27. Astrophysicist, writer, artist. Michigan. Business inquiries: kaijunobiz@gmail.com
Antares Rocket Explodes on Blast-Off — I don’t usually do “breaking news,” but here’s video of this evening’s Antares rocket launch failure at Wallops Island, Virginia. The unmanned space vehicle was carrying supplies to the International Space Station.
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#video
The last Saturn V rocket launches the Skylab space station, 14 May, 1973, while the rocket that will launch its first crew, Skylab 2, is in the foreground.
The victims of the 1986 Challenger Shuttle explosion likely did not die on initial failure of the rocket, but instead were probably alive and conscious until their fuselage crashed into the ocean some time later. Six astronauts and one civilian schoolteacher died.
The failure was due to malfunctioning O-Rings, a known problem to both NASA and the contractor hired to build the shuttle. Several NASA engineers warned against the launch and were concerned about the integrity of said O-Rings. Several chief engineers, most notably Roger Boisjoly, pleaded for the launch to be rescheduled, but was ignored by the administration.
NASA astronaut films lightning from ISS
Astronaut Reid Wiseman posted a Vine from the International Space Station today showing lightning over Houston.
Tornado warnings were issued in the Houston area earlier this afternoon but have since expired.
got me having goosebumps
he. he posted a vine. from space.
Photos of Jupiter taken by NASA’s JUNO probe
God I’m so gay for Jupiter
While today may belong to the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, it’s important not to forget another important anniversary for NASA - the landing of the Viking 1 spacecraft on Mars!
On July 20th, 1976, the Viking 1 lander separated from the orbiter and touched down at Chryse Planitia, a flat lowland region in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Immediately following touchdown, the lander made history by taking and transmitting the first complete photograph taken from the surface of Mars. The image (http://goo.gl/6C5L6m) was of the Viking 1 lander’s foot as an indication of how far it had sunk into the Martian surface. Between itself and its companion, Viking 2, this historic photograph was just the first of more than 50,000 images taken from the Martian surface, as well as from orbit, and transmitted back to Earth.
What makes Viking 1 especially worth noting is that it was not only the first attempt by the United States at landing on Mars, but it was also the first spacecraft to successfully do so and perform its mission. While the Soviet Mars 3 mission was the first to achieve a soft landing of a spacecraft on Mars it stopped transmitting data 15 seconds after landing. During those few seconds of transmission, it sent the first partial photograph taken from the surface of Mars although nothing was identifiable in it.
During its operation on the Martian surface, Viking 1 became the record holder for longest Mars surface mission at 2307 days, until Mars Rover Opportunity took the record in 2010.
To read more about Viking 1:
http://goo.gl/NOxjpM
http://goo.gl/iKPlJ6
http://goo.gl/6klaq9
A Cosmic Necklace Larger than a Solar System
The “Necklace Nebula”, also called PN G054.2-03.4, is the exploded aftermath of a giant star that came too close to its Sun-like binary companion. The two stars that produced the Necklace Nebula live in a relatively small orbit about each other. They have a period of 1.2 days and a separation on the order of 5 times the radius of the Sun.
Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)
Why isn’t anybody on my dash, like, super pumped about the Orion launch this morning? This ship is built to go farther than any manned ship ever built before. This is the ship that takes humans to deep space. This is the ship that takes humans to Mars. It had its test launch this morning and its kind of a big deal because this is the ship that’s gonna bring in a new era of space travel. Welcome to the Mars age.
Today marks 25 years since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft saw Earth as “a pale blue dot.”
“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” -Carl Sagan
Can we talk about the Valentine’s Day cards NASA made?
