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Keyword: orbit

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  • Historic All-Female Space Walk Crew Accidentally Drops Tool Bag Into Orbit

    11/14/2023 6:01:27 PM PST · by Rummyfan · 132 replies
    PJ Media ^ | 14 Nov 2023 | Athena Thornea
    inadvertently set into motion by a Historic! all-female space walk crew. It is currently following a trajectory that precedes the International Space Station (ISS) by two to four minutes and is bright enough to be seen with only the aid of a pair of ordinary binoculars. NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara are currently on a science mission, living and working aboard the ISS microgravity laboratory. On Wednesday, Nov. 1, the pair completed an impressive 6-hour, 42-minute spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), during which they made some repairs, failed to make others, and lost a sack of equipment. On...
  • Astronauts dropped a tool bag during an ISS spacewalk, and you can see it with binoculars

    11/13/2023 9:01:46 AM PST · by Red Badger · 117 replies
    SPACE.com ^ | 10 November 2023 | By Robert Lea
    An astronaut tool bag dropped during a spacewalk can be seen orbiting Earth on Nov. 2, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JSC) Some astronomy targets are less celestial in nature than others. Joining stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies as a target for skywatchers is now a surprisingly bright tool bag floating through the space around Earth. The bag of tools gave NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara the slip on Nov. 2, 2023, as they were conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS). The tool bag is now orbiting our planet just ahead of the ISS with a...
  • Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites are “leaking” signals

    10/31/2023 1:01:58 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 15 replies
    FreeThink ^ | October 30, 2023 | By Steven Tingay
    Even in a “radio quiet zone” in outback Western Australia, the satellites' emissions were far brighter than natural sources. VIDEOS & PICS AT LINK.................. When I was a child in the 1970s, seeing a satellite pass overhead in the night sky was a rare event. Now it is commonplace: sit outside for a few minutes after dark, and you can’t miss them. Thousands of satellites have been launched into Earth orbit over the past decade or so, with tens of thousands more planned in coming years. Many of these will be in “mega-constellations” such as Starlink, which aim to cover...
  • NASA wants ideas to boost Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with private spaceships

    12/30/2022 8:52:55 AM PST · by BenLurkin · 27 replies
    space.com ^ | Robert Lea p
    On Dec. 22, the space agency issued a Request for Information regarding a non-exclusive SpaceX study earlier this year that suggested how the Hubble Space Telescope could be "reboosted" into a higher orbit. Since the start of Hubble's operations in 1990, the orbit of the space telescope 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth has been decaying. Reboosting it to an orbit that is both higher and more stable could add years to Hubble’s operating lifetime delaying the point at which NASA must deorbit or dispose of the telescope. During its five space shuttle missions to the service Hubble, NASA used...
  • Chinese rocket body breaks up in orbit after successful satellite launch

    11/15/2022 9:51:33 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 47 replies
    Space.com ^ | Andrew Jones
    Little is known about the Yunhai 3 satellite. SAST and Chinese state media have said that it's designed to perform atmospheric and marine environment surveys, space environment surveys, disaster prevention and reduction work, and scientific experiments. Yunhai 3 is now orbiting at an altitude of around 520 miles (840 kilometers) above Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit, or SSO, which means it passes over the poles and particular spots on Earth at the same time every day. One part of the mission that did not go according to plan, however, is the performance of the rocket’s upper stage after it released...
  • A Planet has Been Found That Shifts In and Out of the Habitable Zone

    09/01/2022 10:59:38 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 14 replies
    Universe Today ^ | 8/31/2022 | NANCY ATKINSON
    Schematic diagram of the newly discovered Ross 508 planetary system. The green region represents the habitable zone where liquid water can exist on the planetary surface. The planetary orbit is shown as a blue line. A Planet has Been Found That Shifts In and Out of the Habitable Zone A super-Earth planet has been found orbiting a red dwarf star, only 37 light-years from the Earth. Named Ross 508 b, the newly found world has an unusual elliptical orbit that causes it to shift in and out of the habitable zone. Therefore, part of the time conditions would be...
  • Camera Films Itself Getting Launched Out of a Centrifuge at 1,000mph (in prep for launching heavier payloads to space)

    05/10/2022 6:51:02 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 75 replies
    petapixel.com ^ | 5/07/2022 | James Deruvo
    It’s called SpinLaunch, and it’s a novel approach to launching small payloads into orbit. The idea of a kinetic launch system translates to spinning a payload in a centrifuge to over 1,000 miles an hour and then releasing it for its journey to the stars. The concept requires no onboard fuel, so there’s no danger of explosions, and since it’s completely electrical, it offers a sustainable solution that doesn’t pollute the environment. “The SpinLaunch Orbital Launch System is a fundamentally new way to reach space,” states the company website. “The velocity boost provided by the accelerator’s electric drive results in...
  • Iran says puts new military satellite in orbit

    03/08/2022 2:58:25 AM PST · by Libloather · 3 replies
    AFP via MSN ^ | 3/08/22
    Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully placed a military satellite in orbit, as talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers reach a critical stage. "Iran's second military satellite -- named Nour-2 -- has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth," the official IRNA news agency reported. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the Nour-2 as a "reconnaissance satellite" in a statement on its Sepah News website. Iran successfully put its first military satellite into...
  • Oath Keeper charges renew attention on Trump orbit

    01/20/2022 5:24:25 PM PST · by ChicagoConservative27 · 10 replies
    The hill ^ | 01/20/2021 | BY REBECCA BEITSCH AND HARPER NEIDIG
    The Justice Department’s (DOJ) leveling of seditious conspiracy charges against the founder of the Oath Keepers has renewed interest — and in some cases faith — in DOJ and whether its investigation could yield charges against other high-level figures involved in the attack on the Capitol, including those in former President Trump’s orbit. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia group, was never in the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he’s been charged alongside other members who used a military “stack” formation to enter the building.
  • Earth's Fluctuating Orbit May Be Impacting Evolution, New Evidence Suggests

    12/02/2021 1:06:29 AM PST · by blueplum · 28 replies
    Science Alert ^ | 02 December 2021 | TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS
    As our living ark swings around the Sun, its current loop is fairly circular. But Earth's orbit isn't as stable as you may think. Every 405,000 years, our planet's orbit stretches out and becomes 5 percent elliptical, before returning to a more even path.... ... Beaufort and team suggest the lag seen between orbital eccentricity and changes in climate could hint that "coccolithophores may drive – rather than just respond to – carbon cycle changes." In other words, these minuscule little organisms, along with other phytoplankton, may help change Earth's climate in response to these orbital events....
  • Rockets in the Stratosphere

    09/04/2021 3:31:04 PM PDT · by Jyotishi · 18 replies
    The Pioneer ^ | Saturday, September 4, 2021 | Gwynne Dyer
    The typical rocket launch dumps the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere as one airliner does in the course of a trans-Atlantic crossing If you’re worried about your ‘carbon footprint’ - a concept foisted on the world in 2004 by British Petroleum to persuade people that their own behaviour, and not giant oil companies like BP, is causing the climate problem -- then you definitely should not sign up for a sub-orbital space flight. Besides, you probably can’t afford it ($250,000 pp). Millions of people can afford it, however, and since the Branson/Bezos ‘space race’ last month tickets for...
  • Enormous asteroid double the size of the Empire State Building to enter Earth's orbit

    08/26/2021 5:31:01 AM PDT · by Roman_War_Criminal · 62 replies
    dailystar.co.uk ^ | Ethan Blackshaw
    An enormous asteroid roughly twice the size of the Empire State Building is currently hurtling towards Earth's orbit. NASA has been tracking this latest space rock, called 2010 RJ53, since September 2010. This comes days after it was announced that a slightly smaller asteroid will enter our atmosphere on Sunday. It spans roughly 2540ft (774m) and should fly past us on September 9. RJ53 circles between 58-139 million miles from the sun, and will whiz by Earth at a distance of more than two million miles. A serious asteroid impact remains one of the worst possible natural disasters as there...
  • Texas congressman Louie Gohmert stuns committee hearing by asking whether federal agencies can fix climate change by altering orbit of Earth and Moon during committee hearing

    06/10/2021 10:43:34 AM PDT · by rickmichaels · 91 replies
    Daily Mail ^ | June 10, 2021 | Matt McNulty
    Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert's asked during a hearing of a House committee whether the federal government could change the orbits of the moon or earth to deal with climate change - raising some eyebrows among experts. Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, was on a video call with associate deputy chief of the National Forest Service Jennifer Eberlien when he asked whether or not federal agencies such as the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management could alter the earth and moon's orbit to deal with climate change crisis. 'I understand, from what's been testified to the Forest Service and the...
  • China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, successfully enters orbit around Red Planet

    02/10/2021 8:12:12 AM PST · by SeekAndFind · 7 replies
    Space.com ^ | 02/09/2021 | Mike Wall
    China has made it to Mars.The nation's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1, arrived in orbit around the Red Planet today (Feb. 10), according to Chinese media reports.The milestone makes China the sixth entity to get a probe to Mars, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, India and the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter made it to the Red Planet just yesterday (Feb. 9).And today's achievement sets the stage for something even more epic a few months from now — the touchdown of Tianwen-1's lander-rover pair on a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere...
  • Space Force Has A Unit Dedicated To Orbital Warfare That Now Operates The X-37B Spaceplane

    10/31/2020 3:55:31 AM PDT · by Candor7 · 40 replies
    The Drive ^ | October 30, 2020 | Joseph Trevithick
    The fledgling U.S. Space Force's Space Delta 9 is tasked with performing a mission set that the service describes as orbital warfare. This includes keeping an eye out for potentially hostile activity in space, as well as deterring those threats and even potentially defeating them, according to the unit's official website. Publicly, it provides this support primarily through various space-based surveillance and communications systems, but, interestingly, it is also responsible for overseeing the operations of the experimental X-37B mini space shuttle, the exact mission and capabilities of which remain obscure. Space Force highlighted the intriguing orbital warfare mission of Space...
  • Iranian attempt to put satellite into orbit fails

    02/09/2020 10:19:40 AM PST · by Eleutheria5 · 31 replies
    Arutz Sheva ^ | 9/2/20 | David Rosenberg
    An attempt by Iran to launch a satellite into orbit failed Sunday, the Iranian state television outlet Fars reported Sunday evening. A Simorgh or “Phoenix” rocket was used in the attempt to deploy the Zafar I communications satellite. The launch failed to deploy the satellite into orbit, however, Iranian television reported, due to low rocket speed. "It was launched with success and ... we have reached most our aims ... but the Zafar satellite did not reach orbit as planned," Fars reported. The Simorgh rocket had been launched from the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Semnan province, about 145 miles southeast...
  • Rare image of US Air Force's secretive space plane in orbit

    07/05/2019 1:56:10 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 37 replies
    boingboing.net ^ | Fri Jul 5, 2019 | David Pescovitz
    Astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh captured an image of the US Air Force's X-37B space plane in orbit. The reusable, uncrewed space vehicle, designated OTV-5, is on a secret testing mission since its launch in September 2017. From Vandebergh's post at Spaceweather.com: Images were taken through a 10 inch F/4,8 aperture Newtonian telescope with an Astrolumina ALccd 5L-11 mono CMOS camera. Tracking was fully manually through a 6x30 finderscope.
  • This 'Empty Trash Bag' Is Orbiting Earth in a Very Strange Way

    01/30/2019 7:46:18 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 37 replies
    space.com ^ | January 30, 2019 12:26pm ET | y Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Contributor |
    A bizarre object orbiting Earth is reminding astronomers of an empty trash bag. The unusual satellite is trekking around the planet in an almost absurd ellipse, dipping as close as 372.8 miles (600 kilometers) from the surface and then swinging out to a distance of 334,460 miles (538,261 km), or 1.4 times the average distance of the Earth to the moon. According to Northolt Branch Observatories in London, the object is a light piece of material left over from a rocket launch. What it will do next is anyone's guess. According to the observatories, the Haleakala (ATLAS-HKO) Observatory in Hawaii...
  • Earth Is Drifting Away From The Sun, And So Are All The Planets

    01/04/2019 12:07:50 PM PST · by LibWhacker · 125 replies
    Forbes ^ | 1/3/19 | Ethan Siegel
    On January 3rd, 2019, Earth reached the point in its orbit where it's at its closest approach to the Sun: perihelion. Every object orbiting a single mass (like our Sun) makes an ellipse, containing a point of closest approach that's unique to that particular orbit, known as periapsis. For the past 4.5 billion years, Earth has orbited the Sun in an ellipse, just like all the other planets orbiting their stars in all the other mature solar systems throughout the galaxy and Universe. But there's something you may not expect or appreciate that nevertheless occurs: Earth's orbital path doesn't remain...
  • Why Lockheed Martin is designing a tiny home to orbit the Moon

    09/07/2018 4:18:44 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 19 replies
    The Verge ^ | Sep 7, 2018, 9:00am EDT | Loren Grush
    NASA wants to build another space station, but this one won’t live in a close orbit around Earth. Within the last year, NASA has begun planning for a much smaller astronaut outpost in orbit around the Moon, a new destination dubbed the Gateway. The idea is for this space station, which will be a fraction of the size of the International Space Station, to serve as a place for astronauts to live and train for excursions to and from the lunar surface. A crucial piece of hardware needed for this Gateway will, of course, be habitats — spaces for a...