISS

Dear followers,

After a decrease of the radiation level which delayed the liftoff this week, the space launch  of the Antares rocket was performed. If you missed the Orb1 rocket launch to the ISS yesterday, enjoy this video 

Credit: +NASA 

Great 2014 picture of Orion nebula taken by amateur photographer

Credit image: Guillaume Doyen

Orb-1 mission of the Antares rocket delayed due to high space radiation environment

Dear followers,

yesterday, we announced that the Antares is already on the launch Pad-0A at +NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. This morning, the Antares launch team decided to delay the space launch due to an unusually high level of space radiation that exceeded by a considerable margin the constraints imposed on the mission to ensure the rocket's electronic systems are not impacted by a harsh radiation environment.

Image source : Orbital Science

The space rocket is in advance of a planned launch on January 8th at 1:32 p.m. EST on the Wallops Island, VA. The Orbital-1 mission is Orbital Sciences' first contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. Among the cargo aboard Cygnus set to launch to the international space station are science experiments, crew provisions, and other hardware. 

Stay tuned 

[Update] : if the level of radiations moves down, Orbital Sciences announces that the launch could be performed on Thursday, the launch targeted launch time would be 1:10 p.m. (EST), with Cygnus arriving at the ISS Sunday morning, January 12.