Noble Pioneer on the final frontier.

:) #

Elon Musk, tweeting just minutes after Dragon achieved orbit:

Falcon flew perfectly!! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays active!! Feels like a giant weight just came off my back :)

The smiley says it all.

Here We Go Again #

Dragon: Round 2.

'Slightly High Pressure' #

Update from SpaceX on the scrubbed Dragon launch:

Today’s launch was aborted when the flight computer detected slightly high pressure in the engine 5 combustion chamber. We have discovered root cause and repairs are underway.

During rigorous inspections of the engine, SpaceX engineers discovered a faulty check valve on the Merlin engine. We are now in the process of replacing the failed valve. Those repairs should be complete tonight. We will continue to review data on Sunday.

If things look good, we will be ready to attempt to launch on Tuesday, May 22nd at 3:44 AM Eastern.

Aquarius #

So what exactly is being shipped up to the ISS in Dragon? Among other things:

The payload (also known as Aquarius) includes 15 science experiments from 12 school districts across the United States. Student teams design their own experiments using flight approved fluids and materials and are flown in a NanoRacks Module.

Other items include, but are not limited, to: food. (Hey, even astronauts gotta eat.)

'Maximum Pucker Factor' #

Speaking of Elon Musk, he always seems to have such a disarming, down-to-earth attitude and humor about the most out-of-this-world moments. From an interview with Spaceflight Now earlier today:

Question: So the rendezvous will be the point that gives you the most pause?

Musk: Yeah. Maximum pucker factor occurs during the docking phase.

NASA Live Streaming SpaceX's Dragon Launch on UStream #

In about four hours SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will be powered into the sky by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Three days later it will reach and, hopefully, dock with the International Space Station.

NASA’s official UStream channel will live stream the launch. The live stream will start around 3:30 AM EDT. The launch itself is scheduled for 4:55 AM Eastern — that’s 1:55 AM for we West Coasters — on May 19th. Watch history in the making.

UPDATE: SpaceX also has their own stream on Livestream. It has a handy countdown timer and starts at 1:15 AM Pacific/4:15 AM Eastern.

UPDATE 2: Jack Hutchinson points out that NASA.gov’s TV hub may be a better place to centrally locate yourself. It also has some good NASA programming in the meantime. Me, I’ll keep both NASA’s hub and SpaceX’s Livestream open.

Particles for Peace: Iranian, Israeli, Turkish and Arab Physicists Lay Plans for a Joint Particle Accelerator #

Scientific American:

In 1954 European scientists founded CERN so that German, French, British and other ex-adversaries would have a place to shoot particles rather than bullets. “It was one of the places where Europe was reborn,” Rabinovici says. SESAME arguably has the tougher task, since the adversaries are not yet “ex”. Another Israeli theorist, Ramy Brustein, compares it to “climbing on an ice wall.” But in 1987, everyone thought the same of cultural exchanges across the Berlin Wall.

Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.

Pursuit Of Light #

I disagree with io9 that this video isn’t corny. The interspersed family shots feel random and the poetry feels awkward and out of place. It lacks a cohesive vision.

But the latter half has some truly great photography. And the choice of David Rossi’s Re-Work Instrumental of Moby’s Mistake is solid. If you find yourself losing interest in the beginning, skip to 4:22.

The Highest-Resolution Photo of Earth Ever Taken #

Weighing in at 121 megapixels and 105 MB, unlike NASA’s Blue Marble, which is a composite made from many different photographs, this is a portrait of Earth taken in one single shot.

The heavy orange palette is due to the satellite processing four light wavelengths, one of which is infrared. In this photo, vegetation = orange.

There’s a great video time lapse, too.

Name The Exoplanets #

From the Facebook page:

The International Astronomical Union is currently resisting such an undertaking, stating that the number of exoplanets will soon become too large to assign names. We however feel that the task only becomes harder the longer we delay.

I’m for it.

'Space As Culture' #

What Neil Tyson says when his audience is 3000 space professionals. 40-minute speech, 20-minute Q&A, an astoundingly robust collection of his mental thoughts and emotions. This is pretty much the ultimate all-in-one recording of Tyson.

An Infographic Timeline Of All Manned US Space Flights #

Those gaps after Columbia and Challenger are hard to look at. On a more positive note, the jam-packed 1990s arc says it all — we were space-faring badasses in the 90s.