Nancy Atkinson

50 Years Ago Today: The Flight of Aurora 7

May 24, 2012

Fifty years ago today, May 24, 1962 astronaut Scott Carpenter launched in his Aurora 7 capsule. This was the fourth manned mission and the second orbital flight of the Mercury program. This video celebrates the Aurora 7 flight, which successfully made three Earth orbits. But a targeting mishap during reentry took the spacecraft about 400 [...]

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Going to the Moon? Don’t Touch the Historical Artifacts, NASA Says

May 24, 2012

Don’t say you haven’t been warned. NASA put out an official document today specifying how close any future spacecraft and astronauts visiting the Moon can come to the artifacts left on the lunar surface by all US space missions, including the Apollo landing sites, any robotic landing sites like Surveyor and impact sites like LCROSS. [...]

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Tally Ho Dragon!

May 24, 2012

Early today, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully flew near the International Space Station and completed two big tests of its in-space capabilities, all critical tests for tomorrow’s big event: the first berthing of a commercial spacecraft to the ISS. As Dragon approached, astronaut Don Pettit spied the spacecraft first. “I think I can see it now,” [...]

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Amazing Astrophoto: The Phases of Venus

May 24, 2012

Wow! Take a look at how Venus has changed in the night sky the past five months! “The Planet Venus, The Roman goddess of love and beauty and the closest planet to us — especially now just as it gets closest — will transit across the Sun soon,” said astrophotographer Efrain Morales. “This sequence is [...]

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Launch Images of the SpaceX Dragon’s First Flight to the Space Station

May 23, 2012
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The Zen of the Sun

May 23, 2012

Images and video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory have shown us that the fury of the Sun can be mesmerizingly beautiful. SDO has allowed us to see loops of plasma in various wavelengths, coils of magnetic fields that are invisible to human eyes, and so much more. And then, sometimes, happy accidents happen, creating beautiful [...]

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Carnival of Space #250

May 23, 2012

This milestone Carnival of Space (#250!) is hosted by Amy Shira Teitel her blog, Vintage Space Click here to read Carnival of Space #250. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email [...]

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Alien Hunter Jill Tarter Changing Her Focus

May 22, 2012

After thirty-five years of listening for extra-terrestrial intelligence, astronomer Jill Tarter is stepping down from the research and will now be doing a more Earthly task: making sure there’s enough money for SETI to continue its search.

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A Look Inside the Dragon Capsule, Now in Orbit

May 22, 2012

SpaceX has released this automated image, a first look inside the Dragon spacecraft in orbit after the successful launch early this morning. What is all on board the Dragon? The payload includes over 300 kilograms of food, crew clothing and pantry items, a NanoRacks Module of student experiments, and a laptop computer. On board the [...]

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Awesome Videos: Cheer Along with SpaceX Employees

May 22, 2012

If these videos don’t get your heart pumping or your eyes misting, I don’t know what will. Let’s all cheer along with SpaceX on their incredible accomplishment today! As has been said on Twitter, these are the people who really powered today’s launch. More below:

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Spacecraft Captures Mercury-Jupiter Conjunction

May 22, 2012

Here’s a great shot from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft of Mercury (top planet) and Jupiter snuggling up together, along with the Pleiades cluster, all close to Sun, as seen from SOHO’s LASCO C3 instrument (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph). SOHO has been in space since 1995, and is a workhorse of solar [...]

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SpaceX Successfully Launches Dragon Into Orbit

May 22, 2012

Do you believe in Dragons? In a spectacular night launch, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule is now heading for the first commercial rendezvous at the International Space Station. With an official launch time of 07:44:38 UTC/3:44:38 a.m. EDT, the Dragon capsule is now safely in orbit with its solar array wings deployed, [...]

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Amazing Eclipse Timelapse Shows the Sun’s Chromosphere

May 21, 2012

We’ve added loads of images and videos to our eclipse gallery from last night annular solar eclipse, but this one stands on its own. An amazing timelapse video by Cory Poole was made from 700 photographs taken with a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope. Usually, the chromosphere can’t usually be seen due to [...]

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Why Are Astronauts Weightless in Space?

May 21, 2012

Most of our regular readers understand why astronauts and objects appear to float around on the International Space Station, but there are some misconceptions and preconceived notions out there on this topic that aren’t true and don’t represent a very good understanding of physics! This video provides an entertaining look at some of the ideas [...]

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The May 2012 Annular Eclipse as Seen From Space

May 21, 2012

Here’s a few unique vantage points of seeing the annular solar eclipse on May 20/21 2012. Above, one of the geostationary satellites called MTSAT (Multi-Functional Transport Satellite) built by Japan was able to capture the shadow over Earth near the maximum of the eclipse of May 20-21, 2012. It’s rather amazing how small the shadow [...]

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Eclipse Images from Around the World

May 21, 2012

What a view! Here are some awesome eclipse images and videos from around the globe as skywatchers in Asia, the northern Pacific region and western North America experienced the annular eclipse on May 20/21, 2012. Above is a stunning combination of shots from various stages of the eclipse in Tokyo, Japan from Kim Nilsson. For [...]

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Astrophoto: Lovely Crescent Venus by John Chumack

May 20, 2012

Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus has never looked more gorgeous! Prolific and accomplished astrophotographer John Chumack captured this shot of a crescent Venus on May 14, 2012 as it moves in for a transit of the Sun. Just 14% of Venus’ face was illuminated, 22 Days before the June 5th [...]

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T-0 Launch Abort for Dragon

May 19, 2012

SpaceX’s attempt to launch their Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft was aborted by the computer at T-0 due to a high pressure reading on engine 5 of the first stage. The rocket’s nine main engines were ignited, but were automaticalaly shut down before liftoff. The vehicle was safed with no apparent other issues. [...]

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Doomed Mercury-Sized Exoplanet May Be Turning to Dust

May 18, 2012

The old saying of the universe being stranger than we can imagine definitely applies to a newfound exoplanet orbiting a star about 1,500 light years from Earth. Researchers using the Kepler space observatory have detected what appears to be a planet about the size of Mercury literally turning to dust. A long tail of debris [...]

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Launch Day Timeline for SpaceX’s Dragon

May 18, 2012

Saturday morning’s launch window for SpaceX’s historic test flight to the International Space Station lasts just one second. Company President Gwynne Shotwell predicted they have “better than a 50-50 shot on whether we lift off tomorrow,” she said at a press conference today, adding, “If we lift off, we’ll get to orbit.” Shotwell and NASA [...]

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