TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
October 13, 2024
Aurora Timelapse Over Italian Alps
Did you see last night's aurora? This question was relevant around much of the world a few days ago because a powerful auroral storm became visible unusually far from the Earth's poles. The cause was a giant X-class solar flare on Tuesday that launched energetic electrons and protons into the Solar System, connecting to the Earth via our planet's magnetic field. A red glow of these particles striking oxygen atoms high in Earth's atmosphere pervades the frame, while vertical streaks dance. The featured video shows a one-hour timelapse as seen from Cortina d'Ampezzo over Alps Mountain peaks in northern Italy. Stars from our Milky Way Galaxy dot the background while streaks from airplanes and satellites punctuate the foreground. The high recent activity of our Sun is likely to continue to produce picturesque auroras over Earth during the next year or so.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
NASA Activates Resources to Help Assess Impacts from Hurricane Milton
Oct 12, 2024
In the wake of Hurricane Milton, NASA is deploying resources to support Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state emergency management agencies to aid their response effort including satellite and aerial data collection.
The agency’s Disasters Response Coordination System and Airborne Science Program are began conducting flights Friday to provide emergency responders with better insight into flooding, damage in Florida, and debris.
“After the devastating impact from hurricanes Helene and Milton, NASA immediately sprang into action,” said Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“Whether it is through observations from space or from airplanes, NASA is ready to assist communities affected by severe storms.
We are working together with our federal and state partners to provide a better understanding of what is happening on the ground, in real time.
NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System was designed with the goal of delivering trusted, actionable Earth science information, where and when people need it, to enable effective response when these events strike.”
NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Synthetic Aperture Radar Vehicle (UAVSAR) instrument is gathering rapid wide area L-Band synthetic aperture radar data shared directly with FEMA and other organizations.
Flights are coordinated directly with FEMA to augment their existing satellite and aerial data collection.
Since Hurricane Milton struck, persistent cloud cover over the State of Florida has made it challenging to obtain optical satellite observations of conditions in the region.
Synthetic aperture radar instruments, such as those aboard UAVSAR, can see through the clouds to observe changes on the ground.
This provides much-needed observations of flood inundation across communities in Florida, as well as the extent of inland river flooding and resource deployment.
The Disaster Response Coordination System has been working closely with FEMA and state emergency management agencies to aid response efforts as Hurricane Milton approached and impacted Florida.
The team is actively sharing resources with other agency partners, the state of Florida, and disaster response non-profit organizations.
NASA continues to determine the needs of its partners and is sharing maps and data on the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal as they become available.
Hurricane Milton caused significant wind, flooding, power outages, and damage across central Florida, from Sarasota and Tampa to Palm Springs and the Space Coast.
Impacts are currently being assessed alongside lifesaving operations and emergency repairs.
The Disasters Response Coordination System is collaborating directly with FEMA, the State of Florida Geospatial Information Office, U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the American Red Cross.
The Disasters Response Coordination System is also sharing any available Earth observation data with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center emergency managers to support their damage assessment process.
By using tools like NASA’s Black Marble, and updating daily with differential analysis done to highlight areas with extended power outages, the agency provides FEMA, states, and non-profits the opportunity to distribute temporary generators, life-sustaining resources, and damage assessments.
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-activates-resources-to-help-assess-impacts-from-hurricane-milton/
https://maps.disasters.nasa.gov/arcgis/apps/MinimalGallery/index.html
China received funding from Nasa, Congressional report suggests
12 October 2024 6:45pm BST
China’s military may have received a boost from Nasa-funded research, according to a Congressional report.
The report, by the Republican members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said Beijing could have used the research to further its submarine and surveillance programmes.
The committee claimed more than 1,000 research papers had been jointly published by US and Chinese institutes with financial support from Nasa.
Dozens of them involved people affiliated with China’s Seven Sons of National Defence, a group of universities with ties to the ministry of industry and information.
Hundreds of the papers were linked to the Chinese Academy of Science, the state’s research institute.
Details of the Nasa-funded research were revealed in a recently published appendix to a report into wider Chinese partnerships with US researchers and universities.
The main report, published late last month, said Beijing had used American taxpayer dollars to help fund research that enabled them to advance their weapons programmes. Among the Chinese arms were hypersonic missiles, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and microchips.
One example highlighted a collaboration on a Nasa-backed fog study in the Chukchi-Beaufort Seas, in the Arctic Ocean, with China’s Ocean University.
The Chinese institute has a formal partnership with the navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which includes “mutual employment of teachers” and “resource sharing”, according to the congressional report.
It adds: “The study’s focus on the Chukchi–Beaufort Seas, a strategic area for submarine operations, raises concerns about potential benefits to PLA Navy capabilities in navigation and stealth activities.”
Another project between Chinese universities was aimed at improving remote-sensing technologies.
It received funding from Nasa and the 863 Programme, a Chinese government initiative to develop and acquire high-level technologies to build the country’s global position in scientific research.
The report says an embargo on Nasa-funded research projects with Chinese state entities and businesses has been “poorly enforced”.
The space agency received $24.9 billion in funding from American taxpayers this year.
The mounting rivalry between the US and China has called into question collaborations with Beijing.
The wider report said there had been 9,000 examples of research publications released in the last decade that had received funding from the Pentagon or the US intelligence community, and had co-authors with ties to Chinese institutions.
The majority of the papers focused on dual-use technologies, which have both civilian and military applications.
The report argued “the troubling conclusion then is that Department of Defense-funded research intended to allow the US military to maintain a technological edge over its adversaries — has likely been used to enable and strengthen” the Chinese military.
Democrats on the committee did not sign off on the report, saying there needed to be a more nuanced conversation on the subject.
The Telegraph has contacted Nasa for comment.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/10/12/china-may-received-funding-from-nasa-congressional-report/
https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/press-releases/moolenaar-foxx-uncover-american-university-research-aids-chinese-military
African Space Council – A Unique Role in African Space Governance
October 12, 2024
Introduction
The governance of the African Space Agency (AfSA) is important in the continent’s space ecosystem.
Its comprehensive framework can only be fully understood by considering the spirit, context, and objectives that drive space activities and policies across Africa.
The African Space Agency Statute, adopted in 2018, was the culmination of a two-year effort by the African Space Working Group, a team of more than 30 African experts.
Through meticulous analysis of global space governance models, this working group devised a governance structure tailored to the African Union’s (AU) aspirations in space, ensuring that AfSA is equipped to advance space science, technology, and diplomacy on the continent.
Conclusion
Looking at the numerous functions and responsibilities it has been proposed in Article 9.3:
Term of Office of the Statute that: All the Council Members, except the President and the Vice President, shall perform their functions part-time.
This provision ensures that all Council activities, functions, and responsibilities are delivered efficiently since most of these activities, functions, and responsibilities are ongoing issues.
Also, several policy or governance crises can occur anytime in the space arena.
Having the Council’s leadership in place daily will be instrumental in engaging AU policy organs and addressing all challenges.
The Director General (DG) is appointed by the Council to whom she/he reports. As one can see, the Director General’s role is more managerial and operational.
The Space science and technology portfolio is extensive with four (4) segments: Earth Observation, Satellite Communication, Navigation& Positioning, and Space & Astronomy.
Each of the segments has space operation and application components. In addition, training, business development and private sector engagement, academia and research centres involvement, etc.
According to the African Space Working Group, this is huge regarding responsibilities.
Therefore, the said Working Group proposed to the members the current statute adopted by the Conference in 2018.
In a nutshell, for better efficiency and as it is the practice in the Space business and arena, the Statute has separated the policy and strategic responsibilities from pure management and operation.
Figure 1 below gives a general overview of the governance of the African Space Agency.
Therefore, the President and the Vice President of the Space Council are intended to be the full-time political appointees and representatives of the Agency, just like the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the commission.
They are a political linkage between the technical operations of the agency and the member states.
Their role is to provide political leadership on the agency’s day-to-day running and lead high-level negotiations in space politics.
The only difference between the President and Vice President of Space Council and the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Commission is that they are not involved in the administrative affairs of the Agency, as this is the role of the Director General; neither are they chief accounting officers.
The Director General shall implement decisions and directives of the Space Council in his or her mandate.
The Director General shall be a technocrat in space with managerial experience who shall manage the operations of the Agency.
The Council shall be a policy decision-making body.
Therefore, the President and Vice President of the Council shall act as heads of delegation in international and continental space negotiations, while the Director General would provide technical oversight and input as part of the delegation.
https://spaceinafrica.com/2024/10/12/african-space-council-a-unique-role-in-african-space-governance/
Blue Origin delays debut launch of 2nd human-rated New Shepard rocket due to GPS glitch
October 13, 2024
Blue Origin postponed the launch debut of its second human-rated spacecraft today (Oct. 13), nearly a week after technical issues thwarted its first launch attempt.
Jeff Bezos' aerospace company hoped to launch its uncrewed NS-27 mission at 9:27a.m. EDT (1327 GMT) on Sunday to send a brand-new New Shepard rocket-capsule combo on a brief trip to suborbital space, but a GPS system issue forced the company to call of the attempt.
The delay comes six days after Blue Origin's first NS-27 launch on Oct. 7 was called off due to a rocket issue.
"We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a GPS issue," Blue Origin wrote in an update on X (formerly Twitter). "New launch target forthcoming."
NS-27 will mark the debut of the second human-rated New Shepard vehicle, which consists of a first stage known as Booster 5 and a crew capsule named RSS Kármán Line.
(The Kármán line is the 62-mile-high boundary that many people regard as the start of outer space.)
"The vehicle features technology upgrades to improve the vehicle's performance and reusability, an updated livery and accommodations for payloads on the booster," Blue Origin wrote in a statement on Oct. 4.
No people will launch aboard NS-27, but the mission will fly 12 research payloads, five of them on the booster and seven inside the capsule.
This gear includes new navigation systems developed for New Shepard and Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket, as well as two LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors designed to operate in the lunar environment, according to Blue Origin.
As its name suggests, NS-27 will be the 27th New Shepard mission overall. Eight of the vehicle's 26 flights to date have been crewed, sending up to six people at a time on brief trips to the final frontier.
Those eight crewed flights have all used the same New Shepard vehicle — the Booster 4/RSS First Step combo.
This second human-rated spacecraft will enable "expanded flight capacity to better meet growing customer demand," the company wrote in today's statement.
Sunday marked a busy day in spaceflight. In addition to Blue Origin's NS-27 launch, the company's rival SpaceX launched its Starship Flight 5 test flight of Starship and Super Heavy, the world's largest and most powerful rocket.
That mission included the first-ever Super Heavy booster landing and capture at its launch site.
https://www.space.com/blue-origin-new-shepard-vehicle-debut-ns-27-launch
https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1845461513223500194
SpaceX's Crew-8 astronauts to depart ISS for trip home soon amid weather delays
October 13, 2024
SpaceX's Crew-8 astronauts will have to wait a bit longer to begin their trip home to Earth after plans to depart the International Space Station Sunday morning (Oct. 13) were postponed by bad weather at their splashdown site..
Crew-8's Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, was scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT) on Sunday and splash down off the coast of Florida no earlier than 3:38 p.m. EDT (1938 GMT) on Monday (Oct. 14).
That plan was thwarted by poor weather conditions at their splashdown zone.
"Due to unfavorable weather conditions off the coast of Florida, Dragon is standing down from today's undocking from the Space Station," SpaceX wrote in an update on X (formerly Twitter) early Sunday.
"Teams will continue to monitor weather conditions for the next available undocking opportunity."
You'll be able to watch those milestones live via the NASA+ streaming service, and here at Space.com if, as expected, the agency makes its webcasts available.
Crew-8 consists of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin of Russia's space agency Roscosmos.
The quartet launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 3 and arrived at the ISS two days later.
Crew-8 was originally supposed to undock on Oct. 7, but Hurricane Milton pushed things back by nearly a week.
The powerful storm roiled seas in the mission's potential splashdown zone, so NASA and SpaceX waited for Milton to pass before greenlighting Crew-8's homecoming.
As its name implies, Crew-8 is the eighth operational, long-duration ISS astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown for NASA.
Its successor, Crew-9, arrived at the orbiting lab on Sept. 29.
Crew-8 wasn't the only mission to be affected by Hurricane Milton. For example, NASA and SpaceX had been aiming to launch the agency's $5 billion Europa Clipper mission on Thursday (Oct. 10) but pushed the attempt back to Sunday as Milton bore down on Florida's western coast.
Clipper will launch atop a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, on Florida's Atlantic coast, no earlier than Monday at 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT).
https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-8-astronauts-return-earth-webcast
NASA delays Europa Clipper launch to Jupiter to Oct. 14 amid post-hurricane checks
October 12, 2024
NASA has postponed the launch of its next flagship mission to Jupiter by at least another day as the agency and SpaceX conduct additional checks to ensure the spacecraft is ready to fly after Hurricane Milton battered its Florida launch site.
The mission, called Europa Clipper, is now targeted to launch to Jupiter's icy moon Europa no earlier than Monday (Oct. 14) atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
The launch has been delayed since Oct. 10, first to Oct. 13 as Hurricane Milton approached Florida on Wednesday, and now another day due to additional checks in the storm's wake.
"Following Hurricane Milton, teams are continuing to do checkouts to ensure flight readiness," NASA wrote in an update late Friday (Oct. 11). The storm hammered Florida on Wednesday and Thursday.
NASA and SpaceX have until Nov. 2 to launch Europa Clipper in the current planetary window, mission managers have said.
Europa Clipper is a $5 billion mission to explore Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, a world known to harbor vast plumes of water geysers that may contain a subsurface salty ocean with more water than all of Earth's oceans.
The moon is one of the most promising places to seek out signs of alien life.
Mission scientists hope to use Europa Clipper to determine exactly how habitable Europa's ocean may be beneath the moon's thick ice shell.
It carries a suite of instruments to measure the moon's gravitational field, interactions with Jupiter, and a radar that can peer through Europa's ice into the ocean below, amid other instruments like cameras and dust analyzers to study the moon's thin exosphere.
If all goes well, Europa Clipper will arrive at Europa on April 11, 2030.
But first, Europa Clipper needs to get off the ground and that will depend on conditions at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) near Cape Canaveral, Florida, which was damaged by Hurricane Milton.
An early assessment found minor damage to the center, NASA officials said.
"The Damage Assessment and Recovery Team has completed their assessment of the center and its facilities, and determined that employees can safely return on-site to resume working," KSC officials wrote Friday evening on X (formerly Twitter).
"The damage identified is manageable and in-line with the items the Ride Out Teams previously identified, including minor impacts such as ripped awning, and damage to doors and traffic lights."
Photographs released by KSC officials showed damage to a building exterior and an overturned flatbed truck trailer.
NASA and SpaceX have not released a target launch time for the Europa Clipper mission, but a list of launch windows for the mission states an Oct. 14 liftoff would occur at 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT).
The liftoff time moves a few minutes earlier each day as the mission moves later into its launch window.
NASA and SpaceX will livestream the launch of Europa Clipper on Oct. 14, with a webcast that likely begins well before launch time.
You'll be able to watch the Europa Clipper launch live on Space.com once a final date and time are set.
https://www.space.com/nasa-spacex-europa-clipper-launch-date-october-14
The Duke, the Spy and the 'Alien': Russian Operative's Surreal UFO Scheme to Get Close to Prince Philip Revealed
Oct. 11 2024, Updated 1:08 p.m. ET
Prince Philip (1921 to 2021) had many passions, including a reported fascination with extraterrestrials that began in the 1950s.
While Queen Elizabeth II, then-Prince Charles and the late Lord Louis Mountbatten were also suggested to share an interest in UFOs, Philip's enthusiasm for outer space allegedly led to a close-call palace infiltration by a suspected Russian spy named "Janus," who posed as an alien.
Philip's fascination was reportedly shared by several high-ranking officials within the British government and military at the time, as well.
One of these contacts was Air Marshal Sir Peter Horsley, who served as an equerry to the reigning Queen's consort and had close access to him.
Horsley recounted a strange and surreal encounter in his autobiography, Sounds From Another Room, where he met with Janus.
This encounter took place in 1954, at the home of General Martin, a high-ranking military official.
According to Horsley, Janus was introduced as a highly knowledgeable figure with advanced insights into space, technology, and the future of humanity.
The conversation took a strange turn when Janus began to speak about extraterrestrial life and the existence of UFOs.
The full story is recounted in filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee's new Amazon Prime Video movie The King of UFOs, which charts the British royal family's interest in the subject.
The film explores how Horsley conveyed that what made the meeting even more bizarre was that Janus appeared to suggest he was not from Earth, but rather a being with special knowledge of humanity's future and the universe.
Horsley was allegedly captivated by Janus' words and the strange aura he projected, noting how Janus seemed to speak with "an otherworldly calmness and authority."
Although Janus did not claim outright to be an alien in the story, the implication that he possessed extraterrestrial knowledge left a deep impression on Horsley.
The aide later speculated that Janus may have been a Russian spy using UFOs and extraterrestrial talk as a cover to gain intelligence on the Duke and other key British figures.
This theory arises from the fact that the Cold War was at its height during this period, and espionage between the Western powers and the Soviet Union was rampant, with the Queen seen as a "huge target" for espionage.
Lee suggests that the concept of using UFOs or extraterrestrial narratives as a ruse for intelligence-gathering was not entirely far-fetched, given the political climate of the time.
While no concrete evidence has ever surfaced proving that Janus was a spy or an alien, the encounter left an indelible mark on those involved, according to the film.
Prince Philip himself remained interested in UFOs throughout his life, and Horsley’s account added an air of mystery to the already peculiar tale.
So whether Janus was truly an extraterrestrial or a clever operative remains an unsolved puzzle, contributing to the surreal nature of the late princes' connection to UFOs.
https://www.theroyalobserver.com/p/prince-philip-alien-russian-operatives-surreal-ufo-scheme