[NOTE: For the latest, follow @UARS_Reentry on Twitter.] NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, better known as “UARS,” will soon crash back to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry. NASA previously thought this would happen this afternoon, which meant North America was seemingly out of the woods. But according to an update this morning, the satellite’s descent has slowed, and re-entry is… Read more »
A true must-see: NASA: “Video of the Aurora Australis taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. This sequence of shots was taken September 17, 2011 from 17:22:27 to 17:45:12 GMT, on an ascending pass from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia over the Indian Ocean.” Dr. Jeff Masters: “The rippling green curtains… Read more »
Space Shuttle Atlantis, which launched four days before Loyabelle was born, landed safely this morning at Cape Canaveral, ending NASA’s 30-year Shuttle program. It was the 135th mission for the fleet, which has covered an astonishing 542million miles and circled Earth 21,150 times. … The five shuttles have carried 355 people from 16 countries – and here were the last… Read more »
Overcoming concerns about weather — and a last-minute technical hitch that created a dramatic countdown hold at T-minus 31 seconds, with just minutes remaining in the launch window — the Space Shuttle Atlantis rocketed into space a few minutes ago, a picture-perfect final launch for NASA’s 30-year Shuttle program. [UPDATE: Apparently, liftoff occurred with just 58 seconds left in the… Read more »
The second-to-last Space Shuttle launch went off without a hitch this morning. Rep. Gabby Giffords was in attendance as her husband, Mark Kelly, commander of STS-134, and the rest of Endeavour‘s final crew rocketed into orbit. Spaceflight Now has complete coverage. The most amazing view of the launch comes from Stephanie Gordon, a.k.a. @Stafmara, who tweeted this photo and this… Read more »
Loyette, Loyacita and I saw the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station fly over Denver this evening. They were not quite 16 hours removed from undocking, and were still very close together in the sky, as this photo shows: That’s the Moon at top right. The ISS is the bottom left streak of light, fading as it moves… Read more »
In a little less than 18 hours, NASA will bomb the Moon. Well, technically, they’ll crash two spaceships into the Moon. Ostensibly, the purpose of this exercise is to create a “plume” of debris, then analyze the debris from afar to see if it contains water. If that doesn’t work, though, I’m pretty sure Dick Cheney will torture the debris… Read more »
As you probably already know, today is the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing — arguably mankind’s greatest achievement (though, as Conan O’Brien pointed out, putting cheese inside the pizza crust is surely a close second). In honor of the anniversary, Mac OS X, iPhone and iPod touch users can download Carina’s SkyGazer astronomy application, free for today only…. Read more »
Space Shuttle Endeavour launched an hour or so ago from Kennedy Space Center on its delayed STS-127 mission. This was the sixth launch attempt for this mission, the previous five tries having been scrubbed for a mixture of technical and weather reasons. At first sight, the launch looked flawless. However, as slow motion replays became available shortly after Endeavour entered… Read more »