NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Mar 30 2023

NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad

The delightful Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars toward the small constellation Musca, The Fly. The dusty cosmic cloud is seen against rich starfields just south of the Coalsack Nebula and the Southern Cross. Stretching for about 3 degrees across the center of this telephoto field of view, the Dark Doodad is punctuated near its southern tip (upper right) by yellowish globular star cluster NGC 4372. Of course NGC 4372 roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy, a background object some 20,000 light-years away and only by chance along our line-of-sight to the Dark Doodad. The Dark Doodad's well defined silhouette belongs to the Musca molecular cloud, but its better known alliterative moniker was first coined by astro-imager and writer Dennis di Cicco in 1986 while observing Comet Halley from the Australian outback. The Dark Doodad is around 700 light-years distant and over 30 light-years long.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

>>18607228

SpaceX - Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 Mission

SpaceX is targeting Thursday, March 30 at 7:29 a.m. PT (14:29 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. If needed, a backup opportunity is available Friday, March 31 at the same time.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The space vehicles launched during this mission will serve a part of SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture , a new layered network of satellites in low-Earth orbit and supporting elements that will provide global military communication and missile warning, indication, and tracking capabilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuiBsre2m64

>>18607592

Found this looking for that

Active-shooter drill on Las Vegas Strip today

Mar 30, 2023

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — If you see a lot of police on the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday morning, don’t be alarmed. The police are conducting a full-scale active shooter drill.

There will be a large police presence. The drill starts outside the Caesars Forum Shoppes at 8 a.m. and is expected to last one hour.

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/active-shooter-drill-on-las-vegas-strip-today/

>>18607506

>>18607615

tyb

The launch was aborted at T-minus 3 seconds.

UPDATE (7:29 a.m.) - The launch was aborted seconds before liftoff. Another launch attempt will take place Friday at 7:29 a.m.

https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/watch-spacex-launching-falcon-9-rocket-at-vandenberg-space-force-base

Kentucky helicopter crash: nine killed after Army Black Hawks collide

March 30, 2023

March 30 (Reuters) - Nine soldiers were killed in a crash of two medical evacuation Black Hawk helicopters during a routine nighttime training mission over Kentucky, the U.S. Army said on Thursday, in one of the military's deadliest training accidents in recent years.

Crew members using night-vision goggles were flying two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, operated by the Army's 101st Airborne Division, when the aircraft crashed in a field late on Wednesday over Kentucky's Trigg County.

Army Brigadier General John Lubas, the division's deputy commanding officer for operations, said little was known so far about why the helicopters came down and he acknowledged he was not even sure whether they crashed into each other.

Lubas said an aircraft safety investigations team from Fort Rucker in Alabama would arrive later on Thursday to review data from onboard computers, which he said were similar to the black boxes in commercial aircraft.

"At this point, we don't know. We're hopeful that when we get the team from Fort Rucker here and they're able to pull some of the data out of the onboard computers we will have a better understanding of exactly what happened," Lubas told reporters outside the base.

Lubas added that one helicopter had five soldiers aboard while the other had four, and they were using night-vision goggles.

The HH-60 is a variant of the Black Hawk helicopter designed to provide support for various military operations, including air assaults and medical evacuations, according to the Army.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth addressed a Senate committee, where lawmakers expressed their condolences, and said it was tough moment for the U.S. military's biggest service branch.

"Thank you for your comments and thoughts and prayers for the families of our soldiers who were killed in the crash. Our hearts go out to them," Wormuth told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's a heavy day for the Army."

The weather in Fort Campbell area, which straddles the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, featured clear skies and calm winds on Wednesday night, according to National Weather Service forecaster Marc Chenard.

Fort Campbell, home to the 101st Airborne Division, is one of the largest military bases in the United States. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash during training at Fort Campbell in 2018.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/two-us-army-helicopters-collide-over-kentucky-nyt-2023-03-30/