Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Space X Falcon Heavy Demo Mission Booster Landings


Synchronicity!
Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 & LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA on February 6, 2018.

Falcon Heavy Boosters
"Each of Falcon Heavy’s side cores, or boosters, is equivalent to the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket with nine Merlin engines. At liftoff, the boosters and the center core all operate at full thrust. Shortly after liftoff, the center core engines are throttled down. After the side cores separate, the center core engines throttle back up."

Learn more: http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy

Synchronicity: the state of "occurring at the same time; coinciding in time; contemporaneous; simultaneous."

Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!

"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Image Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
Caption Credit: SpaceX
Image Date: February 6, 2018

#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #Rocket #Falcon9 #KSC #Kennedy #CapeCanaveral #Florida #Spaceport #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Booster Rockets Post-landing


Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 & LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA on February 6, 2018.

Falcon Heavy Boosters
"Each of Falcon Heavy’s side cores, or boosters, is equivalent to the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket with nine Merlin engines. At liftoff, the boosters and the center core all operate at full thrust. Shortly after liftoff, the center core engines are throttled down. After the side cores separate, the center core engines throttle back up."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy

Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!

"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Image Credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX
Caption Credit: SpaceX
Image Date: February 6, 2018


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #Rocket #Falcon9 #KSC #Kennedy #CapeCanaveral #Florida #Spaceport #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Successful!

Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!
Video: Go to the 29 minute mark to replay the launch!


"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch Gallery





A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket begins its demonstration flight with liftoff at 3:45 p.m. EST from from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 6, 2018. This is a significant milestone for the world's premier multi-user spaceport. In 2014, NASA signed a property agreement with SpaceX for the use and operation of the center's pad 39A, where the company has launched Falcon 9 rockets and prepared for the first Falcon Heavy. NASA also has Space Act Agreements in place with partners, such as SpaceX, to provide services needed to process and launch rockets and spacecraft.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Capture Date: February 6, 2018

"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #Spaceport #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

Elon Musk wants to go to Mars!

Elon's reusable Falcon Heavy rocket is now one leap closer! 

PBS NewsHour: "SpaceX launched the world’s most powerful rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, a successful liftoff brought to fruition by Elon Musk’s private company. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien joins John Yang to discuss the historical launch and what made it so different from a NASA launch."

Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!

"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy

Video Credit: PBS NewsHour
Image Date: February 6, 2018


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

SpaceX Falcon Heavy's 27 Merlin Engines at Liftoff!


Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!

"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy

Image Credit: Spaceflight.com
Caption Credit: SpaceX
Image Date: February 6, 2018


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

SpaceX Falcon Heavy's Historic Blastoff!


Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!

"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy

Image & Caption Credit: Ralf Heckel
Image Date: February 6, 2018


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

Elon's "Starman" over Australia

"Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth..."

Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!
SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Successful Today!
"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."

Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy


#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon #Starman

SpaceX Falcon Heavy's Historic Blastoff!


Congratulations to Team SpaceX & Elon Musk!
"Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9."

"Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars."


Steve Jurvetson: "Success!!!! I was so excited while taking these photos! Congrats SpaceX for your persistence of vision and bold mission to change the worlds!!!"


Learn more: www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy


Image & Caption Credit: Steve Jurvetson

Image Date: February 6, 2018

#SpaceX #ElonMusk #Mars #JourneyToMars #NASA #Science #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Kennedy #UnitedStates #History #Apollo #SolarSystem #Exploration #Moon

Monday, October 30, 2017

Antares & The Milky Way | ESO


Brilliant blue stars litter the southern sky and the galactic bulge of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, hangs serenely above the horizon in this spectacular shot of ESO’s Paranal Observatory.

This image was taken atop Cerro Paranal in Chile, home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). In the foreground, the open dome of one of the four 1.8-meter Auxiliary Telescopes can be seen. The four Auxiliary Telescopes can be utilized together, to form the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).

The plane of the Milky Way is dotted with bright regions of hot gas. The very bright star towards the upper left corner of the frame is Antares—the brightest star in Scorpius and the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky.

Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)
Release Date: October 30, 2017

#ESO #Astronomy #Science #Space #Galaxy #MilkyWay #Antares #Cosmos #Universe #Paranal #Observatory #CerroParanal #Chile #SouthAmerica #Astrophotography #Photography #STEM #Education

Abell’s richest cluster | Hubble Space Telescope

The Universe contains some truly massive objects. Although we are still unsure how such gigantic things come to be, the current leading theory is known as hierarchical clustering, whereby small clumps of matter collide and merge to grow ever larger. The 14-billion-year history of the Universe has seen the formation of some enormous cosmic structures, including galaxy groups, clusters, and superclusters—the largest known structures in the cosmos!

This particular cluster is called Abell 665. It was named after its discoverer, George O. Abell, who included it in his seminal 1958 cluster catalog. Abell 665 is located in the well-known northern constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This incredible image combines visible and infrared light gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope using two of its cameras: the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3.

Abell 665 is the only galaxy cluster in Abell’s entire catalog to be given a richness class of 5, indicating that the cluster contains at least 300 individual galaxies. Because of this richness, the cluster has been studied extensively at all wavelengths, resulting in a number of fascinating discoveries—among other research, Abell 665 has been found to host a giant radio halo, powerful shockwaves, and has been used to calculate an updated value for the Hubble constant (a measure of how fast the Universe is expanding).

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: October 30, 2017


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Science #Space #Abell665 #Cluster #Cosmos #Universe #UrsaMajor #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

Friday, October 27, 2017

Here Comes The Sun | International Space Station


Cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy: "We see 16 sunsets every day, here's just one of them // Так выглядел один из 16 уникальных закатов, которые наш экипаж наблюдает за сутки."

Credit: Roscosmos, Cosmonaut Сергей Рязанский‏
Release Date: October 23, 2017


#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Sun #Sunshine #Sunset #EarthObservation #Cosmonaut #FlightEngineer #SergeyRyazanskiy #космонавт #Роскосмос #Roscosmos #Russia #Россия #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition53 #UnitedStates #JSC #STEM #Education

Monday, October 23, 2017

Our gleaming Milky Way


This image taken at Paranal shows our beautifully gleaming Milky Way galaxy. The thick strip of glimmering stars is the plane of the Galaxy. The dark center may look empty, but it is filled with masses of dust and gas blocking visible light and leaving a shadow through the galaxy's core.

Credit: Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos/ESO
Image Date: October 6, 2017

#ESO #Astronomy #Science #Stars #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Space #Earth #Chile #Atacama #Desert #Paranal #Observatory #VLT #Telescope #Panorama #Astrophotography #Photography #Art #STEM #Education

Cosmic archaeology: A galaxy cluster | Hubble


This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is chock-full of galaxies—each glowing speck is a different galaxy, bar the bright flash in the middle of the image which is actually a star lying within our own galaxy that just happened to be in the way. At the center of the image lies something especially interesting, the center of the massive galaxy cluster called WHL J24.3324-8.477, including the brightest galaxy of the cluster.

The Universe contains structures on various scales—planets collect around stars, stars collect into galaxies, galaxies collect into groups, and galaxy groups collect into clusters. Galaxy clusters contain hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. Dark matter and dark energy play key roles in the formation and evolution of these clusters, so studying massive galaxy clusters can help scientists to unravel the mysteries of these elusive phenomena.

This infrared image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide-Field Camera 3 as part of an observing program called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey). RELICS imaged 41 massive galaxy clusters with the aim of finding the brightest distant galaxies for the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study. Such research will tell us more about our cosmic origins.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: October 23, 2017


#NASA #Hubble #Science #Space #Galaxy #Galaxies #GalaxyCluster #WHLJ2433248477 #Cetus #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STEM #Education

Saturn's Grandeur | NASA Cassini Mission



The Cassini mission was a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini.
The Cassini imaging team homepage is at https://ciclops.org.

Technical details:
Processed using RGB filtered images of Saturn taken by Cassini on March 23, 2016.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: March 23, 2016


#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Rings #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #GrandFinale #JPL #Caltech #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #STEM #Education

Thursday, October 19, 2017

From Africa to Eastern Europe | International Space Station

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A series of night photos were taken by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli of Italy every second to create this timelapse of the Earth (Africa to Eastern Europe) as seen from the International Space Station.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli in currently working and living on board the International Space Station as part of his long duration VITA mission

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Duration: 35 seconds
Release Date: October 15, 2017

#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Africa #Europe #EasternEurope #Night #EarthObservation #Astronaut #PaoloNespoli #ASI #ESA #Europe #Italy #Italia #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition53 #VITAMission #UnitedStates #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education #HD #Video #Timelapse