TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
June 6, 2024
NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. NGC 4565 itself lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000 light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Rendezvous and Docking
Watch live as a crewed Boeing Starliner spacecraft docks to the International Space Station for the first time. Starliner will autonomously dock to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at approximately 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 UTC).
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are aboard Starliner, which was launched on Wednesday, June 5 at 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 UTC) on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Starliner and crew will remain at the space station for about a week.
As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the flight test will help validate the transportation system, launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, in-orbit operations capabilities, and return to Earth with astronauts aboard as the agency prepares to certify Starliner for rotational missions to the space station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybaWL0J-Tbw
SES, Planet Complete Successful Data Relay Demonstration for NASA
June 6, 2024
SES Space & Defense has demonstrated what it claims is the first multi-orbit, multi-band commercial space relay service in support of the NASA Communications Services Project (CSP). To demonstrate data relay services, SES Space & Defense partnered with Planet Labs (Planet), a provider of global daily Earth data using SES’s O3b mPOWER satellite constellation in MEO and Planet’s LEO flight-representative terminal. SES revealed details of the demonstration, June 5.
The demonstrations support NASA’s Funded Space Act Agreement, which enables commercial space relay via GEO C-band and MEO Ka-band satellites to spacecraft in LEO. The initiative allows for NASA’s transition from the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) to commercial systems for its space relay requirements while helping create a commercial market for space relay.
“With this end-to-end test and demonstration of capabilities, we were able to successfully showcase a complete data flow through our LEO Relay System (LRS) service. The data measurement results validated our multi- band commercial space relay service, set the stage for the flight demonstration as the next step, and for the future launch of the operational service offering. We are exceptionally proud of all involved in developing a multi-orbit, multi-band space relay for both government and commercial LEO operators as NASA’s TDRS system retires,” David Fields, President and CEO, SES Space & Defense, said in a statement.
https://www.satellitetoday.com/imagery-and-sensing/2024/06/06/ses-planet-complete-successful-data-relay-demonstration-for-nasa/
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STARSHIP'S FOURTH FLIGHT TEST
June 6, 2024
The fourth flight test of Starship is targeted to launch Thursday, June 6 from Starbase in Texas. The 120-minute test window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. The launch window will open as early as 7 a.m. CT. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.
Starship’s third flight test made tremendous strides towards a future of rapidly reliable reusable rockets. The test completed several exciting firsts, including the first Starship reentry from space, the first ever opening and closing of Starship’s payload door in space, and a successful propellant transfer demonstration. This last test provided valuable data for eventual ship-to-ship propellant transfers that will enable missions like returning astronauts to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program.
The fourth flight test turns our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship.
To accomplish this, several software and hardware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from Flight 3. The SpaceX team will also implement operational changes, including the jettison of the Super Heavy’s hot-stage following boostback to reduce booster mass for the final phase of flight.
Flight 4 will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled Starship reentry.
The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon. We’re continuing to rapidly develop Starship, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible as we build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-4
NASA satellite images of cyclones on Jupiter reveal storms are fueled by processes similar to those on Earth
JUNE 6, 2024
New research led by Lia Siegelman, a physical oceanographer at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, shows that the roiling storms at the planet Jupiter's polar regions are powered by processes known to physicists studying Earth's oceans and atmosphere.
The geophysical commonalities spanning the 452 million miles between the two planets could even help facilitate an improved understanding of those processes on Earth.
Siegelman first made the connection between our planet and the gas giant in 2018 when she noticed a striking similarity between images of Jupiter's huge cyclones and the ocean turbulence she was studying.
To a physicist, air and water are both considered fluids, so applying ocean physics to Jupiter isn't as far-fetched as it sounds, said Siegelman. "Jupiter is basically an ocean of gas."
This initial observation led Siegelman to co-author a 2022 study published in Nature Physics that analyzed high-resolution infrared images of Jupiter's cyclones taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft.
The analysis revealed that a type of convection similar to what is seen on Earth helps maintain Jupiter's storms, which can be thousands of miles wide and last for years.
The 2022 study focused directly on Jupiter's cyclones, but Siegelman also saw wispy tendrils, known to researchers as filaments, in the spaces between the gassy vortices.
These filaments also had earthly analogs, and Siegelman used Juno's detailed imagery to study whether this similarity to our planet's oceanic and atmospheric processes was merely skin deep.
Published on June 6 in Nature Physics , Siegelman's follow-up study finds additional similarities between the processes fueling Jupiter's cyclones and those acting on Earth.
The study shows that the filaments between Jupiter's cyclones act in concert with convection to promote and sustain the planet's giant storms.
Specifically, Jupiter's filaments act in ways that resemble what oceanographers and meteorologists call fronts on Earth.
Fronts are often discussed in weather forecasts—cold fronts or storm fronts, for example—but they apply to both gases and liquids.
A front is the boundary between gas or liquid masses with different densities due to differences in properties like temperature. In the ocean, fronts can also be due to differences in salinity, which influences the density of seawater along with temperature.
A key feature of fronts is that their leading edges feature strong vertical velocities that can create winds or currents.
To try to understand the role of the filaments she could clearly see in between the cyclones on Jupiter in Juno's images, Siegelman looked at a series of infrared images from Juno.
The batch of images were of Jupiter's north polar region and were taken in 30-second increments.
The fact that the images were in infrared allowed Siegelman and her co-author Patrice Klein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and the Ecole Normale Superieure to calculate temperature—bright areas were warmer and dark areas were cooler.
On Jupiter, the hotter parts of the atmosphere correspond to thin clouds and the colder parts represent thick cloud cover, blocking more of the heat emanating from Jupiter's super-heated core.
The researchers then tracked the movement of clouds and filaments across the 30 second intervals separating the photographs to calculate horizontal wind speeds.
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-satellite-images-cyclones-jupiter.html
ISS Expedition 71 In-Flight Event with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps
DATE June 11, 2024
TIME 11:30 am
TIMEZONE New York
https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasa-astronaut-jeanette-epps-talks-with-u-s-patent-and-trademark-office/
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Crew Talks with The White House
DATE June 10, 2024
TIME 1:00 pm
TIMEZONE New York
https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasas-boeing-crew-flight-test-crew-talks-with-the-white-house/
NASA astronaut captures stunning view of Finger Lakes from space
Updated: June 6, 2024 6:29 AM
NASA astronaut and Syracuse native Jeanette Epps has captured a stunning view of the Finger Lakes region from the International Space Station. Epps posted the photo on social media with the caption, “Hello Syracuse and the Finger Lakes region!”
The image shows Syracuse, the Finger Lakes, Rochester, Lake Ontario, and a large part of northern New York State. Epps is part of the NASA SpaceX Crew-8 Mission.
Epps and her team, including NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Michael Barratt and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, are conducting over 200 scientific experiments to advance human space exploration and benefit life on Earth.
https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2024/06/06/nasa-astronaut-captures-stunning-view-of-finger-lakes/