Universe Today - 10 new stories for 2016/05/31



10 new stories for 2016/05/31 Spectacular Imagery Showcases SpaceX Thaicom Blastoff as Sea Landed Booster Sails Back to Port: Photo/Video Gallery CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL - Spectacular imagery showcasing SpaceX's Thaicom blastoff on May 27 keeps rolling in as the firms newest sea landed booster sails merrily along back to its home port atop a 'droneship' landing platform. Formally known as an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) the small flat platform is eclectically named "Of Course I Still Love You" or "OCISLY" by SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk and is expected back at Port Canaveral this week. Check out this launch gallery of up close photos and videos captured by local space photojournalist colleagues and myself of Friday afternoons stunning SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff. The imagery shows Falcon roaring to life with 1.5 million pounds of thrust from the first stage Merlin 1 D engines and propelling a 7000 pound (3,100 kilograms) commercial Thai communications satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The recently upgraded Falcon 9 launched into sky blue sunshine state skies at 5:39 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, accelerating to orbital velocity and arcing eastward over the Atlantic Ocean towards the African continent and beyond. Relive the launch via these exciting videos recorded around the pad 40 perimeter affording a "You Are There" perspective! They show up close and wide angle views and audio recording the building crescendo of the nine mighty Merlin 1 D engines. https://youtu.be/qvtVnmlkPx4 Video caption: Compilation of videos of SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Thaicom 8 on 5/27/2016 from Pad 40 on CCAFS, FL as seen from multiple cameras ringing pad and media viewing site on AF base. Credit: Jeff Seibert Watch from the ground level weeds and a zoomed in view of the umbilicals breaking away at the moment of liftoff. https://youtu.be/8558pMdSAyo Video caption: SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off with Thaicom-8 communications satellite on May 27, 2016 at 5:39 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fl, as seen in this up close video from Mobius remote camera positioned at pad. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com After the first and second stages separated as planned at about 2 minutes and 39 seconds after liftoff, the nosecone was deployed, separating into two halves at about T plus 3 minutes and 37 seconds. Finally a pair of second stage firings delivered Thaicom-8 to orbit. Onboard cameras captured all the exciting space action in real time. When the Thai satellite was successfully deployed at T plus 31 minutes and 56 seconds exhuberant cheers instantly erupted from SpaceX mission control - as seen worldwide on the live webcast. "Satellite deployed to 91,000 km apogee," tweeted SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk. https://youtu.be/ajpsfxdvP34 Video caption: SpaceX - "Falcon In" "Falcon Out" - 05-27-2016 - Thaicom 8. The brand new SpaceX Falcon 9 for next launch comes thru main gate Cape Canaveral, just a few hours before Thaicom 8 launched and landed. Awesome ! Credit: USLaunchReport Both stages of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 are fueled by liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene which burn in the Merlin engines. Less than nine minutes after the crackling thunder and billowing plume of smoke and fire sent the Falcon 9 and Thaicom 8 telecommunications satellite skyward, the first stage booster successfully soft landed on a platform at sea. Having survived the utterly harsh and unforgiving rigors of demanding launch environments and a daring high velocity reentry, SpaceX engineers meticulously targeted the tiny ocean going ASDS vessel. The diminutive ocean landing platform measures only about 170 ft × 300 ft (52 m × 91 m). "Of Course I Still Love You" is named after a starship from a novel written by Iain M. Banks. OCISLY was stationed approximately 420 miles (680 kilometers) off shore and east of Cape Canaveral, Florida surrounded by the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. Because the launch was target Thaicom-8 to GTO, the first stage was traveling at some 6000 kph at the time of separation from the second stage. Thus the booster was subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating and a successful landing would be extremely difficult - but not impossible. Just 3 weeks ago SpaceX accomplished the same sea landing feat from the same type trajectory following the launch of the Japanese JCSAT-14 on May 6. The May 6 landing was the first fully successful landing, brilliantly accomplished by SpaceX engineers. With a total of 4 recovered boosters, SpaceX is laying the path to rocket reusability and Musk's dream of slashing launch costs - by 30% initially and much much more down the road. Thaicom-8 was built by aerospace competitor Orbital ATK, based in Dulles, VA. It will support Thailand's growing broadcast industry and will provide broadcast and data services to customers in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. Thaicom-8 is the fifth operational satellite for Thaicom. It now enters a 30-day testing phase, says Orbital ATK. The Falcon 9 launch is the 5th this year for SpaceX. Watch for Ken's continuing on site reports direct from Cape Canaveral and the SpaceX launch pad. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken Kremer The post Spectacular Imagery Showcases SpaceX Thaicom Blastoff as Sea Landed Booster Sails Back to Port: Photo/Video Gallery appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Mars At Closest Point To Earth in 11 Years Today If you have a telescope, (What?! You don't have one?) you're in for a visual treat tonight. Mars will be at its closest point to Earth in 11 years today. This event is worth checking out, whether with a telescope, astronomy binoculars, or online. While today is when Mars is at its closest, you actually have a couple weeks to check this out, as the distance between Mars and Earth gradually becomes greater and greater. Today, Mars is 76 million kilometers (47.2 million miles) away, but up until June 12th it will still be no further than 77 million kilometers (48 million miles) away. The furthest Mars can be from Earth is 401 million kilometers (249 million miles), when the two planets are on the opposite side of the Sun from each other. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sfPjOtzLn4[/embed] For most of us with backyard 'scopes, it's difficult to make out much detail. You can see Mars, and at the most you can make out a polar cap. But it's still fascinating knowing you're looking at another planet, one that was totally unknowable for most humans who preceded us. A planet that we have rovers on, and that we have several craft in orbit around. If you don't have a scope, have no fear. There will be a flood of great astro-photos of Mars in the next few days. There are also options for live streaming feeds from powerful Earth-based telescopes. The last time Mars was this close to Earth was 2005. A couple years before, the distance shrank to 55.7 million km (34.6 million miles.) That was the closest Mars and Earth have been in several thousand years. In 2018, the two planets will be nearly that close again. This event is often called "opposition", but it's actually more correctly called "closest approach." Opposition occurs a couple weeks before closest approach, when Mars is directly opposite the Sun. But whether you call it opposition, or closest approach, the event itself is significant for more than just looking at it. Missions to Mars are planned when the two planets are close to each other. This reduces mission times drastically. Mars Express, the mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) was launched in 2003, when the two planets were as close to each other as they've been in thousands of years. All missions to Mars can't be so lucky, but they all strive to take advantage of the orbital cycles of the two planets, by nailing launch dates that work in our favour. As for finding Mars in the night sky, it's not that difficult. If you have clear skies where you are, Mars will appear as a bright, fire-yellow star. "Just look southeast after the end of twilight, and you can't miss it," says Alan MacRobert, a senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, in a statement. "Mars looks almost scary now, compared to how it normally looks in the sky." Although Mars is the closest thing in the sky to Earth right now, other than the Moon, it isn't the brightest thing in the night sky. That honour is reserved for Jupiter, even though it's ten times further away. Jupiter is twenty times larger in diameter than Mars, so it reflects much more sunlight and appears much brighter. (Obviously, everything in the night sky pales in comparison to the Moon.) The reason for such a variation in distances between the planets lies in their elliptical orbits around the Sun. There's a great video showing how their orbits change the distance between the two planets, here. If you don't have a telescope, you can still check Mars out. Go to slooh.com to check out live feeds from a proper telescope. The post Mars At Closest Point To Earth in 11 Years Today appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Hold On To Your Jaw. Pluto Extreme Close Up Best Yet The New Horizons mission, which its conducted its historic flyby on July 14th, 2015, has yielded a wealth of scientific data about Pluto. This has included discoveries about Pluto's size, its mountainous regions, its floating ice hills, and (more recently) how the dwarf planet interacts with solar wind - a discovery which showed that Pluto is actually more planet-like than previously thought. But beyond revelations about the planet's size, geography and surface features, it has also provided the most breathtaking, clear, and inspiring images of Pluto and its moons to date. And with this latest release of images taken by the New Horizon's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), people here on Earth are being treated to be the best close-up of Pluto yet. These images, which were taken while the New Horizon's probe was still 15,850 km (9,850 mi) away from Pluto (just 23 minutes before it made its closest approach), extend across the hemisphere that the probe was facing as it flew past. It shows features ranging from the cratered northern uplands and the mountainous regions in Voyager Terra before slicing through the flatlands of "Pluto's Heart" - aka. Tombaugh Regio - and ending up in another stretch of rugged highlands. The width of the strip varies as the images pass from north to south, from more than 90 km (55 mi) across at the northern end to about 75 km (45 mi) at its southern point. The perspective also changes, with the view appearing virtually horizontal at the northern end and then shifting to an almost top-down view onto the surface by the end. The crystal clear photographs that make up the mosaic - which have a resolution of about 80 meters (260 feet) per pixel - offer the most detailed view of Pluto's surface ever. With this kind of clarity, NASA scientists are able to discern features that were never before visible, and learn things about the kinds of geological processes which formed them. This includes the chaotic nature of the mountains in the northern hemisphere, and the varied nature of the icy nitrogen plains across Tombaugh Regio - which go from being cellular, to non-cellular, to a cross-bedding pattern. These features are a further indication that Pluto's surface is the product of a combination of geological forces, such as cryovolcanism, sublimation, geological activity, convection between water and nitrogen ice, and interaction between the surface and atmosphere. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and the Associate Vice President of Research and Development at the Southwest Research Institute, was especially impressed with this latest find. As he told Universe Today via email: "This new high resolution image mosaic is the complete highest resolution strip of images New Horizons obtained, and its both eye candy gorgeous and scientifically rich. Think about it— one flyby and we have this mosaic, plus so much more; no dataset like this existed on Mars until we'd flown half a dozen missions there!" The most distant flyby in the history of space exploration, and yet we've obtained more from this one mission than multiple flybys were able to provide from one of Earth's closest neighbors. Fascinating! And what's more, new information is expected to be coming from the New Horizons probe until this coming October. To top it off, our scientists are still not finished analyzing all the information the mission collected during its flyby. The full-resolution image can be viewed here, and be sure to enjoy this NASA video of the mosaic: https://youtu.be/NEdvyrKokX4 Further Reading: NASA The post Hold On To Your Jaw. Pluto Extreme Close Up Best Yet appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Reborn Antares Raised at Virginia Launch Pad for Crucial May 31 Engine Test WALLOPS ISLAND, VA - The soon to be reborn Orbital ATK Antares commercial rocket sporting new first stage engines has been raised at its repaired launch pad on Virginia's scenic eastern shore for a long awaited test firing of the powerplants. The static test firing is now slated to take place in less than 3 days on Tuesday evening, May 31. The now revamped launch vehicle - dubbed Antares 230 - has been 're-engined' and upgraded with a pair of modern and more powerful first stage engines - the Russian-built RD-181 fueled by LOX/kerosene. The engine test will be conducted using only the first stage of Antares at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The raised rocket with the first stage capped at the top is visible right now at the Wallops pad - as seen in my new photos taken this week. NASA announced that the static test firing is slated for no earlier than May 31 during a test window that runs from 5 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. EDT. As a contingency, the Wallops range has been reserved for backup test dates that run through June 5 just in case issues crop up. NASA will not be carrying a live webcast of the test. Rather they will note the completion of the test on the Wallops' Facebook and Twitter sites. The test firing will be visible from various public viewing locations in the local Wallops area. However the NASA Wallops Visitor center will not be open. NASA will not be carrying a live webcast of the test. Rather they will note the completion of the test on the Wallops' Facebook and Twitter sites. The test firing will be visible from various public viewing locations in the local Wallops area. However the NASA Wallops Visitor center will not be open. The test involves firing up Antares dual first stage RD-181 engines at full 100% power (thrust) for a scheduled duration of approximately 30 seconds. Hold down restraints will keep the rocket firmly anchored at the pad during the test. To prepare for the static hot fire test, Orbital ATK technicians rolled the vehicle on a dedicated multi-wheeled transporter erector launcher from the rockets processing hangar inside the Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility to Virginia Space's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A about a mile away. A successful outcome is absolutely crucial for permitting Antares to carry out its 'Return to Flight' launch dubbed OA-5 and set for sometime this summer. "The hot fire will demonstrate the readiness of the rocket's first stage and the launch pad fueling systems to support upcoming flights," said NASA officials. Antares launches ground to a halt following a devastating launch failure 19 months ago which destroyed the rocket and its payload of space station science and supplies for NASA in a huge fireball. The 'Return to Flight' blastoff - which could come as soon as July 2016 - will be the first for the private Antares rocket since that catastrophic launch failure on Oct. 28, 2014, just seconds after liftoff from Wallops. That flight was carrying Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo freighter on the critical Orb-3 resupply mission for NASA and the astronauts living and working on the International Space Station (ISS). The launch mishap was traced to a failure in the AJ26 first stage engine turbopump and caused Antares launches to immediately grind to a halt. The RD-181 replaces the AJ26. The flight engines are built by Energomash in Russia. "They are a good drop in replacement for the AJ26. And they offer 13% higher thrust compared to the AJ26," said Kurt Eberly, Orbital ATK Antares deputy program manager, in an interview with Universe Today. As a result of switching to the new RD-181 engines, the first stage also had to be modified to incorporate new thrust adapter structures, actuators, and propellant feed lines between the engines and core stage structure. "This stage test paradigm is a design verification test," said Eberly. "After the 30 second test is done we will shut it down and have a pile of data to look at," Eberly told Universe Today. "Hopefully it will confirm all our environments and all our models and give us the confidence so we can proceed with the return to flight." Technicians have been processing the rocket at the pad to ready it for the test. They also conducted a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and loaded the propellants like during an actual launch campaign. The full up engine test follows the WDR. "After the WDR we will do the stage test," Eberly explained. "It is a 30 second test. We will fire up both engines and hit all 3 power levels that we plan to use in flight." "We will use the thrust vector controls. So we will move the nozzles and sweep them through sinusoidal sweeps at different frequencies and excite various resonances and look for any adverse interaction between fluid modes and structural modes." The test uses the first stage core planned to launch the OA-7 mission from Wallops late this year. After the engine test is completed, the stage will be rolled back to the HIF and a new stage fully integrated with the Cygnus cargo freighter will be rolled out to the pad for the OA-5 'Return to Flight' mission as soon as July. "Orbital ATK is building, testing and flying the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. NASA initiatives like the cargo resupply contracts are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit," according to NASA. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken Kremer The post Reborn Antares Raised at Virginia Launch Pad for Crucial May 31 Engine Test appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   How Long is a Year on Mars? Mars and Earth have quite a few things in common. Both are terrestrial planets, both are located within the Sun's habitable zone, both have polar ice caps, similarly tilted axes, and similar variations in temperature. And according to some of the latest scientific data obtained by rovers and atmospheric probes, it is now known that Mars once had a dense atmosphere and was covered with warm, flowing water. But when it comes to things like the length of a year, and the length of seasons, Mars and Earth are quite different. Compared to Earth, a year on Mars lasts almost twice as long - 686.98 Earth days. This is due to the fact that Mars is significantly farther from the Sun and its orbital period (the time it takes to orbit the Sun) is significantly greater than that of Earth's. Orbital Period: Mars average distance (semi-major axis) from the Sun is 227,939,200 km (141,634,852.46 mi) which is roughly one and half times the distance between the Earth and the Sun (1.52 AU). Compared to Earth, its orbit is also rather eccentric (0.0934 vs. 0.0167), ranging from 206.7 million km (128,437,425.435 mi; 1.3814 AU) at perihelion to 249.2 million km (154,845,701 mi; 1.666 AU) at aphelion. At this distance, and with an orbital speed of 24.077 km/s, Mars takes 686.971 Earth days, the equivalent of 1.88 Earth years, to complete a orbit around the Sun. This eccentricity is one of the most pronounced in the Solar System, with only Mercury having a greater one (0.205). However, this wasn't always the case. Roughly 1.35 million years ago, Mars had an eccentricity of just 0.002, making its orbit nearly circular. It reached a minimum eccentricity of 0.079 some 19,000 years ago, and will peak at about 0.105 in about 24,000 years from now. But for the last 35,000 years, the orbit of Mars has been getting slightly more eccentric because of the gravitational effects of the other planets. The closest distance between Earth and Mars will continue to mildly decrease for the next 25,000 years. And in about 1,000,000 years from now, its eccentricity will once again be close to what it is now – with an estimated eccentricity of 0.01. Earth Days vs. Martian "Sols": Whereas a year on Mars is significantly longer than a year on Earth, the difference between an day on Earth and a Martian day (aka. "Sol") is not significant. For starters, Mars takes 24 hours 37 minutes and 22 seconds to complete a single rotation on its axis (aka. a sidereal day), where Earth takes just slightly less (23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds). On the other hand, it takes 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds for the Sun to appear in the same spot in the sky above Mars (aka. a solar day), compared to the 24 hour solar day we experience here on Earth. This means that, based on the length of a Martian day, a Martian year works out to 668.5991 Sols. Seasonal Variations: Mars also has a seasonal cycle that is similar to that of Earth's. This is due in part to the fact that Mars also has a tilted axis, which is inclined 25.19° to its orbital plane (compared to Earth's axial tilt of approx. 23.44°). It's also due to Mars orbital eccentricity, which means it will periodically receive less in the way of the Sun's radiance during at one time of the year than another. This change in distance causes significant variations in temperature. While the planet's average temperature is -46 °C (51 °F), this ranges from a low of -143 °C (-225.4 °F) during the winter at the poles to a high of 35 °C (95 °F) during summer and midday at the equator. This works out to a variation in average surface temperature that is quite similar to Earth's – a difference of 178 °C (320.4 °F) versus 145.9 °C (262.5 °F). This high in temperatures is also what allows for liquid water to still flow (albeit intermittently) on the surface of Mars. In addition, Mars' eccentricity means that it travels more slowly in its orbit when it is further from the Sun, and more quickly when it is closer (as stated in Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion). Mars' aphelion coincides with Spring in its northern hemisphere, which makes it the longest season on the planet - lasting roughly 7 Earth months. Summer is second longest, lasting six months, while Fall and Winter last 5.3 and just over 4 months, respectively. In the south, the length of the seasons is only slightly different. Mars is near perihelion when it is summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the north, and near aphelion when it is winter in the southern hemisphere and summer in the north. As a result, the seasons in the southern hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in the northern are milder. The summer temperatures in the south can be up to 30 K (30 °C; 54 °F) warmer than the equivalent summer temperatures in the north. Weather Patterns: These seasonal variations allow Mars to experience some extremes in weather. Most notably, Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System. These can vary from a storm over a small area to gigantic storms (thousands of km in diameter) that cover the entire planet and obscure the surface from view. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and have been shown to increase the global temperature. The first mission to notice this was the Mariner 9 orbiter, which was the first spacecraft to orbit Mars in 1971, it sent pictures back to Earth of a world consumed in haze. The entire planet was covered by a dust storm so massive that only Olympus Mons, the giant Martian volcano that measures 24 km high, could be seen above the clouds. This storm lasted for a full month, and delayed Mariner 9's attempts to photograph the planet in detail. And then on June 9th, 2001, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a dust storm in the Hellas Basin on Mars. By July, the storm had died down, but then grew again to become the largest storm in 25 years. So big was the storm that amateur astronomers using small telescopes were able to see it from Earth. And the cloud raised the temperature of the frigid Martian atmosphere by a stunning 30° Celsius. https://youtu.be/ZBZz0R6Ym5E These storms tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and are the result of temperatures rising and triggering changes in the air and soil. As the soil dries, it becomes more easily picked up by air currents, which are caused by pressure changes due to increased heat. The dust storms cause temperatures to rise even further, leading to Mars' experiencing its own greenhouse effect. Given the differences in seasons and day length, one is left to wonder if a standard Martian calendar could ever be developed. In truth, it could, but it would be a bit of a challenge. For one, a Martian calendar would have to account for Mars' peculiar astronomical cycles, and our own non-astronomical cycles like the 7-day week work with them. Another consideration in designing a calendar is accounting for the fractional number of days in a year. Earth's year is 365.24219 days long, and so calendar years contain either 365 or 366 days accordingly. Such a formula would need to be developed to account for the 668.5921-sol Martian year. All of this will certainly become an issue as human beings become more and more committed to exploring (and perhaps colonizing) the Red Planet. We have written many interesting articles about Mars here at Universe Today. and How Long is a Year on Other Planets?, How Long is a Day on Mars?, How Long Does it Take Mars to Orbit the Sun?, Mars Compared to Earth, and Does Mars Have Seasons? For more information, check out NASA's Solar System Exploration page on Mars. Astronomy Cast also has several interesting episodes on the subject. Like Episode 52: Mars, and Episode 91: The Search for Water on Mars. The post How Long is a Year on Mars? appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   SpaceX Falcon 9 Thunders to Space with Thai Comsat – Scores Double Headed Win with 3rd Straight Booster Landing CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL. - Atop a billowing plume of fire and smoke a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared to space this afternoon, Friday, May 27, as the crackling thunder of the engines roared across the Florida space coast and the company scored a stunning double headed launch and landing success. The 229 foot-tall (70 meter) Falcon 9 successfully delivered a 7000 pound commercial Thai telecommunications satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) and the first stage booster successfully soft landed on a platform at sea some nine minutes later. Thus SpaceX is now an unfathomable 3 for 3 in the last three first stage landing attempts - both at sea and on land. Even more remarkable is the string of two straight successes in landings via the high energy reentries as a consequence of launching the commercial payloads to GTO. The Falcons screams were the loudest and most thrilling I've ever heard from a SpaceX launch as the two stage rocket lifted off on time at 5:39 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. "Satellite deployed to 91,000 km apogee," tweeted SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk. "All looks good." The spectacular looking launch into mostly sunny Florida skies followed a days delay forced by a technical glitch in the second stage. SpaceX engineers had to lower the Falcon 9 to the horizontal position and hurriedly fix the second engine actuator that gave concerning readings during Thursday's original launch attempt and scrubbed the liftoff - and do so in time to safely carry out a launch attempt late this afternoon. Hundreds of millions of dollars were at stake on this commercial flight slated to deliver the Thaicom-8 comsat to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) for Thaicom PLC, a leading satellite operator in Asia. The first and second stages separated as planned about 2 minutes and 39 seconds after liftoff. The nosecone, or payload fairing deployed into two halves at about T plus 3 minutes and 37 seconds. The second stage with Thaicom-8 continued to orbit. A pair of burns carried Thaicom-8 to orbit and the satellite was deployed at T plus 31 minutes and 56 seconds. The rocket arced over as it accelerated eastwards towards Africa. The nine first stage Marlin 1D engines on the 229 foot tall Falcon 9 rocket generate approximately 1.5 million pounds of thrust. Thaicom-8 was built by aerospace competitor Orbital ATK, based in Dulles, VA. It will support Thailand's growing broadcast industry and will provide broadcast and data services to customers in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. The Falcon 9 launch is the 5th this year for SpaceX. Meanwhile, the first stage began a series of propulsive burns of a Merlin 1 D engine to target a drone ship platform at sea. SpaceX said the barge was positioned some 620 km off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean. After the primary goal of delivering Thaicom-8 to GTO, the secondary test objective of SpaceX was to land the Falcon 9 rockets first stage on the ocean going barge. The Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) platform is named "Of Course I Still Love You." However with this mission's GTO destination, the first stage was subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating and a successful landing would be difficult. Altogether, SpaceX has now recovered 4 first stage boosters - 3 by sea and 1 by land. The quartet of landings count as stunning successes towards SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk's vision of rocket reusability and radically slashing the cost of sending rockets to space by recovering the boosters and eventually reflying them with new payloads from paying customers. SpaceX hopes to cut launch costs by one third initially, and much much more down the road. Watch for Ken's on site reports direct from Cape Canaveral and the SpaceX launch pad. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken Kremer …………. Learn more about SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ULA Atlas rocket, Orbital ATK Cygnus, ISS, Boeing, Space Taxis, Mars rovers, Orion, SLS, Antares, NASA missions and more at Ken's upcoming outreach events: May 28: "SpaceX, ULA, SLS, Orion, Commercial crew, Curiosity explores Mars, Pluto and more," Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL, afternoon/evening The post SpaceX Falcon 9 Thunders to Space with Thai Comsat – Scores Double Headed Win with 3rd Straight Booster Landing appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Life On Kepler-62f? A team of astronomers suggests that an exoplanet named 62f could be habitable. Kepler data suggests that 62f is likely a rocky planet, and could have oceans. The exoplanet is 40% larger than Earth and is 1200 light years away. 62f is part of a planetary system discovered by the Kepler mission in 2013. There are 5 planets in the system, and they orbit a star that is both cooler and smaller than our Sun. The target of this study, 62f, is the outermost of the planets in the system. Kepler can't tell us if a planet is habitable or not. It can only tell us something about its potential habitability. The team, led by Aomawa Shields from the UCLS department of physics and astronomy, used different modeling methods to determine if 62f could be habitable, and the answer is, maybe. According to the study, much of 62f's potential habitability revolves around the CO2 component of its atmosphere, if it indeed has an atmosphere. As a greenhouse gas, CO2 can have a significant effect on the temperature of a planet, and hence, a significant effect on its habitability. Earth's atmosphere is only 0.04% carbon dioxide (and rising.) 62f would likely need to have much more CO2 than that if it were to support life. It would also require other atmospheric characteristics, . The study modelled parameters for CO2 concentration, atmospheric density, and orbital characteristics. They simulated: An atmospheric thickness from the same as Earth's up to 12 times thicker. Carbon dioxide concentrations ranging from the same as Earth's up to 2500 times Earth's level. Multiple different orbital configurations. It may look like the study casts its net pretty wide in order to declare a planet potentially habitable. But the simulations were pretty robust, and relied on more than a single, established modelling method to produce these results. With that in mind, the team found that there are multiple scenarios that could make 62f habitable. "We found there are multiple atmospheric compositions that allow it to be warm enough to have surface liquid water," said Shields, a University of California President's Postdoctoral Program Fellow. "This makes it a strong candidate for a habitable planet." As mentioned earlier, CO2 concentration is a big part of it. According to Shields, the planet would need an atmospheric entirely composed of CO2, and an atmosphere five times as dense as Earth's to be habitable through its entire year. That means that there would be 2500 times more carbon dioxide than Earth has. This would work because the planet's orbit may take it far enough away from the star for water to freeze, but an atmosphere this dense and this high in CO2 would keep the planet warm. But there are other conditions that would make 62f habitable, and these include the planet's orbital characteristics. "But if it doesn't have a mechanism to generate lots of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere to keep temperatures warm, and all it had was an Earth-like amount of carbon dioxide, certain orbital configurations could allow Kepler-62f's surface temperatures to temporarily get above freezing during a portion of its year," said Shields. "And this might help melt ice sheets formed at other times in the planet's orbit." Shields and her team used multiple modelling methods to produce these results. The climate was modelled using the Community Climate System Model and the Laboratoire de Me´te´orologie Dynamique Generic model. The planet's orbital characteristics were modelled using HNBody. This study represents the first time that these modelling methods were combined, and this combined method can be used on other planets. Shields said, "This will help us understand how likely certain planets are to be habitable over a wide range of factors, for which we don't yet have data from telescopes. And it will allow us to generate a prioritized list of targets to follow up on more closely with the next generation of telescopes that can look for the atmospheric fingerprints of life on another world." There are over 2300 confirmed exoplanets, and many more candidates yet to be confirmed. Only a handful of them have been confirmed as being in the habitable zone around their host star. Of course, we don't know if life can exist on other planets, even if they do reproduce the same kind of habitability that Earth has. We just have no way of knowing, yet. That will change when instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope are able to peer into the atmospheres of exoplanets and tell us something about any bio-markers that might be present. But until then, and until we actually visit another world with a probe of some design, we need to use modelling like the type employed in this study, to get us closer to answering the question of life on other worlds. The post Life On Kepler-62f? appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Weekly Space Hangout – May 27, 2016: Dr. Seth Shostak Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain) Special Guest: Dr. Seth Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute. He also heads up the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Committee. In addition, Seth is keen on outreach activities: interesting the public – and especially young people – in science in general, and astrobiology in particular. He's co-authored a college textbook on astrobiology, and has written three trade books on SETI. In addition, he's published more than 400 popular articles on science — including regular contributions to both the Huffington Post and Discover Magazine blogs — gives many dozens of talks annually, and is the host of the SETI Institute's weekly science radio show, "Big Picture Science." Guests: Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Kimberly Cartier (@AstroKimCartier ) Jolene Creighton (fromquarkstoquasars.com / @futurism) Nicole Gugliucci (cosmoquest.org / @noisyastronomer) Brian Koberlein (@briankoberlein / briankoberlein.com) Their stories this week: “Fresh” Lunar Craters Faintest early-universe galaxy detected Update on NASA’s Juno Mission Europa’s ocean may have Earth-like chemical balance Do Primordial Black Holes Solve Dark Matter? India Successfully Launches Tiny Reusable Space Shuttle 30 KM Wide Asteroid Impacted Australia 3.4 Billion Years Ago MeerKAT First Images We’ve had an abundance of news stories for the past few months, and not enough time to get to them all. So we’ve started a new system. Instead of adding all of the stories to the spreadsheet each week, we are now using a tool called Trello to submit and vote on stories we would like to see covered each week, and then Fraser will be selecting the stories from there. Here is the link to the Trello WSH page (http://bit.ly/WSHVote), which you can see without logging in. If you’d like to vote, just create a login and help us decide what to cover! We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page. You can also join in the discussion between episodes over at our Weekly Space Hangout Crew group in G+! The post Weekly Space Hangout – May 27, 2016: Dr. Seth Shostak appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Blue Origin Will Shoot Itself In The Foot On Purpose Blue Origin, the builder of the New Shepard re-usable rocket, has announced plans for the fourth flight of the rocket. With a recent successful launch and landing in their pocket, the company is anticipating another similar result. But this time, something will be done differently. This time around, New Shepard will be launched and landed normally, but the crew capsule will be tested with an intentionally failed parachute. Blue Origin is promising an "exciting demonstration," and in an email said they will be "demonstrating our ability to safely handle that failure scenario." Though no date has yet been set for this gimped-parachute demonstration, we are looking forward to it. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU3J-jKb75g[/embed] In previous tests, the crew capsule performed maneuvers that characterized its aerodynamics and reduced what are called 'model uncertainties.' Greater predictability is what these test flights are designed to achieve. Obviously, too many question marks are not good. As Jeff Bezos, head of Blue Origin, said in an email, "One of the fundamental tenets of Blue Origin is that the safest vehicle is one that is robust and well understood. Each successive mission affords us the opportunity to learn and improve our vehicles and their modeling." The company also shared news of the construction of additional test cells at its facility in West Texas. These cells were announced in October, and now one of the cells has been commissioned. This cell "supports the development of the pre-burner start and ignition sequence timing" according to Bezos. Bezos also touted the benefits of privately-funded endeavours, saying "...one of the many benefits of a privately funded engine development is that we can make and implement decisions quickly. We made the decision to build these two new test cells as a team in a 10 minute discussion." He added, "Less than three weeks later we were pouring concrete and now we have an operating pressure fed test cell 7 months later." It's clear that privately-funded initiatives can have more flexibility than governmental initiatives. They don't face the same budgetary wrangling that organizations like NASA do. But, they don't command the same resources that NASA does. Companies like Blue Origin an SpaceX are very innovative and are leading the way in reusable rockets. If Blue Origin can make the crew capsule survivable in a failed parachute scenario, as the next test aims to do, then commercial space flight will benefit. Private trips to space, which are one of Blue Origin's goal, will also become more and more attainable. The post Blue Origin Will Shoot Itself In The Foot On Purpose appeared first on Universe Today.        • Email to a friend • View comments • Track comments •   Technical Glitch Postpones SpaceX Thaicom Launch/Landing to Friday May 27 – Watch Live Webcast CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. - Thursday's (May 26) planned blastoff of an upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a lucrative commercial mission to deliver a Thai telecommunications satellite to orbit, was postponed in the final stages of the countdown after engineers discovered a technical glitch in the booster's second stage. Liftoff of the two stage Falcon 9 is now planned for Friday, May 27 at 5:39 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Soon after liftoff, SpaceX will again execute a sea landing attempt of the first stage booster on a platform a sea following a tough reentry trajectory. Since the launch window extends two hours, the SpaceX launch team took the time available to work the issue and tried as best they could to resolve it. But in the end, and more than an hour into the available window, launch controllers decided it was best to stay safe and scrub for the day at about 6:40 p.m. EST and take the opportunity to thoroughly review all the data. "Out of an abundance of caution, launch postponed until no earlier than tomorrow [May 27] for additional data review" SpaceX said via social media accounts. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake on this commercial flight slated to deliver the Thaicom-8 comsat to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) for Thaicom PLC, a leading satellite operator in Asia. "Falcon 9 & THAICOM 8 spacecraft remain healthy," SpaceX tweeted. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Mush said that the problem was traced to an engine actuator in the second stage wich is critical for delivering Thaicom-8 to its required geostationary orbit. "There was a tiny glitch in the motion of an upper stage engine actuator," SpaceX CEO Musk tweeted. "Probably not a flight risk, but still worth investigating." You can watch the launch live on Friday via a special live webcast from SpaceX. The SpaceX webcast will be available starting at about 20 minutes before liftoff, at approximately 5:19 p.m. EDT- at SpaceX.com/webcast The two stage Falcon 9 rocket has a two-hour launch window that extends until Friday, May 27 at 7:39 p.m. EDT. The Florida weather is much less favorable than yesterday. Air Force meteorologists are predicting only a 40 percent chance of favorable weather conditions at launch time Friday. The major concerns could be violations of the Thick Cloud Layer Rule, Cumulus Cloud Rule, and Liftoff Winds. The backup launch opportunity is Saturday, May 28. The weather outlooks is somewhat better at a 50 percent chance of favorable conditions. Watch this truly cool video showing the rocket rollout to pad 40, rocket erection and finally the short static fire test carried out on Tuesday May 24, 2016. https://youtu.be/3O5znxnC5ng Video Caption: SpaceX - Thaicom 8 - Roll Out - Lift - Static Fire Test - 05-24-2016. Credit: USLaunchReport Thaicom-8 was built by aerospace competitor Orbital ATK, based in Dulles, VA. It will support Thailand's growing broadcast industry and will provide broadcast and data services to customers in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. The Falcon 9 launch is the 5th this year for SpaceX. Tune in to the SpaceX webcast Thursday afternoon to catch all the exciting action !! Watch for Ken's on site reports direct from Cape Canaveral and the SpaceX launch pad. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken Kremer …………. Learn more about SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ULA Atlas rocket, Orbital ATK Cygnus, ISS, Boeing, Space Taxis, Mars rovers, Orion, SLS, Antares, NASA missions and more at Ken's upcoming outreach events: May 27: "SpaceX, ULA, SLS, Orion, Commercial crew, Curiosity explores Mars, Pluto and more," Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL, late evening The post Technical Glitch Postpones SpaceX Thaicom Launch/Landing to Friday May 27 – Watch Live Webcast appeared first on Universe Today.        • 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.