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| What's Up This Week - October 10 - October 16, 2005 |
Oct 11, 2005 - Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! While the Moon will figure strongly in this week's observations, that won't stop us from locating Neptune, visiting a faint comet or studying a radio source. Join us as we hike along the Alpine Valley, stare into the eye of Plato, reveal the details in Clavius and set sail on the "Ocean of Storms." It's time to open your eyes to the skies...
Because here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA ISS Science Officer and Flight Engineer John Phillips. Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge. |
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| Expedition 11 Returns to Earth |
| Oct 11, 2005 - The crew of Expedition 11 landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan Monday morning, after spending 179 days on board the International Space Station. Space tourist Greg Olsen was also in in the Soyuz TMA capsule, having spent a week in space. The recovery team reached the crew within minutes, and found them safe and healthy. There was an unexpected loss of communications with the Soyuz while it reentered the Earth's atmosphere, but communications were reestablished, and there were no other problems with the landing. (Full Story) |
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| Cryosat launch. It crashed back to Earth shortly after. Image credit: ESA. Click to enlarge. |
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| Cryosat Launch Fails |
| Oct 11, 2005 - ESA officials have confirmed that the Cryosat mission smashed into the Arctic ocean minutes after launch on Saturday. It was launched on board a Rockot vehicle - a converted SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missile - from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The 135m euro satellite was designed to monitor ice thickness around the planet. Another version of the satellite may be constructed. (Full Story) |
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| Artist illustration of the Gravity Probe B satellite in orbit. Image credit: NASA/Stanford. Click to enlarge. |
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| Gravity Probe B Wraps Up Observations |
| Oct 11, 2005 - After 17 months of productive data collection, NASA's Gravity Probe B satellite has gathered all the data it needs to pronounce Einstein right or wrong. The probe was launched in April 2004, with four spherical gyroscopes designed to test two of Einstein's predictions about General Relativity: how the Earth's gravity warps space, and how its rotation drags space around with it. Scientists will now spend about a year analyzing the data before presenting their conclusions. (Full Story) |
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