A Smattering of Cool News from Space

Yesterday was big in the world of space sciences. Three stories particularly caught my eye.

More Great Images from the LRO

A few months back I wrote about the images the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) took of the Apollo landers. Now they have done one better. When I show students the Moon through a telescope, they often ask if they will be able to see the flag on the moon.  Well, now we can!  To be able to see the flag on the moon is just incredible.  If you don't zoom in quite as much, you can see the where the regolith was disturbed as astronauts walked around. These images are about twice the resolution as the previous ones, and the improvement is spectacular.
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

New Object Smashes Distance Record
Gamma ray bursts are the biggest explosions in the universe. Astronomers using radio telescopes at the Very Large Array (VLA)*, detected this new object which represents the death of one of the first generations of stars ever to form. At a distance of roughly 13 billion lightyears, this gamma ray burst occured just 680 million years after the big bang. Dale Frail from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory said, "This explosion provides an unprecedented look at an era when the universe was very young and also was undergoing drastic changes. The primal cosmic darkness was being pierced by the light of the first stars and the first galaxies were beginning to form. The star that exploded in this event was a member of one of these earliest generations of stars."
For more information, check out NARO.

Ares Launch Begins a New Age of Space Flight
Watching the test of NASA's new launch veicle, the Ares I-X, was spectacular. The excitement in that control room was so high, as they found a gap in the storms that were rolling over Kennedy Space Center. Test flight director Ed Mango said to his team just after the flight ended, "The only thing we were waiting for was weather, and that means all of you did fricking fantastic!" This is a great start to NASA's new manned spaceflight program. You can watch the launch on the NASA Site or on YouTube.





Special thanks to Universe Today for their coverage

*Yes, astronomers are very creative with telescope names.

Apollo's Fortieth Anniversary: What Does the Future Hold?

It was forty years ago today that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Today, many people within NASA and elsewhere are looking back at this historic moment, and forward at what the future holds. In recent years, NASA has received a lot of criticism for not maintaining the amazing spirit of adventure that defined the 1960's. In the 60's there was the political drive to get into space and quickly. The boom in science funding influenced an entire generation. It was that generation that was responsible for the tech boom of the 1990's.
I don't necessarily think we need manned missions to reignite enthusiasm in the space program and science, but we need to push the limits. I think that NASA has become more conservative about what missions they will launch. Let's really work on a sample return mission from Mars, a rover to Venus or Titan, a submarine to Europa. Yes, all of these missions would be extremely challenging. To me, that makes it exciting; that's how we draw in the public. If we get more ambitious, we would lose more missions to failure. When we succeed, we would get amazing new looks into the amazing places around us.

What happened forty years ago changed what we thought was possible. I think that today we all need to admire what we able to accomplish, and look for the next accomplishment to inspire a generation.

The LRO Sees the Moon Landers

When the astronauts from the Apollo missions launched off the Moon, the bottom half of the lander was left behind. The bottom half of the lander is only 12 feet across. The really amazing thing is that the LRO will be able to produce pictures two or three times this quality. "Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues," said LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the moon."

The first image is of the Apollo 11 landing site. This is incredible timing, as Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the moon were taken 40 years ago almost to the day (July 20). The lander is hard to see if you don't enlarge it. It is right in the center of the frame casting a long shadow.

This second image is of the Apollo 14 landing site. You can actually see the path to astronauts took across the lunar surface! This is incredible.

I can't wait for the higher resolution photos!

For more photos and information - NASA

Endeavor launch in HD

If you missed the shuttle launch yesterday, you can watch it here in HD.

I love watching these launches. Watch as the solid rocket busters fly off. The energy they get out of those rockets is amazing.

I know it didn't all get in the screen, so, if you want, you can watch it on YouTube. Enjoy!

Space Shuttle Endeavor Launch on Wednesday?

In the past, I have been reluctant to talk about upcoming launches, and this is why. The reality is that NASA has a very good safety record for their launches, but a very poor record of launching stuff on time. Weather is just too big a factor to be able to launch spacecraft on a timely schedule. The new launch date for Endeavor is Wednesday, at 6:03 eastern time. I hope things finally work out this time.

For more information - NASA

(Note: if you would like for me to continue to keep you updated on launches, let me know and I will. Otherwise, I will probably just talk about them after they're in space.)

Space Shuttle Endeavor delayed another day

Endeavor was grounded again due to the weather. The next launch window is Monday, at 6:51 PM eastern time. Again you can watch it live at nasa.com or on NASA TV. Coverage will start at 1:30.

Source- NASA

Shuttle Launch tomorrow

The launch of space shuttle Endeavor has been postponed to tomorrow evening at 7:13 eastern time. Two earlier launch dates in June were scrapped due to a hydrogen fuel leak. Now that problem seems to be solved, but today's weather has pushed back the launch one more day. Crews at Kennedy Space Center are now checking to make sure that the launch pad and Endeavor were not damaged by any of the lightning strikes. "We've seen nothing so far that shows anything affected any of the systems," said Mike Moses, chairman of the pre-launch Mission Management Team. "We need to be 100 percent confident that we have a good system across the board." The weather should be better tomorrow and hopefully Endeavor will finally get off the ground.

When the launch does happen you can watch it live on NASA TV at your home or at http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html. I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity.

Source- NASA