Space and astronomy news
[/caption] The historic flight of the first private spaceship to ever connect to the International Space Station (ISS) has entered its waning hours and by all accounts it’s been a resounding success thus far ahead of the imminent return trip to Earth. All objectives have been fully accomplished and all that remains is for the …
Continue reading “SpaceX Dragon Sealed for Earth Return on May 31”
[/caption] For over 50 years, award-winning space and astronomy artist David A. Hardy has taken us to places we could only dream of visiting. His career started before the first planetary probes blasted off from Earth to travel to destinations in our solar system and before space telescopes viewed distant places in our Universe. It …
Continue reading “Visions of the Cosmos: The Enduring Space Art of David A. Hardy”
[/caption] There’s a great reason to look up this weekend and hope for clear skies! On May 20-21 an annular eclipse of the Sun will be visible from a 300 kilometer-wide track that crosses eastern Asia, the northern Pacific Ocean and the western United States. An annular eclipse means the Moon will not cover the …
Continue reading “Ring of Fire! Annular Solar Eclipse on May 20”
[/caption] At 9:58 a.m. this morning (Friday May 11), technicians unplugged Space Shuttle Endeavour marking the final power down of NASA’s last powered orbiter and termination of all power flowing to the flight deck. Today, Endeavour was euthanized. The flight deck went dark for the last time as Endeavour is being prepped inside Orbiter Processing …
[/caption] In Star Trek lore, the first Constitution Class Starship Enterprise will be built by the year 2245. But today, an engineer has proposed — and outlined in meticulous detail – building a full-sized, ion-powered version of the Enterprise complete with 1G of gravity on board, and says it could be done with current technology, …
Continue reading “Engineer Thinks We Could Build a Real Starship Enterprise in 20 Years”
Talk about the shot of a lifetime! A Canadian airline passenger waiting on the tarmac at JFK this morning got an incredible view of the shuttle Enterprise landing! Just…wow. Video by YouTube user “daujla2”. (Hat tip to the New York Post.)
[/caption] Space Shuttle Discovery, the longest serving and most flown spaceship in human history, entered her eternal home today, Thursday, April 19, at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum Annex in Virginia. Discovery thereby assumed her new status as a museum relic and monument to the promise and glorious dreams of space exploration, inspiring …
Continue reading “Discovery Enters Eternal Smithsonian Home as Historic Relic”
[/caption] According to Star Trek lore, it is only 51 years until humans encounter their first contact with an alien species. In the movie “Star Trek: First Contact,” on April 5, 2063, Vulcans pay a visit to an Earth recovering from a war-torn period (see the movie clip below.) But will such a planet-wide, history-changing …
Continue reading “How Would Humans Respond to First Contact from an Alien World?”
[/caption] The first student selected photos of the Moon’s surface snapped by NASA’s new pair of student named Lunar Mapping orbiters – Ebb & Flow – have just been beamed back and show an eerie view looking back to the Home Planet – and all of Humanity – barely rising above the pockmarked terrain of …
Continue reading “1st Student Selected MoonKAM Pictures Look Inspiringly Home to Earth”
[/caption] NASA is on course to make the highest leap in human spaceflight in nearly 4 decades when an unmanned Orion crew capsule blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a high stakes, high altitude test flight in early 2014. A new narrated animation (see below) released by NASA depicts the planned 2014 launch of …
Continue reading “Orion Crew Capsule Targeted for 2014 Leap to High Orbit”