NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission launched on August 11th from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on its mission to study the Sun's corona. For information on the mission click here, and click on the video below to see the launch.
On the very long video above, see lots of amazing views of Earth from orbit several thousand kilometers above earth from the SpaceX spacecraft with Elon Musk's old $100,000 cherry red Tesla Roadster with a dummy in its driver's seat named "Starman." After orbiting for a few hours after the launch yesterday, the spacecraft has since had a successful burn to take it out of Earth orbit and on its way towards Mars. It will continue indefinitely on an orbit that will keep it going around the sun and back again towards Mar's orbit and the asteroid belt.
The launch takes place at about 20 minutes into the video. The beginning of the amazing touch down of two of the boosters on pads at Cape Canaveral starts at around 29 minutes into the video as they separate simultaneously from the spacecraft, with the actual touch down of the boosters at 38 minutes.
Eugene Cernan died this month on Monday, January 16, 2017. He flew three times in space including two times to the moon. He was the second American to walk in space and the last human to leave the lunar surface. For more information on Gene Cernan's life click here.
Euene Cernan in the Lunar Module After his Second Moon Walk on the Appollo 17 Mission. Photo Credit: NASA
Eugene Cernan on his Second Moonwalk on the Appollo 17 Mission. Photo Credit: NASA.
John Glenn died last week on Thursday December 8, 2016 at age 95. He was one of the original seven original American astronauts and on February 20, 1962 was the first American to orbit the Earth. He also was the oldest person to fly in space when he lifted off on the space shuttle Discovery for almost 9 days on October 29, 1998. Some of his many other accomplishments include being a fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War, being a test pilot setting a transcontinental speed record in 1957 and later serving four terms as a U.S. Senator. For more information about John Glenn's amazing life see the link below:
Image Credit: NASA / Goddard / Arizona State University
The image above was created from a series of images taken October 12, 2015 by the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) when the LRO was about 83 miles above the moon's farside crater Compton.
Photo Credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky
(click on photo to enlarge it)
Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko (Russia), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra (USA) and Flight Engineer Tim Peake (United Kingdom) launch to the International Space Station on the Soyuz TMA-19M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday afternoon, December 15, 2015.
Photo Credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky
A camera on board the ISS captured the view below of the Soyuz climbing towards the Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA TV
In the below photo, the Expedition 46 Soyuz is approaching the ISS for docking on December 15, 2015. Commander Malenchenko had to manually dock the Soyuz after the automatic docking controls failed.
Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly took this selfie on his first spacewalk on October 28, 2015. Kelly, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, is staying on the International Space Station 342 days, nearly a year.
Daily images of Earth from one million miles out in space are now available from the EPIC camera on NASA's DSCOVR satellite. The images have been taken 12 to 36 hours before they're posted on the website below: http://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov
This view from a NASA camera is the first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth from the DSCOVR satellite from one million miles away. The image was taken on July 6, 2015. A daily series of new images covering the entire earth will be provided on a dedicated web page starting by September and these images will be posted on the web page within 12 to 36 hours after they're taken. EarthObserver will of course link to those images once they're available. For more informatin about the DSCOVR satellite click here. To enlarge the image below, go to this link and click on the image.
For those of you that missed it, the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft launched on March 27 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station with the crew for Expedition 43. The crew consists of American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Grenady Padalka. Kelly and Kornienko will spend almost a year on the Space Station. The videos of the launch and the docking with the Space Station are below:
Click on the link below if video doesn't function.
