Last night launch of the shuttle.....and I was there!

I guess there are some sad parallels with this.  Apollo 17 was the last mission to the moon, the last manned flight of a Saturn V and the only night launch of that spacecraft.  Apollo 18, 19, and 20 were canceled ending that part of history.
Early this morning shuttle Endeavour was launched on STS-130 mission to the ISS, this isn't the last shuttle flight yet, but it was the last scheduled night launch.  I'm writing this from Florida where I was at the launch on the NASA causeway this morning to see the launch in person.  I'm thrilled to have been present for this moment in history, but it's also very sad that another shuttle may not ever create another artificial sunrise at night.  There are only 4 more launches until the bird is grounded forever.
I'm seriously considering going to another launch this year, and possibly join the huge mob in September, but feel that the final launch could be very depressing too.  Once STS-133 has left Earth the US space program will be a total mess in my opinion.  The only way for US astronauts to get in space will be with the Russians, at least until one of the private companies come up with a manned spacecraft, but that is still way out.
I know that NASA boss Charles Bolden seems upbeat about the future but of course he can't just frown and grumble about it when making his speeches.
All my new friends I made over the last 2 nights have also agreed with me that this is a bad mistake canceling Constellation.  Ok....I'm not much of a fan of Constellation, since I feel it's a leap backwards, but at least it was on it's way to being operational.  But now that's gone.
I feel in a way that exploration is dying, and money is the more dominant motivation than curiosity.  Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't NASA based on exploration rather than some CEO getting rich hauling cargo?  Not to point fingers at Elon Musk, I think Space X is the first hope for the future with their Falcon 9 rocket.
It also occurred to me that the James Webb telescope will need a ride.  With the Aries V dead, what will lift that?
Anyway, with that off my mind, the launch was fantastic!  It took 2 nights of hanging out in the cold (low 40s all night) waiting for the launch after 4am.  Didn't happen Sunday morning due to an overcast layer at about 4000 feet.  Familiar launch scrub once again.  Stayed up all night again the next night and was rewarded with the sky brightening up, and seeing the shuttle go.  It's alway shocking how bright that thing is, and I could see it nearly all the way to the horizon.  It disappeared at about 7:30 minutes after launch.  I was hoping to see MECO, but it was too far.  I read that viewers in New York could see MECO as well as the short blasts on the OMS engines at ET separation.
Ha!  If you know that lingo above, you are a shuttle geek too.

I took the video below with my little Panasonic pocket digital camera.  Quality isn't that great, and I wasn't intending it to be, but it's MINE, and I was there!







(Click the video to see full size)

Upcoming Shuttle/ISS mission posters.

Not the "official" mission photos for the flights, but these are always a lot of fun!

| Download full sized images here |

NASA Day of Remembrance - Friday January 29

"If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."

 -- Gus Grissom

What do you call a rover that is stuck? Answer: A LANDER!

Sadly, it seems that our little rover, Spirit, is pretty much stuck in the sands of Mars and unable to dig itself out.  But Spirit isn't dead, just stuck.  A clip from the official NASA press release:

After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful. The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location.

 Rather than trying to crawl out of the trap, the rover drivers will attempt to tilt the rover enough to maintain a better solar panel angle to the sun.  If not, the rover may go to sleep sometime in May.  Will it bet totally dead?  Possibly not, it may simply go into hibernation.
I won't go into the details too deep, Emily at The Planetary Society has a good detailed description of how this might work.  While Spirit hunkers down for the winter, her sister Oppy is running across the dunes like a dog chasing a stick!  Next stop is Concepcion crater which appears to be a fairly new impact crater.
Can't complain too much, this is quite a way past the 90 day warranty!

| NASA press release |

Here comes Mars......

Get out and see Mars, you can't miss it these days.  No! It's not as big as the full moon, and don't even think of believing that nonsense.

Tomorrow Mars is at opposition, which means it's at it's closest point to the Earth, only 99 million km (or about 61.5 million miles).  When it's at opposition, it is directly in line with the Earth and sun, and opposite of the sun in the sky. So it will rise and sunset, and set at sunrise.  It's nice and high in the sky around midnight, but still a small view due to the distance (not like the full moon!!).  Still, if you have stable, transparent skies, you should be able to make out the polar cap as well as surface features.  Mars is nearing it's farthest point in it's elliptical orbit, so the view will be small.  This will be our best view until 2016 since next time around it will be even farther and smaller.  Here in Seattle, we just sit and hope for a break, but will more likely be shaking a clenched fist at the obscured skies.

| National Geographic info |

| Sky and Telescope Mars article |

Universe Today Guide to Messier objects.

Here is a good page to add to your astro-bookmarks.  Tammy Plotner from UniverseToday.com has written up a guide to all the Messier objects.  Several photos of each, sky charts, links and other goodies about each of the 110 objects.  Now if skies would just clear in Seattle for a view of M42....

| Universe Today guide to the Messier objects |

Discounted shuttles after 2010.

I guess the hard times of the slow economy are hitting the market for used space shuttles.  NASA has reduced the price on Atlantis and Endeavour (The Smithsonian has already been promised to claim Discovery) from $42 millon, down to the bargain price of only $28 million for a shuttle.  Of course you can't just buy one for your backyard, the offer is only for museums.
So I'm hoping this will increase the chance that we'll get one here in Seattle, but then again, it may just make the competition for a shuttle more vicious!

| Universe Today |

| CollectSpace.com |

2010 AL30 misses Earth on Wednesday.

A 30-50 foot chunk of space stuff whizzed past the Earth the other day.  Most likely just an asteroid, but there has been some speculation that it could possibly be the booster from the Venus Express mission.  Seems that it's more likely just a rock.
If the thing hit Earth, it probably would have just created a nice fireworks show and possibly broken up in smaller chunks that could have made it all the way down.  Similar to the asteroid that hit the Sudan last year.  Here is a graphic showing the distance it passed relative to the moon and other familiar stuff.  Compare that with the life destroying 99942 Apophis which was originally thought to bring us doom on 4/13/2029, but recently was downgraded to just a passing rock.  (But the world ends in 2012 anyway!)
Here is a animated photo by Patrick Wiggins in Utah (Right).  I"m pretty confident that I could have done this also with our 12" out in back, but the Seattle skies refuse to clear anytime something like this happens.

| See Universe Today for more photos videos and info |

Will Phoenix wake up and rise from the dead?

Starting on January 18, the Mars Odyssey orbiter will pass over the frozen carcass of the Phoenix lander and take a listen for any signals from the spacecraft.  There is a slight chance that the lander could come to life again since the sun is getting higher in the sky and there could be a remote chance that the solar panels could produce enough power to wake it up and send a signal out.  The orbiter would pass over the site about 10 times a day and if there is anything to hear, it might pick it up. 
The lander froze to death (and didn't have enough power from the sun) back in November 2008 when we last heard from it.  What will it say when it wakes up?
Nothing is expected, but with the toughness of our recent Mars spacecraft, who knows what will happen!?

Lander seen on January 6th

| Read the full press release from NASA and see larger photo |

Russian Buran bail out shuttle after next year??

I saw this interesting article today.  An idea to use the Russian's  Buran shuttle to bail out NASA after our fleet is grounded and on display in museums.
Unlikely.  The only flown Buran was destroyed in 2003 when the hanger roof collapsed on it bashing it into tiny bits.  The other non-flown vehicles are in a museum in Germany or wasting away in Gorky park.
This would be the equivalent of trying to fly a Saturn V again.   Interesting and somewhat amusing article at
least!

 

| Soviet space shuttle could bail out NASA |

January 7, 1610 - Jupiter's moons discovered.

Last year was the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope (IYA 2009), and today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's 4 largest moons.  January 7, 1610, Galileo first observed the fast moving "stars" around Jupiter and later figured out that they were moons around the planet.
Here is the page from his observing journal, but if you can't read that, see the translation here.
Pretty amazing what he was able to accomplish with that little telescope he made.  I wonder if it performs better than the modern "Galileo" telescopes you can buy at Wallmart?  Turn around and leave the store if you see these scopes!
Four centuries later, we go from his sketches and scribbled notes to actually "being there". 
Here is a video by Dr. Paul Schenk from Io image data.  Nice "Star Wars" effect, reminds me of the Millenium Falcon blasting it's way out of Mos Eisley! 

| See The Gish Bar Times for a great article |
| A few more of Dr. Shenk's videos |

That didn't work.....

Woke up early this morning at 5:45 to get on NASA's site and claim a causeway pass for the STS-130 launch next month.  Wasn't as bad as the final moments of an Ebay bidding war, but it was frustrating.

I guess the waiting room was a good idea, but then once you get into the buying screen (I sat until about 6:05am before I got in) it didn't go well.  I selected 1 pass for the causeway thinking all was well, hit [continue] and get the "server experiencing high traffic, try again" message.  Few tries later, there was just a visitor center pass option.
I'd rather eat a full cupcake with frosting and chocolate chip on the top than just lick the paper if you know what I mean!
Seeing this bird fly it's last few times may be just as hard as going to the Vancouver Olympics I'm thinking now.  Gaaaghh!