A Beautiful Launch of Expedition 46 to the Space Station

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.

Photo Credit: NASA 

Check out the launch on this video:

Click on the link below if video doesn't function:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRsiUztBhkc

Spacewalking Astronaut's Selfie

Photo Credit: NASA 

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.

"Dead" Skull-Shaped Comet Zips Past Earth on Halloween

Image Credits: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF 

The dead comet, named asteroid 2015 TB145, is approximately 2000 feet in diameter with a velocity of 35 km per second and is passing Earth at 1.3 lunar distances (302,000 miles) today - Halloween!  For more information on the comet see:  http://www.nasa.gov/feature/halloween-skies-to-include-dead-comet-flyby and https://www.facebook.com/notes/national-astronomy-and-ionosphere-center-arecibo-observatory/near-earth-asteroid-2015-tb145-passes-by-without-a-.

Cassini Satellite Successfully Goes Through the Water & Ice Plumes of Saturn's Ice-Covered Ocean Moon Enceladus

This beautiful "snowball" is actually Enceladus, Saturn's ice-covered ocean moon.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute 

Here is the article about today's fly-through: 

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/deepest-ever-dive-through-enceladus-plume-completed

Daily Multiple Images of Earth Now Available from 1 Million Miles Away!

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

Cassini Satellite Finds Global Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus!

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For more information on this discovery see:

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/cassini-finds-global-ocean-in-saturns-moon-enceladus

Another View of the Earth from a Million Miles Away, This Time Showing Africa, Europe & Western Asia

This image was taken on July 6, 2015 from a NASA camera on the DSCOVR satellite from one million miles from Earth.

Photo Credit: NASA

First View of Earth from the DSCOVR Satellite from One Million Miles from Earth

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.

Image Credit: NASA

Expedition 43 Launches to Space Station

Image Credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwR1SnpcYCo

Click on the link below if video doesn't function.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO82R73Ocac

DSCOVR Launches

Photo Credit: NASA

The NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) successfully launched yesterday, February 11, 2015 at 6:03 p.m. EST, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.  DSCOVR's primary purpose is to maintain the nation's solar wind observations which will provide space weather alerts, forecasts and warnings. It will also carry two NASA Earth science instruments for measuring conditions on Earth. DSCOVR will provide a continuous stream of color photographs of the sunlit side of Earth from its orbit position approximately 1 million miles from Earth between the Sun and Earth at the first Lagrange point (L1), the neutral gravity point between Earth and the Sun.  EarthObserver.Net will of course provide a link to the "live" color views of earth from DSCOVR as soon as they are publicly available, which should be in about 4 months. You can view the launch on the video below:

 

Click on link below if the video doesn't function.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3d1OgMkqyw

The First Launch and Splashdown of the Orion Spacecraft, December 2014

Photo Credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls 

The unmanned Orion spacecraft, mounted on top of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy Rocket, launched on its first test flight at 7:05 a.m. EST, Friday December 5, 2014 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37.  The Orion is designed for long-distance travel to asteroids or Mars.  The video immediately below shows the lift-off and the next video shows the touch-down in the Pacific Ocean several hours later.

Click on the link below if video doesn't function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEuOpxOrA_0

Click on the link below if video doesn't function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdmZAvwznOU  

For an astronaut's-eye view of Orion's return through Earth's atmosphere check out the amazing video below taken from the Orion as it went through the atmosphere to its touchdown in the Pacific.

Click on the link below if video doesn't function

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtWzuZ6WZ8E