Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
(Source: commie-pinko-liberal)
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON SEEKS NEW INSPIRATION FOR SPACE
Neil DeGrasse Tyson isn’t pleased with NASA’s current situation. As funding for the agency dwindles, more exciting missions are canceled and public interest in space wavers and evaporates. He offers a solution: double NASA’s funding.
Aurora seen in Arkansas last night
Arkansas storm chaser Brian Emfinger, author of the aurora video and photos, had this to say:
“What an incredible display last night! I just happended to check out spaceweather.com around 8pm and saw that aurora were being seen in Ohio so I thought I would throw my camera outside and see if it picked up anything. The first image had some very light auroras which put me into a immediate panic as to where I should go. I decided to just run out into the field and within just about 10-20 minutes the auroras went crazy. I had lots of problems with the auroras being overexposed… I obviously havent had a lot of practice! Here is a time lapse of the aurora explosion… and again… this is from ARKANSAS!”
From the Washington Post weather blog: Aurora (northern lights) seen in more than half United States.
It’s time to take action – again
On Wednesday, September 14, the U.S. Senate subcommittee overseeing NASA’s budget – the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies — will meet to “markup” the bill that will provide the space agency with the money it needs to do its job of exploring space. Please send an urgent message to your Senators asking them to keep our exploring spacecraft flying!
The next day, Thursday, September 15, their markup will go the full committee on for their markup.
Somehow, the U.S. Senate has decided it can move quickly – to decide the fate of space exploration for the next year and beyond.
Kansas Cosmosphere set to open new gallery focusing on space exploration
The Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center in Hutchinson will open a gallery dedicated to unmanned space exploration.
The gallery will open Saturday with a speech by Todd Barber, a Wichita native who is a propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
The Hutchinson News reports that Barber is currently working on the latest Mars rover, Curiosity, which will launch next fall. A replica of the Curiosity is on display at the Cosmosphere through April.
The second phase of the project, which is set to open this August, will focus on commercial space exploration. Both phases are estimated to cost nearly $500,000.
The gallery gives visitors a chance to drive a Mars Rover in a virtual environment, view planets and moons in 3-D, and touch a meteorite.
Source: therepublic.com
This Is the Apocalyptic Storm Hitting the US Right Now
Get ready, because the snowpocalypse is back. This snow storm system is huge. NASA Goddard has released this amazing image, showing how it looks from space—bloody scary, that’s how.
An Astronomer’s Field of Dreams
An innovative new radio telescope array under construction in central New Mexico will eventually harness the power of more than 13,000 antennas and provide a fresh eye to the sky. The antennas, which resemble droopy ceiling fans, form the Long Wavelength Array, designed to survey the sky from horizon to horizon over a wide range of frequencies.
The University of New Mexico leads the project, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides the advanced digital electronic systems, which represent a major component of the observatory.
Oklahoman to lead U.S. Air Force Space Command
Gen. William L. Shelton is a Moore native who will be in charge of the group that commands satellites and other space operations for the U.S. Air Force.
Shelton was born in Tulsa in 1954 and is a graduate of Moore High School. He will be in charge of the Air Force’s space operations, including satellite, launch and computer operations. The command includes about 47,000 civilian and military employees worldwide.
Florida Peninsula
From 220 miles above Earth, one of the Expedition 26 crew members used a 32-mm lens to capture this night time image of much of the Florida peninsula. The picture needs to be rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise to situate north at the top. St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay and Fort Myers can be easily delineated on the Gulf of Mexico (top in the original orientation) side and the spread-out bright lights of the Orlando area appear near frame center. Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center can also be spotted on the Atlantic side of Florida, with lights of Jacksonville visible further northward.
Source: NASA.
Alan Shepard was the second person, and the first American, in space.
On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. He was launched by a Redstone rocket, and unlike Gagarin’s 108 minute orbital flight, Shepard stayed on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight—a flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles and to a landing point 302 statute miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. Unlike Gagarin, whose flight was strictly automatic, Shepard had some control of Freedom 7, spacecraft attitude in particular. The launch, return from space and subsequent collection by helicopter were seen live on television by millions.
Source: Wikipedia.
