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| Testimony on the Future of NASA |
Nov 3, 2003 - The US Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee heard testimony last week to help them figure out how to get NASA back on track. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe provided his testimony as well as Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society. A video of the entire proceedings from C-SPAN is available here as a Real Player video file - the title of the clip is called "Senate Hearing on the Future of NASA". (If you need the free Real Player program, go here first).
It was very interesting, and I suggest you give it a watch.
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| ESA Watches Earthquakes Shake the Sky |
| Nov 3, 2003 - When a powerful earthquake shook the ground in Alaska a year ago, it also set the Earth's atmosphere shaking. A team of European scientists used the Global Positioning System to map disturbances in the Earth's ionosphere after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Denali, Alaska. The ionosphere starts at 75 km and goes up to 1,000 km altitude, and it amplifies any disturbance that happens on the ground beneath it - one millimeter disturbance on the ground could become a 100 metre oscillation at 75 km altitude. This gives scientists a new tool to track earthquakes around the world. |
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| Image credit: Orbital |
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| NASA Orders Pegasus and Taurus Rockets for Future Launches |
| Nov 3, 2003 - NASA has ordered four launch vehicles from Orbital Sciences Corporation, including two Pegasus and two Taurus rockets, for future missions. The Pegasus rockets will launch NASA's Space Technology-8 and Small Explorer-10 missions. The Taurus rockets will launch the GLORY satellite and the Orbiting Carbon Observer. NASA has been working with Orbital for 12 years and purchased 25 rockets to launch various missions into space. |
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| Image credit: Xinhua |
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| China Launches Science Satellite |
| Nov 3, 2003 - A Chinese-built science satellite was launched Monday by a Long March 2-D booster from the Jiuquan launch centre in Northwestern China. The FSW-18 satellite was launched into low Earth orbit at 0720 GMT (2:20 am EST). It will stay in orbit for 18 days and perform a series of scientific experiments and then return to Earth. This is China's third launch in just over two weeks, including their historic launch of astronaut Yang Liwei who orbited the earth 14 times. |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Cassini Listens to a Solar Storm |
| Nov 3, 2003 - The Sun ejected two massive flares towards the Earth last week, and NASA's Cassini spacecraft listened in on the burst of radio waves that accompanied them. The radio waves took 69 minutes to reach Cassini, moving at the speed of light, and they sound a bit like the whoosh of a jet engine. The blast of radio waves was one of the largest ever recorded - a type 3 event. Cassini is on track to reach Saturn on July 1, 2004. |
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