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May 2023: Wildflowers & Wildlife | NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Two black-bellied whistling ducks walk through a field of wildflowers
Framed by wildflowers, a tricolored heron wades in a waterway
A great egret wades through a marsh filled with wildflowers
Wildflowers and palm trees are in view near the Central Campus Headquarters Building at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 19, 2023. The center shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. More than 330 native and migratory bird species, along with 65 amphibian and reptile species, call Kennedy and the wildlife refuge home.
A Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle launched the Kondor-FKA No.1 satellite from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia, on May 26, 2023, at 21:14 UTC (27 May, at 06:14 local time). According to Roscosmos, Kondor-FKA No.1 (Кондор-ФКА №1) is a civilian Earth observation satellite.
The Vostochny Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport above the 51st parallel north in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East.
NASA Aeronautics Hypersonic Project | Glenn Research Center
The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Hypersonic Project is focused on technologies for combined cycle, air-breathing propulsions systems to enable reusable launch systems for access to space. Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) propulsion systems offer specific impulse improvements over rocket-based propulsion systems in the subsonic takeoff and return mission segments and offer improved safety. The potential to realize more aircraft-like operations with expanded launch site capability and reduced system maintenance are additional benefits.
'Castell Henllys' from Above | NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter | JPL
This color-enhanced image of the “Castell Henllys” region in Jezero Crater was taken by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during the rotorcraft’s 48th flight on March 21, 2023, the 741st Martian day, or sol, of the Perseverance rover’s mission. At the time the image was taken, the helicopter was at an altitude of about 40 feet (12 meters).
This image and others taken during the flight provided advanced reconnaissance to Perseverance scientists and planners roughly two weeks before the rover reached this area.
Ingenuity's rotors measure 1.2 m (4 ft), and its entire body is 0.49 m (1 ft 7 in) tall. Its fuselage measures 13.6 cm × 19.5 cm × 16.3 cm (5.4 in × 7.7 in × 6.4 in), with four landing legs of 0.384 m (1 ft 3.1 in) each. It is operated by solar-charged batteries that power dual counter-rotating rotors mounted one above the other.
The Martian atmosphere is extremely thin—at the surface just about one percent of the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere at sea level.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science, Aeronautics, and Space Technology mission directorates. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.
The Pleiades: Closest Star Cluster to Earth | Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, is an open cluster of stars located approximately 440 light-years away towards the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), making it the nearest star cluster to Earth. The cluster’s central region spans about eight light-years, with the diameter of The Pleiades as a whole estimated at 43 light-years. The Pleiades is a very prominent sight to the unaided eye during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, while in summer the cluster is best seen by observers in southern latitudes.
Most of the cluster’s members are very young, hot blue stars formed within the last 100 million years. So far, about 1,000 stars have been confirmed. The hint of bluish nebulosity around the brightest stars originates from a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that the cluster is passing through at the moment. The tiny particles of dust scatter the blue light from the nearest stars more favorably than other colors, so the region appears to twinkle in blue. The cluster contains many brown dwarfs, or failed stars. These objects, though more massive than planets, do not possess enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion reactions in their cores and burst into life as bright stars.
Cultures all over the world have marveled at The Pleiades since early times, including the Maori from New Zealand, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Maya and the Aztec in Central and South America. The Japanese call The Pleiades Subaru. Of the many ancient references to this remarkable and dazzling star assembly, among the most notable are those of the ancient Greek poets Hesiod and Homer, who included the Pleiades in his epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey circa 750 BC. The Bible also contains three mentions of The Pleiades.
The French comet hunter Charles Messier determined the position of the cluster and included it as the entry number 45 (Messier 45) in his famous catalogue from 1771.
"The Flaming Star Nebula (also known as IC 405, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31) is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga. The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away from Earth and spans about 5 light-years. The variable star AE Aurigae is the brightest star in the bright part of the nebula, and is emitting the energy that is causing the surrounding gas to glow. Most of the nebula is dominated by the red glow of hydrogen gas, and there is a blue reflection nebula patch near its core. This diffuse nebula gives the impression that the star is burning, hence its name. The red and blue colors of the nebula are present in different regions and are created by different processes."
Chari served as commander of the NASA SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station, which launched on November 10, 2021. He served as a flight engineer aboard the space station for 177 days in orbit. During his time on the International Space Station he performed two spacewalks and helped in capturing and releasing three SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and two Cygnus cargo vehicles.
Crescent Planet Neptune and Moon Triton | NASA Voyager 2
Gliding through the outer Solar System in 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft looked toward the Sun to find this view of most distant planet Neptune and its moon Triton together in a crescent phase. This elegant image of the ice-giant planet and its largest moon was taken from behind just after Voyager's closest approach. It could not have been taken from Earth because the most distant planet never shows a crescent phase to sunward eyes. Heading for the heliopause and beyond, Voyager 2's parting vantage point lacks Neptune's familiar blue hue.
The nuclear-powered Voyager 2 spacecraft remains in contact with Earth through NASA's Deep Space Network. The Voyager 2 probe was launched on August 20, 1977.
SpaceX Starship: First Integrated Flight Test | Recap
Starship gave us quite a show during the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship (S24) and Super Heavy rocket (B7) from Starbase in Texas.
On April 20, 2023, at 8:33 a.m. CT, Starship successfully lifted off from the orbital launch pad for the first time. The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico—the highest of any Starship to-date.
With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and we learned a tremendous amount about the vehicle and ground systems today that will help us improve on future flights of Starship.
"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."
Key Starship Parameters:
Height: 120m/394ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100 – 150t (fully reusable)
Satellites: "Starship is designed to deliver satellites further and at a lower marginal cost per launch than our current Falcon vehicles. With a payload compartment larger than any fairing currently in operation or development, Starship creates possibilities for new missions, including space telescopes even larger than the James Webb."
On April 20, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. CT, Starship successfully lifted off from the orbital launch pad for the first time. The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date.
With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and we learned a tremendous amount about the vehicle and ground systems today that will help us improve on future flights of Starship.
Starship's Engines: Raptors
"The Raptor engine is a reusable methalox staged-combustion engine that powers the Starship launch system. Raptor engines began flight testing on the Starship prototype rockets in July 2019, becoming the first full-flow staged combustion rocket engine ever flown."
Rocket Lab's Electron Launches NASA TROPICS CubeSats in New Zealand
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle successfully launched the “Coming To A Storm Near You” mission, the second pair of CubeSats for NASA’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS), from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, on May 26, 2023, at 03:46 UTC (15:46 NZST).
The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Earth science mission is a constellation of state-of-the-science observing platforms that will measure temperature and humidity soundings and precipitation with spatial resolution comparable to current operational passive microwave sounders but with unprecedented temporal resolution (median revisit time of 50 minutes). Each SmallSat hosts a 12-channel passive microwave spectrometer. The primary mission objective of TROPICS is to relate temperature, humidity, and precipitation structure to the evolution of tropical cyclone intensity.
2nd All-Private Astronaut Mission to International Space Station | This Week @NASA
The second all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, completing the set of tiny severe weather trackers, and a robotic explorer—with a twist . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Video Producer, Editor, & Narrator: Andre Valentine
The Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga | Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
The Flaming Star Nebula (also known as IC 405, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31) is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga north of the celestial equator, surrounding the bluish, irregular variable star AE Aurigae.
The nebula is about 5 light-years across.
Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405)
- Data obtained using the MegaCam camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
- Image by Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum)
Korea's Nuri 3 Commercial Satellite Launch | Korea Aerospace Research Institute
For its third flight, Nuri launched 8 satellites into a Sun-synchronous orbit, from the Naro Space Center, South Korea, on May 25, 2023, at 09:24 UTC (18:24 local time). Nuri (누리호), also known as KSLV-II (Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2), is a three-stage liquid-propellant launch vehicle developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to “directly put a 1.5-ton application satellite into a 600-800 km Sun-synchronous orbit.”
In 2022, South Korea became the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.
NASA's Space to Ground: A Full House | Week of May 26, 2023
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Axiom Space Ax-2 crew commander Peggy Whitson (USA), pilot John Shoffner (USA), and mission specialists Ali Alqarni (Saudi Arabia) and Rayyanah Barnawi (Saudi Arabia) were welcomed aboard the International Space Station by the Expedition 69 crew shortly after their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at 11 a.m. EDT Monday, May 22, 2023.
The Ax-2 crew received their astronaut wings from America's most-experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson, formerly of NASA.
Rayyanah Barnawi is making history as the first Arab woman aboard the International Space Station. She has become the 600th astronaut.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
Station Commander: Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin & Andrey Fedyaev
Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
NASA: Flight Engineers Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Rocket Lab's Electron Launches NASA TROPICS CubeSats in New Zealand
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle successfully launched the “Coming To A Storm Near You” mission, the second pair of CubeSats for NASA’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS), from Pad B at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, on May 26, 2023, at 03:46 UTC (15:46 NZST).
The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Earth science mission is a constellation of state-of-the-science observing platforms that will measure temperature and humidity soundings and precipitation with spatial resolution comparable to current operational passive microwave sounders but with unprecedented temporal resolution (median revisit time of 50 minutes). Each SmallSat hosts a 12-channel passive microwave spectrometer. The primary mission objective of TROPICS is to relate temperature, humidity, and precipitation structure to the evolution of tropical cyclone intensity.
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