Space Station Crew to Return to Earth Sunday
Updated: 2012-06-30 15:34:00
Three astronauts living on the International Space Station will return home to Earth Sunday after spending more than six months in orbit.
Three astronauts living on the International Space Station will return home to Earth Sunday after spending more than six months in orbit.
After six months in space astronauts Oleg Kononenko, Don Pettit and André Kuipers, whose tour of duty began two days before Christmas, will leave the space station Saturday evening to return home. Before their departure I had a chance to speak on Thursday morning with Pettit, Kuipers and Joe Acaba, who arrived on the station [...]
Wildfires continue to rage across the western United States, burning forests and property alike, and even the most remote have sent up enormous plumes of smoke that are plainly visible to astronauts aboard the Space Station. The photo above was taken by an Expedition 31 crew member on June 27, showing thick smoke drifting northeast [...]
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Boulder wildfire Wait just a second No really , wait JUST A SECOND Ridiculously awesome photo and time lapse of a stormcloud at twilight I’ve been following photographer Jeffrey Sullivan on Google+ for a while now it’s a great place to see the work of talented people , and that’s where I found his lunar eclipse sequence I posted here last year . Jeff is really good , and gets amazing shots of the sky . But today he posted the best shot I’ve seen from him : this jaw-dropping composite photo of a cumulonimbus cloud spawning lightning below and with star trails : above Holy . .
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Astronomer Mark Thompson guides us through the summer skies, pointing out some galactic treasures.
On July 1, 1962, the Launch Operations Center in Florida officially became operational. The name was later changed to John F. Kennedy Space Center in honor of the president and his vision of Americans visiting the Moon. This video looks back at the many launches and space exploration highlights that occurred at KSC, so enjoy [...]
Here is the first image taken by the newest space mission, NuSTAR, or the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, the first space telescope with the ability to see the highest energy X-rays in our universe and produce crisp images of them. “Today, we obtained the first-ever focused images of the high-energy X-ray universe,” said Fiona Harrison, [...]
Caption: Participants in NASA’s Sample Return Robot Challenge. Credit: NASA Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Andy Tomaswick, an electrical engineer who follows space science and technology. Picking up rocks can be harder than you’d think. That is one of the lessons to take away from the recently completed Sample Return Robot Challenge [...]
Two former NASA astronauts have given themselves a new mission: To seek out potentially dangerous asteroids so humanity can have enough time to do something about it.
The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft touched down safely after a successful 13-day mission to test orbital docking technologies.
A four-minute video from the International Space Station, released today by NASA, captures a beautiful and horrible sight: Ribbons of smoke drifting across Colorado and other Western states, due to a rash of wildfires.
You can also see sunlight glinting off lakes, as well as the hellip;
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Phobos – one of two moons of Mars – could well be the site for life detection beyond Earth. That’s the belief of Purdue University researchers, arguing that Phobos may be an extraterrestrial repository for microbes blasted off of Mars by being on the receiving end of asteroid hits. “A sample from the moon Phobos, [...]
Voyager 1, the spacecraft that launched on a tour of the solar in 1977, is getting ready to enter interplanetary space -- what a journey it's had!
The sea breeze has produced some pop-up thunderstorms across the area this afternoon, including pea-sized hail and lots of lightning to the north and northwest of downtown. The storm is essentially moving northwest between Highway 290 and the Tomball Parkway. These storms, and any others that form this afternoon, are being driven by warm afternoon [...]
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Singing the praises of Carl Sagan Privately and publicly looking for Earth-threatening asteroids Stellar tantrum blasts away part of its planet’s atmosphere Life must suck for HD . 189733b It’s a planet orbiting the star HD 189733, about 63 light years from Earth . It’s similar to Jupiter , being slightly more massive and slightly bigger . Unlike our own big brother , though , HD 189733b is far closer to its parent star , orbiting just about 4 million kilometers about 2.5 million miles above its surface That means the cloudtops of the planet are at a scorching 840°C 1500°F so
Leaders of the nonprofit B612 Foundation today took the wraps off a campaign to fund and launch a space telescope to hunt for potential killer asteroids mdash; a campaign they portrayed as a cosmic civic improvement project.
Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, the foundation's cha hellip;
As Apple and other tech designers seek sleeker and ever-more powerful batteries to power laptops and devices, they’re pushing engineers to create unconventional, more space-efficient batteries. Some students at Rice University, in Pulickel Ajayan’s lab, have done just that. And then some. They actually created a “battery” that can be sprayed on virtually any surface [...]
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Virtual Star Party featured at big Google+ meeting Stellar tantrum blasts away part of its planet’s atmosphere Singing the praises of Carl Sagan One of my favorite quotations of all time is by Carl Sagan : If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch , you must first invent the Universe . quot The poetry and lyrical nature of that line are wonderful , and the sentiment well . He was exactly right . Sagan was one of many people who influenced me , and of course so many of us who promote astronomy to the public owe our careers to . him That’s why I was so pleased when I found
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
: Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Asteroids are gaining big time on the respect scale. Two years ago, President Obama directed NASA to alter plans for a human lunar return and focus instead on mission that would land U.S. explorers one of the small rocky bodies by 2025. The mission would prepare explorers for the eventual exploration of Mars. In [...]
SpaceX is basking in the glow of last month's successful cargo mission to the International Space Station, but it's also celebrating the glow of its next-generation Merlin 1D rocket engine, which has now gone through a full mission duration firing of 185 seconds.
The California-b hellip;
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS In which I become SPACE JUDGE Landing on Mars : Seven minutes of terror SpaceX successfully tests new engine VIDEO SpaceX successfully launched the first privately owned rocket Falcon 9 and space capsule Dragon to the International Space Station in May . The engine that propelled them there is called the Merlin built by the company based on known technology and NASA heritage . Several generations of Merlin engines have been made , and the newest , the 1D , was recently test fired in May at the SpaceX facility in Texas . This video of it is pretty darn cool . Turn the volume up
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Bodies in space SpaceX successfully tests new engine VIDEO In which I become SPACE JUDGE Oh , I do love good news . A few days ago I wrote about a small group of aerospace experts who put up a Kickstarter project to launch a small satellite . The news It’s fully funded That means this satellite will get built and launched into space . Be aware that , as with most Kickstarter projects , reaching their goal doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t pitch in . More money pledged even after the goal is achieved means more and cooler stuff the project people can do with it And in this
As surely as they bring high temperatures, summers in the United States bring Hurricane Season, a five-month stretch that raises the costly spectre of high winds, heavy rains and floods to the millions of people who live in the cities and communities that dot the East and Gulf Coasts. The devestation from these tropical storms [...]
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
Home Blog Advertise The Sky This Month The Moon This Month Astronomy News Astrobiology Magazine News Astronomy Picture of the Day BBC Science News CNN Space News Earth Observatory News Eurekalert Astronomy Space News European Southern Observatory News European Space Agency News Gemini Observatory News Hubble Space Telescope News JPL News Kepler Telescope News Lunar and Planetary Institute News MSNBC Space News NASA Breaking News NASA PlanetQuest News NASA TV National Geographic News PBS Nova News Science at NASA News Scientific American News Space Shuttle News Space Today News STEREO Solar Mission News The Astronomer’s Telegram News The Space Show Wired Science News Astronomy Podcasts 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Astronomy Cast Podcast Astronomy Magazine Podcast Earth Sky Podcast
"The Dark Knight Rises"? Bah! If you measure the heft of a movie trailer by dramatic impact, "Seven Minutes of Terror" is the one to watch. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory released the five-minute trailer today to tout the upcoming entry, descent and landing of its $2.5 billion hellip;
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Natural born scientist The secret of nym Near-Earth asteroid twice as big as previously thought On June 14, 2012, the asteroid 2012 LZ1 passed the Earth . It missed us by a wide margin over 5 million kilometers 3 million miles so there was no danger of impact . While it does get near us every now and again , using current orbital measurements we know we’re safe from an impact by this particular rock for at least 750 years . . Phew Good thing , too . New observations using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico indicate LZ1 is bigger than we first thought . Much bigger :
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS What to make of the Chinese space effort A mini star factory lost in the sky No words Astrophotographer Alan Friedman’s latest Just click it . Here’s an explanation of what you’re seeing Links to more of his soul-stirring photos are below . Image credit : Alan Friedman Related : Posts Towering transit of Venus Solar Cinco de Mayo The face of our star The boiling , erupting Sun Share June 21st , 2012 8:05 PM Tags : Alan Friedman Sun by Phil Plait in Astronomy Pretty pictures 14 comments RSS feed Trackback 14 Responses to No words” 1. quarksparrow Says : June 21st , 2012 at 8:27
Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS No words Natural born scientist A mini star factory lost in the sky You’d think that with all our fancy equipment and technology , all the nearby galaxies in the Universe would’ve been spotted by now . But it turns out that’s not the case . Some galaxies are very faint small , with few stars making them tough to find even when relatively speaking they’re in our . neighborhood So say hello to our newly-discovered neighbor , UGC 4597 Click to galactinate . UGC 4597 is a dwarf galaxy . Galaxies like our Milky Way have billions or hundreds of billions of stars , but dwarf galaxies
The bad news about the asteroid 2012 LZ1, which zipped past Earth last week, is that it's actually twice as wide and a lot deadlier than we thought mdash; a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide in its largest dimension, rather than 500 meters. The good news is that we have at least hellip;
: Subscribe Today Renew Give a Gift Archives Customer Service Facebook Twitter Newsletter SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS An unusual view of the Death Star moon What to make of the Chinese space effort Science Getaways : Dark skies I got an email recently from BABloggee Mark Sunderland , pointing out this photo to me . It shows the Toronto skyline with the Milky Way and thousands of stars blazing behind . it I had to chuckle : the picture is obviously fake and now the caption at Flickr says as much , though it didn’t when I first saw it There’s no way you could see the Milky Way from a city like Toronto . The city lights flood the air with illumination , lighting up the sky and drowning out
The Moon is taking on an icy look thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. Using a laser altimeter on the LRO, a research team essentially has illuminated the crater’s interior of Shackleton crater. Scientists from MIT, Brown University, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and other institutions have mapped Shackleton crater with unprecedented detail. [...]
Not all missions are successful, and such was the case for last weekend's $1.5 million Sample Return Robot Challenge, backed by NASA and presented at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. The robo-showdown was supposed to pit autonomous rovers against each other in a hellip;
The nonprofit B612 Foundation says it's planning the first privately funded deep-space mission, with the goal of launching an instrument known as the Sentinel Space Telescope to look for potentially hazardous asteroids from a vantage point inside Earth's orbit around the sun.
The hellip;