Month: August 2022

Lightning strikes Artemis 1 launch pad 2 days before liftoff (video)

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This is why launch pads have lightning towers. Lightning crackled today (Aug. 27) over Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which will host the highly anticipated liftoff of the agency’s Artemis 1 moon mission on Monday morning (Aug. 29).  The bolts came close to the Artemis 1 stack — a Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket topped by an Orion crew capsule — with three even hitting Pad 39B’s lightning towers. Related: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updatesMore: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos…

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Artemis 1 moon mission ready for epic test flight on SLS megarocket, NASA says

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s new megarocket for deep space flights is ready to attempt its historic first test flight next week  The U.S. space agency on Saturday (Aug. 27) cleared the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion spacecraft to launch on Artemis 1, an uncrewed trip around the moon. Liftoff is set for Monday (Aug. 29) at 8:33 a.m. EDT (1233 GMT) from Pad 39B here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The mission is the ultimate test for NASA. After more than a decade of development,…

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Artemis 1 science: How moon mission will help humanity explore deep space

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is about to launch its biggest rocket since the famous Saturn V took Apollo astronauts to the moon — and that’s where this new mission is headed as well.  The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is set to lift off from Pad 39B here at Kennedy Space Center on Monday (Aug. 29) on Artemis 1, a mission that will send an Orion spacecraft on a six-week, uncrewed trip to lunar orbit and back. NASA plans to use the Artemis missions — named after the…

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Artemis 1: Why NASA’s science chief is so excited about historic moon mission

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NASA’s moon mission has an ambitious amount of science to perform. Searching for lunar water and the other science objectives of Artemis 1 are the beginning of a big moon-to-Mars push, the agency’s associate administrator, Thomas Zurbuchen, told Space.com in an interview. Artemis 1 is scheduled to launch as soon as Monday (Aug. 29), sending an Orion spacecraft around the moon atop the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket. “The Artemis program of course, is to do sustainable exploration on the moon but … to really turn around and look at…

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Alien-hunting array catches Voyager 1 signal from interstellar space

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The Allen Telescope Array in California detected signal from the Voyager 1 probe, the NASA satellite launched 45 year ago that is currently speeding toward the outer edges of the solar system, way beyond the orbit of Pluto.  Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a recently refurbished radio observatory near San Francisco in California dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, made contact with the Voyager 1 probe on July 9, using 20 of its 42 dish antennas, which are each over 20 feet (6.1 meters) wide. The telescope recorded 15 minutes…

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Best photo editing apps for astrophotography 2022

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When we look up into the night sky with our naked eyes, we can make out faint sources of light, the bright light from the moon, and perhaps a sighting of a nearby planet on a clear night if we’re lucky. While with the help of the best cameras for astrophotography, we can see the much fainter glows of nebulae and galaxies. Even the best telescopes and best binoculars can’t reveal all the subtle colors and patterns that post-shoot editing using photo editing apps can. Photo editing apps can transform…

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Boeing Starliner’s 1st astronaut flight for NASA delayed to February 2023

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Boeing’s first astronaut mission for NASA won’t lift off this year after all. The company had been aiming to launch Crew Flight Test (CFT), the first-ever crewed mission of its Starliner capsule, toward the International Space Station (ISS) sometime in December. But technicians need more time to address a few issues identified on Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2), an uncrewed jaunt to the ISS that Starliner made in May, NASA and Boeing representatives announced today (Aug. 25). “Currently, we’re targeting a launch date as early as February of 2023,” Steve…

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