Universe Today - 10 new stories for 2015/09/08

10 new stories for 2015/09/08 Boeing 'Starliner' Crew Spaceship; America's Next Ride to Space Takes Shape First view of the Boeing CST-100 ‘Starliner’ crewed space taxi at the Sept. 4, 2015 Grand Opening ceremony held in the totally refurbished C3PF manufacturing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. These are the upper and lower segments of the first Starliner crew module known as the Structural Test Article (STA) being built at Boeing's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) at KSC. Credit: Ken Kremer /kenkremer.com Story/photos updated KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – 'Starliner' is the new name of America's next spaceship destined to launch our astronauts to orbit. The new commercial craft from Boeing will restore America's capability to launch American astronauts from American soil to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 – and the magnificent looking first capsule is already taking shape! Built by The Boeing Company, 'Starliner' was officially announced by Boeing and NASA as the new name of the company's CST-100 commercial crew transportation spacecraft during the Grand Opening event for the craft's manufacturing facility held at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, Sept 4. 2015 and attended by Universe Today.(...) Read the rest of Boeing 'Starliner' Crew Spaceship; America's Next Ride to Space Takes Shape (1,286 words) © Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 5 comments | Post tags: Atlas V rocket, bob cabana, Boeing, boeing CST 100, Boeing CST 100 Starliner, Boeing Starliner, CCP, charles bolden, chris ferguson, Commercial Crew, Commerial Crew Program, International Space Station (ISS), ISS, KSC, NASA, Starliner Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Get Ready for More Pluto Pics from New Horizons One of the last images sent by New Horizons since its flyby, but that’s about to change. Here, backlit by the sun, Pluto's atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft around midnight EDT on July 15. This global portrait of the atmosphere was captured when the spacecraft was about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Pluto and shows structures as small as 12 miles across. The image, delivered to Earth on July 23, is displayed with north at the top of the frame. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI If you thought the New Horizons spacecraft flyby of the Pluto system happened waaaay too fast and you're pining for more images and data, you are in luck. What the spacecraft has been able to send back so far is just the tip of the icy dwarf planet, so to speak. Starting tomorrow, Saturday, September 5, 2015, the spacecraft will begin an "intensive" downlink session that will last for a year or more, sending back the tens of gigabits of data the spacecraft collected and stored on its digital recorders during the flyby. What will come first are “selected high priority” data-sets that the science team has been anxiously waiting for. (...) Read the rest of Get Ready for More Pluto Pics from New Horizons (850 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 10 comments | Post tags: Deep Space Network, New Horizons, Pluto Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Looking for a Challenge? Design a Way to Keep Increasingly Crowded Airspace Safe An air traffic control map from a 2014 FAA report. Credit: FAA. According to a recent report by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airports across the country are seeing record passenger numbers. Along with that comes congestion at airport terminals and runways, causing delays and other problems — including accidents. The FAA report said if nothing is done to curb congestion by 2030, the busiest US airports will see problems rise dramatically. While infrastructure such as terminals and runways can be expanded or enhanced there's one piece of the airport real estate that can't be expanded: airspace. (...) Read the rest of Looking for a Challenge? Design a Way to Keep Increasingly Crowded Airspace Safe (503 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 5 comments | Post tags: Airspace, herox, NASA Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Carnival of Space #421 Carnival of Space. Image by Jason Major. The tent is up! This week's Carnival of Space is hosted by Kimberly Arcand at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #363. (...) Read the rest of Carnival of Space #421 (89 words) © susie for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Carnival of Space Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   More Spectacular Images from the MUOS-4 Launch Stunning downrange plume over the rising sun, about 3 mins after launch of the MUOS-4 satellite from Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida. Used by permission. Credit and copyright: Michael Seeley. Skywatchers across Central Florida got an unusual view early Wednesday morning in conjunction with the Atlas V launch of the MUOS-4 satellite. “That wasn’t thunder this AM, Florida: An absolutely stunning MUOS launch!” tweeted photographer Michael Seeley, who shared several images of the launch with Universe Today. Mike is a freelance photographer and works with Spaceflight Insider. You can see more of his imagery at his website. The pre-dawn light combined with unusual atmospheric conditions produced stunning views both during and well after the launch. The skyshow was visible across a wide area. “Folks as far south as Miami and up to Jacksonville to the north saw it,” Universe Today’s David Dickinson said. “I even heard kids waiting for the school bus on our street crying out in surprise!” You can read more about the launch and the mission in our article from Ken Kremer, but see a stunning gallery of images of the unusual cloud formations following the launch below: (...) Read the rest of More Spectacular Images from the MUOS-4 Launch (231 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: cape canaveral, launches, MUOS-4, Satellites Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Atlas V Launch of Navy's Revolutionary MUOS-4 Tactical Comsat Produces Exotic Skyshow ULA Atlas V rocket successfully launches MUOS-4 for the U.S. Navy on Sept. 2, 2015 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Credit: ULA See launch gallery below CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – Today's (Sept. 2) stunningly successful launch of the US Navy's revolutionary MUOS-4 tactical communications satellite atop a mighty Atlas V rocket produced an unexpectedly exotic skyshow beyond compare for lucky spectators all around the Florida Space Coast, as it thundered off a Cape Canaveral launch pad and simultaneously generated house and bone rattling vibrations. Seasoned and long time launch enthusiasts have rarely if ever never seen anything like this morning's spectacular predawn launch of the Mobile User Objective System-4 (MUOS-4) satellite for the US Navy at 6:18 a.m. EDT aboard (...) Read the rest of Atlas V Launch of Navy's Revolutionary MUOS-4 Tactical Comsat Produces Exotic Skyshow (1,000 words) © Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: altas v, Atlas V 551, Atlas V rocket, Lockheed Martin, Military, MUOS, MUOS-3, MUOS-4, tactical satcom, ULA, United Launch Alliance, US Navy Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   A Fiery End for Kosmos 1315 Over Hawaii Reentry of Kosmos-1315 captured by Joshua Lambus. Click here to see the full video. A relic of the Cold War surprised beach-goers and Hawaiian islands residents Sunday night, as Kosmos-1315 reentered the Earth's atmosphere in a dramatic display. The reentry occurred right around 11:00 PM Sunday night on August 30th local time (Hawaii is 10 hours behind Universal Time). Folks in the satellite tracking community had been following the predicted reentry for some time, which was projected for August 31st at 10:56 UT +/- an hour. That puts the Hawaii sighting right at the beginning of the window.(...) Read the rest of A Fiery End for Kosmos 1315 Over Hawaii (785 words) © David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 4 comments | Post tags: cold war satellite, hawaii meteor, hawaii ufo, Kosmos-1315, satellite reentry, space junk Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Thierry Legault Meets His Own Challenge: Image an ISS Transit of a Solar Prominence A montage of 32 images taken in less than a second as the International Space Station transits the Sun and a solar prominence. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault. When you’re Thierry Legault and you want to challenge yourself, the bar is set pretty high. “This is a challenge I imagined some time ago,” Legault told Universe Today via email, “but I needed all the right conditions.” The challenge? Capture a transit of the International Space Station of not just the Sun — which he’s done dozens of times — but in front of a solar prominence. Legault said the transit of the prominence, which he captured on August 21, 2015, lasted 0.8 seconds. His camera was running at 40 frames per second, and he got about 32 shots in that time. See a video of the transit in real time, and more, below: (...) Read the rest of Thierry Legault Meets His Own Challenge: Image an ISS Transit of a Solar Prominence (224 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: astrophotography, International Space Station (ISS), solar prominences, sun, Thierry Legault Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Tropical Storm Erika Delayed Blastoff for US Navy set for Sept. 2 on Most Powerful Atlas V Rocket: Watch Live MUOS-4 US Navy communications satellite and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL for launch on Sept. 2, 2015 at 5:59 a.m. EDT. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – Blastoff of an advanced communications satellite for the US Navy is set for early Wednesday morning, Sept. 2, using the most powerful variant of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket – following a 48 hour postponement due to terrible weather expected from Tropical Storm Erika, which pounded islands in the Caribbean causing destruction and over 20 deaths. The threat of strong winds and heavy rains forced Florida Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency in every county in Florida last (...) Read the rest of Tropical Storm Erika Delayed Blastoff for US Navy set for Sept. 2 on Most Powerful Atlas V Rocket: Watch Live (519 words) © Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: altas v, Atlas V 551, Atlas V rocket, cape canaveral, military space, MUOS, MUOS-3, MUOS-4, SLC-41, ULA, United Launch Alliance, US Navy Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Watch the Moon Occult Aldebaran This Weekend The first Quarter Moon approaches Aldebaran (left) earlier this year. Image credit and copyright: Chris Lyons How about that perigee Full Moon this past weekend? Thus begins 'Supermoon season' for 2015, as this month's Full Moon occurs even closer to perigee — less than an hour apart, in fact — on September 28th, with the final total lunar eclipse of the ongoing tetrad to boot. Keep an eye on Luna this week, as it crosses into the early AM sky for several key dates with destiny just prior to the start of the second and final eclipse season for 2015.(...) Read the rest of Watch the Moon Occult Aldebaran This Weekend (847 words) © David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: aldebaran occultations, lunar occultation, occultation 2015, occultation science, occultation video, pollux occultation Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •         You Might Like Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Universe Today." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 365 Boston Post Rd, Suite 123, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.