MAVEN Lifts Off to Mars

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The MAVEN spacecraft launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:28 pm EST today.  It's going to Mars to attempt to determine why Mar's atmosphere diminished to it's current state from what was believed to be its atmosphere of billions of years ago that was similar to Earth's current atmosphere.  The trip to Mars will take 10 months and MAVEN will go into orbit around Mars in September 2014.

A Beautiful Launch and Docking to the International Space Station Last Week

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

On November 7, 2013 Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Russia, Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of the USA and Koichi Wakata of Japan lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on their way to the International Space Station.

NASA Video: Expedition 38 Launches to Join Six-Member Station Crew

NASA Video: New Crew Arrives at Space Station

The Lakes of Titan

Photo Credit: NASA

For those of you that haven't seen this amazing photo, this is not a photo of Earth, but is instead an enhanced image of the lakes in the northern hemisphere of Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  NASA reports that the data for the above image was taken by the Cassini Orbiter during a close flyby of Titan on September 12, 2013, and that the image is actually a false-color mosaic made from infrared data.  The hydrocarbon lakes are believed to be made of liquid ethane and methane.  Titan is the only other body in the solar system known to have a stable liquid weather system on its surface.  For more information about the above image and about the lakes on Titan see NASA's "Titan's Northern Lakes: Salt Flats?" and "Cassini Gets New Views of Titan's Land of Lakes."

A Perfect Night Launch Up to the International Space Station!

Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

The Soyuz TMA-10M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday, September 25th at 4:58 pm EDT.  On board were Commander Oleg Kotov, Flight Engineer Michael Hopkins and Russian Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy.  

The photo below shows the Soyuz Spacecraft approaching the ISS for its docking which occurred at 10:45 EDT on September 25, 2013.  The video immediately below the photo shows the docking.

Image Credit: NASA

An Amazing Photo of Earth and the Moon from Saturn

The Earth is the brighter (blue) dot in the center-right portion of the photo.  The Moon can be seen as a faint
protrusion off of the Earth's right side.  Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech /Space Science Institute

NASA reports that the above photo was taken on July 19, 2013 from the Cassini Spacecraft which was 753,000 miles from Saturn and 898.414 million miles from Earth.  For more information about the Cassini probe, see NASA's Cassini site at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html and JPL's Cassini site can be seen at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.  Below is the accompanying close-up frame showing Earth and the Moon.

Close-up of Earth and the Moon from Saturn.  Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute 

Up They Go to the International Space Station!

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A Soyuz rocket launches up to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday.  Aboard were Expedition 36/37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Karen Nyberg of NASA.

See the arrival of the Soyuz at the Space Station during orbital
sunset on the video below:

Video Credit: NASA (Posted 5/28/2013)

"Overview" - A Great Video about Viewing the Earth from Space

"Overview" is about the change in human perception of the Earth once it's seen directly from space by astronauts or seen indirectly by humanity in general from photographs & videos taken in space.

NASA Video Interview: Update on Meteor in Russia & Asteroid Flyby

Video Credit: NASA (posted 2/20/2013)

For more information on near earth objects see EarthDirectory's "The World Directory of Near Earth Object Organizations and Related Sites." 

Some Good Videos of the Meteor Arriving in Russia Yesterday

The following video has one of the best shots of the meteor coming in through the atmosphere over Russia:

The following video captures the sound of the explosion from the meteor: 

For information on near earth objects see EarthDirectory's "The World Directory of Near Earth Object Organizations and Related Sites." 

Editor's Update 2/17/2012:  NASA Scientists now believe that the meteor that exploded over Russian was approximately 55 feet wide, weighed approximately 10,000 tons and was travelling at approximately 40,000 mph.  They've rated the explosion at 500 kilotons, 30 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. 

NASA Video about Asteroid that's just Barely Missing the Earth on February 15th

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is coming very close to us on February 15th, but will definitely not hit the Earth.  The above video will explain all about it.  To learn more about near earth objects, check out EarthDirectory's directory of near earth object sites at www.earthdirectory.net/neo.       

Heading up to the Space Station

The Soyuz spacecraft launched flawlessly yesterday at 7:12 am EST from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  On board are NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Russian Cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.  They will be rendezvousing and docking with the International Space Station tomorrow morning.

NASA's New Video of Earth at Night

An Amazing Video of Earth Seen from Space

This is my favorite video of scenes of earth taken from space at the true speed of the "satellites" (space station and space shuttle) that the videos were taken from.  In other words, it's not time lapse photography or high speed video.

Thank You Neil Armstrong!

Neil Armstrong died at age 82 a few days ago on Satuday August 25th.  Among his many accomplishments, he performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space, was the first person to land a craft on the moon and the first human to step on the surface of the moon.  The above photo is of Neil Armstrong inside the Lunar Module as it rests on the lunar surface after the completion of his historic moonwalk with Buzz Aldrin.  Photo Credit: NASA  

Congratulations to the Mars Observers for their Successful Landing of Curiosity!

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The above image is one of the first taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover that landed on Mars early in the morning of August 6, 2012.

An Arctic View of Earth

"Blue Marble 2012 - Arctic View"  This view of Earth showing the Arctic, Europe and Asia was created from multiple shots taken on multiple orbits by the Suomi NPP Satellite.  Image Credit: NASA/GSFC

For an enlargable version of the above photo see Blue Marble 2012 - Arctic View.  To see enlargeable versions of the Blue Marble views of the Western and Eastern hemipheres go to  Blue Marble - Globe West and Blue Marble - Globe East respectively (both photos credit: NASA Earth Observation Team).  All 3 photos are from NASA's Visible Earth site: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov.

Three Earth Observers Head up to the Space Station

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko flawlessly launched at 9:40 pm CST July 14th aboard the Soyuz TMA-O5M spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan beginning their two-day journey to the International Space Station for a four month mission.

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Photo Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, left, Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko, center, and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, right, leave the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan for their morning launch at 8:40 am, July 15, 2012 (Kazakhstan time).

The Earth at Night

"Earth at Night"  Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

This famous image of the lights of the earth at night was produced in the year 2000. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

A Rotating Color Globe with Current Infrared Satellite Imagery

The Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison produces a color globe that shows the current satellite infrared imagery of clouds around the Earth.  You can control the rotation of the globe by the controls located under the globe.  You can see the globe site by clicking here, but please note that on my computer the site works on Firefox and Explorer but does not work on Google Chrome and so you may have the same problem with your computer.

Real-Time/"Live" Views of Earth from the International Space Station

"STS-114 Picture of ISS"   The Backdrop is the Caspian Sea.  Taken from Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005.
Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

You can get a live view of Earth from the International Space Station approximately 30% to 40% of the time, at best.  Click on Live ISS Stream from NASA.  There are five sites that I know of for tracking the Space Station and they are: Real Time Satellite Tracking, Heavens Above [occasionally shows other satellites instead of the Space Station], ISS Tracker, esa ISS Tracker and SPACE.cweb.NL.

Editor's Update 5/20/2014:  See "ISS HD Earthviewing Experiment" for high definition video from the ISS:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload

"Space Shuttle and Space Station Photographed Together"  Photo taken from Russian Soyuz TMA-20 - May 2011.
Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

The International Space Station photographed by an STS-133 crew member on Space Shuttle Discovery after undocking.
March 7, 2011.  Credit: NASA.  (click on phot to enlarge it)

The International Space Station photographed by an STS-134 crew member on Space Shuttle Endeavor after undocking from the Space Station on May 29, 2011.  Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)