Tag Archives: NASA

Winter to the west, summer to the east…dangerous day in the middle.

50 years ago today, as part of the first manned spaceflight program, John Glenn became the first human to orbit planet Earth as part of the Project Mercury space program. But why was the program named Mercury?

Two songs are going ’round and ’round in my head on this Monday morning. First, “Stormy Monday” (written by T-Bone Walker, performed by The Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and many more). The other one floating around is “Monday, Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas. Specifically, these are the lyrics I can’t shake: “They call [...]

Major changes high above our heads today. And only a few people are aware because, on the surface (forgive the pun), nothing much will change. This is one of those “behind the scenes” changes that touches every one of us, yet life will go on as before. Although, life should go on just a little better than before. That’s because today marks the retirement of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 11 which has been on duty for almost 12 years, and the beginning of operational duty for GOES 15 — which brings improved capabilities to the job.

November’s star-gazing is typically highlighted by the Leonid meteor shower, but the hard-core will no doubt scan for the Taurids, as well. Unfortunately, both showers will be hampered by strong moon illumination. But all is not lost! There’s a big, new player in town rocketing closer to Earth than anything of this size in the past 30 years – and we’ll see it next Tuesday.

For the first time, thanks to the Aquarius instrument aboard an Argentinean satellite, a global perspective of the distribution of salt across the oceans is now available for analysis. With this data, a better understanding of ocean circulation patterns will lead to a better understanding of changing global climates.

The moon is now waxing gibbous and will reach full moon status this coming Saturday night — almost perfectly timed with the peak of the Perseids which occurs overnight between Friday and Saturday. The light pollution will be significant. A similar situation occurred two years ago when the moon was just past full, in its waning gibbous phase, and indeed the bright sky diminished the shower as fainter meteors were washed out by the moonlight.

Saturn is not typically the stormy tempest like its neighbor, Jupiter. Known to be home to many violent storms, Jupiter’s storms rage across the planet’s hemispheres. In fact, the Great Red Dot can be found on Jupiter without even knowing what you’re looking for. And it’s been raging for centuries. On the other hand, since 1876 astronomers have noted only five previous storms of such magnitude on Saturn.

This Friday will mark the end of a 30-year era with NASA’s final shuttle launch at 11:26 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral – weather permitting, of course. Right now there’s a good chance for showers and thunderstorms on Friday at the Cape and the weather conditions have to be just right in order for launch [...]

No doubt, there’s a lot going on these days. What with Osama, the stealth copter, the record-breaking tornado outbreak (and now, recovery), as well as gas prices, Trump and the economy, there’s seems little room within the headlines for the epic flooding now occurring along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.