The Space and Astronomy Thread

I thought that the closer to the equator the better for vertical space launches. Going as far North as (practicably) possible seems counter intuitive to me!
 
Pluto was a planet too!
 
And then it wasn't and then it kinda was and now it's an almost planet.
 
Heard that on the radio, looks like any Martians will be a bit salty :)
 
October 11th will be the 50th anniversary of the first manned Apollo flight, Apollo 7. Commanded by Wally Schirra, the crew shookdown the Apollo CSM over 10 days in a mission that became known for the fractious relationship between the crew and Mission Control.
 
Astronauts escape malfunctioning Soyuz rocket

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45822845

"A capsule carrying the two crew members of a Russian Soyuz rocket that malfunctioned on lift-off has landed safely in Kazakhstan.
Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague are reported to be "in good condition", both Nasa and Russian media said.
Search and rescue teams are now en route to the landing site.
The rocket had taken off for the International Space Station (ISS) when it suffered a problem with its booster.
The crew had to return in "ballistic descent mode", Nasa tweeted, which it explained was "a sharper angle of landing compared to normal".
 
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Astronauts escape malfunctioning Soyuz rocket

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45822845

"A capsule carrying the two crew members of a Russian Soyuz rocket that malfunctioned on lift-off has landed safely in Kazakhstan.
Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague are reported to be "in good condition", both Nasa and Russian media said.
Search and rescue teams are now en route to the landing site.
The rocket had taken off for the International Space Station (ISS) when it suffered a problem with its booster.
The crew had to return in "ballistic descent mode", Nasa tweeted, which it explained was "a sharper angle of landing compared to normal".

Wow that is a very rare occurrence. Great to see that both are ok.
 
Astronauts escape malfunctioning Soyuz rocket

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45822845

"A capsule carrying the two crew members of a Russian Soyuz rocket that malfunctioned on lift-off has landed safely in Kazakhstan.
Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague are reported to be "in good condition", both Nasa and Russian media said.
Search and rescue teams are now en route to the landing site.
The rocket had taken off for the International Space Station (ISS) when it suffered a problem with its booster.
The crew had to return in "ballistic descent mode", Nasa tweeted, which it explained was "a sharper angle of landing compared to normal".
Scott Manly looks closely at video showing the cause of the accident.
View: https://youtu.be/5boa6wAK0Sc

Scott Manly always presents space topics in an interesting and understandable way. Worth subscribing.
 
360 deg video from Curiosity.

 
A good one. There are a few of these around; the detail on them is amazing.

Dave

One posted on FB had a reply "has it found anything interesting yet?" - Yes, f***ing Mars!
 
You've seen the pictures, now listen to the sounds!

 
From the BBC website, showing just what an achievement it was.

Principal Investigator Alan Stern paid tribute to the skill of his team in acquiring the image as New Horizons flew past the object, reaching 3,500km from its surface at closest approach.

The probe had to target Ultima very precisely to be sure of getting it centre-frame in the view of the cameras and other instruments onboard.

"[Ultima's] only really the size of something like Washington DC, and it's about as reflective as garden variety dirt, and it's illuminated by a Sun that's 1,900 times fainter than it is outside on a sunny day here on the Earth. We were basically chasing it down in the dark at 32,000mph (51,000km/h) and all that had to happen just right," the SwRI scientist said.
 
Ultima is the larger body, Thule is the smaller one.

If Ultima Thulians are anything like us Earthlings, the Ultimans hate the Thulians.

Bloody Thulians, coming here and stealing our job!
 
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