Expedition 47-48 Crew Conducts Traditional Ceremonies.



Expedition 47-48 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA and their backups, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos and Shane Kimbrough of NASA visited the Gagarin Museum where they viewed historic space artifacts at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia Feb. 26, then visited Red Square in Moscow for traditional ceremonies. Ovchinin, Williams and Skripochka are scheduled to launch on March 19, Kazakh time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.

söndag 21 februari 2016

Earth from Space: French synergy.


Earth from Space is presented by Malì Cecere from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios. The one hundred seventy-fourth edition features a Sentinel-2A satellite image of La Rochelle in France.

onsdag 17 februari 2016

ExoMars 2016: launch to Mars.


Animation visualising milestones during the launch of the ExoMars 2016 mission and its cruise to Mars. The mission comprises the Trace Gas Orbiter and an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, which are scheduled to be launched on a four-stage Proton-M/Breeze-M rocket from Baikonur during the 14–25 March 2016 window. About ten-and-a-half hours after launch, the spacecraft will separate from the rocket and deploy its solar wings. Two weeks later, its high-gain antenna will be deployed. After a seven-month cruise to Mars, Schiaparelli will separate from TGO on 16 October. Three days later it will enter the martian atmosphere, while TGO begins its entry into Mars orbit

Sentinel-3A liftoff.


Replay of the Sentinel-3A liftoff on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia  on 16 February 2016.
Sentinel-3A is the third satellite to be launched for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme.

Designed as a two-satellite constellation – Sentinel-3A and -3B – the Sentinel-3 mission carries a series of cutting-edge instruments for systematic measurements of Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere. Over oceans, Sentinel-3 measures the temperature, colour and height of the sea surface as well as the thickness of sea ice. These measurements will be used, for example, to monitor changes in sea level, marine pollution and biological productivity. Over land, this innovative mission will monitor wildfires, map the way land is used, provide indices of vegetation state and measure the height of rivers and lakes.

tisdag 16 februari 2016

Tell Me A Story: Childhood Memories of "Exploring Space"


Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz shares his childhood memories of "exploring space" at home in Costa Rica.

Explore The Solar System: 360 Degree Interactive Tour!


Take a 360 degree virtual tour of our Solar System, with the help of Crash Course Astronomy host Phil Plait!

fredag 12 februari 2016

Philae facing eternal hibernation.


15 months after Philae made its historic landing on a comet, its legacy is enormous even if Rosetta’s lander is facing eternal hibernation.

Mission teams are now looking ahead to the grand finale: making a controlled impact of the Rosetta orbiter on the comet next September.Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014 and Philae was delivered to the surface on 12 November. After touching down Philae bounced several times and completed 80% of its planned first science sequence before falling into hibernation. 

A contact was made with the lander on 13 June and intermittent contacts were made up to 9 July. However the results of Philae mission are unique and complement all the science harvested by the orbiter Rosetta who is continuing its quest before being sent directly to the surface of 69P late September.

Sentinels for Copernicus.


This satellite will be the third Sentinel for the Copernicus Programme. Copernicus is the most ambitious Earth Observation programme to date. It will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security. This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency.

ESA coordinates the delivery of data and is developing a new family of satellites, the Sentinels, specifically for the operational needs of Copernicus. The EC, acting on behalf of the European Union, is responsible for the overall initiative, setting requirements and managing the services. These services fall into six main categories: land management, the marine environment, atmosphere, emergency response, security and climate change.

Administrator Bolden Discusses the 'State of NASA'


On Tuesday, Feb. 9, as part of the rollout of President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal for NASA, Administrator Charles Bolden delivered a “State of NASA” speech at the agency’s Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Va. During the speech, Bolden highlighted key work and advancements by the agency during the last few years and discussed some of the future goals the agency continues to work toward, including exploration of Mars and elsewhere in our solar system and beyond, aeronautics research, development of technology to enable humans to explore deep space, and research aboard the International Space Station for the benefit of life on Earth and for astronauts on long duration space missions.

Asteroid Day 2016 Press Conf. with Bill Nye.


Planetary Society CEO, Bill Nye, explains the importance of celebrating Asteroid Day and protecting the Earth.

Apollo Astronaut Edgar Mitchell Dies at Age 85.


Edgar Mitchell

(September 17, 1930 – February 4, 2016), (Capt, USN), was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer and NASA astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14, he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon.