Elon Musk, Chief Engineer of SpaceX | NASA

Elon Musk, Chief Engineer of SpaceX | NASA

Thank You, Elon! Go SpaceX! To The Moon & Mars!

Elon Musk, SpaceX Chief Engineer, and the SpaceX team are recognized by United States Vice President Mike Pence inside the Vehicle Assembly Building following the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Capture Date: May 30, 2020

#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch - May 30, 2020 | NASA

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch - May 30, 2020 | NASA

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen in this false color infrared exposure as it is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Capture Date: May 30, 2020

#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Art

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch Gallery - May 30, 2020 | NASA

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch Gallery - May 30, 2020 | NASA

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls/Joel Kowsky
Capture Date: May 30, 2020

#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch - May 30, 2020 | NASA

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch - May 30, 2020 | NASA

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Capture Date: May 30, 2020

#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch - May 30, 2020 | NASA

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch - May 30, 2020 | NASA

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen prior to launch on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Capture Date: May 30, 2020

#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX DM-2 Flight Day Highlights - May 30, 2020 | NASA

SpaceX DM-2 Flight Day Highlights - May 30, 2020 | NASA

Almost nine years after the final space shuttle mission, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida May 30, an American rocket launching from American soil, placing NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into orbit in the new Crew Dragon spacecraft for their journey to the International Space Station. Some 12 minutes after a spectacular liftoff from Launch Pad 39-A, Crew Dragon separated from the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket and Hurley and Behnken began monitoring a series of test objectives for the duration of the vehicle’s 19-hour flight to the orbital outpost in the first crewed mission for the Commercial Crew Program. The veteran astronauts are scheduled to oversee an automated docking of Crew Dragon to the station May 31 to join NASA astronaut and Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.

Credit: NASA
Duration: 8 minutes, 26 seconds
Capture Date: May 30, 2020

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SpaceX Demo-2 Launch | NASA

SpaceX Demo-2 Launch | NASA

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched from Launch Complex 39A on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley launched at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Image Date: May 30, 2020


#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #Launch #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon Lifts Off on Demo-2 Mission

SpaceX Falcon 9 & Crew Dragon Lifts Off on Demo-2 Mission

Launch America! NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley liftoff aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the Demo-2 mission, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. A new era of human spaceflight begins as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Credit: NASA/SpaceX

Duration: 1 minute, 35 seconds
Capture Date: May 30, 2020


#NASA #Space #Science #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #CommercialCrew #LaunchAmerica #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Demo-2 Crew Walkout | NASA

SpaceX Demo-2 Crew Walkout | NASA

NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, foreground, and Douglas Hurley, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew ransportation system. Behnken and Hurley successfully launched Saturday, May 30, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

NASA astronaut Douglas Hurley waves as he and fellow crew member Robert Behnken depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Image Dates: May 30, 2020

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The Sunburst Arc Galaxy | Hubble

The Sunburst Arc Galaxy | Hubble

This video pans over the galaxy called the Sunburst Arc.
This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a massive galaxy about 4.6 billion light years away. Along its borders four bright arcs are visible; these are copies of the same distant galaxy, nicknamed the Sunburst Arc.

The Sunburst Arc galaxy is almost 11 billion light-years away and the light from it is being lensed into multiple images by gravitational lensing. The Sunburst Arc is among the brightest lensed galaxies known and its image is visible at least 12 times within the four arcs.


Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Rivera-Thorsen et al.
Duration: 20 seconds
Release Date: November 7, 2019


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Sunburst #Arc #PSZ1G311651848 #Cluster #Gravitational #Lens #Apus #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Sunburst Arc Doppelgangers | Hubble

Sunburst Arc Doppelgangers | Hubble

Warped Space Creates Kaleidoscope View of Faraway Galaxy

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows an astronomical object whose image is multiplied by the effect of strong gravitational lensing. The galaxy, nicknamed the Sunburst Arc, is almost 11 billion light-years away from Earth and has been lensed into multiple images by a massive cluster of galaxies 4.6 billion light-years away [1].

The mass of the galaxy cluster is large enough to bend and magnify the light from the more distant galaxy behind it. This process leads not only to a deformation of the light from the object, but also to a multiplication of the image of the lensed galaxy.

In the case of the Sunburst Arc the lensing effect led to at least 12 images of the galaxy, distributed over four major arcs. Three of these arcs are visible in the top right of the image, while one counterarc is visible in the lower left—partially obscured by a bright foreground star within the Milky Way.

Hubble uses these cosmic magnifying glasses to study objects otherwise too faint and too small for even its extraordinarily sensitive instruments. The Sunburst Arc is no exception, despite being one of the brightest gravitationally-lensed galaxies known.

The lens makes various images of the Sunburst Arc between 10 and 30 times brighter. This allows Hubble to view structures as small as 520 light-years across—a rare detailed observation for an object that distant. This compares reasonably well with star forming regions in galaxies in the local Universe, allowing astronomers to study the galaxy and its environment in great detail.

Hubble’s observations showed that the Sunburst Arc is an analogue of galaxies which existed at a much earlier time in the history of the Universe: a period known as the epoch of reionization—an era which began only 150 million years after the Big Bang [2].

The epoch of reionization was a key era in the early Universe, one which ended the “dark ages”, the epoch before the first stars were created when the Universe was dark and filled with neutral hydrogen [3]. Once the first stars formed, they started to radiate light, producing the high-energy photons required to ionize the neutral hydrogen [4].

This converted the intergalactic matter into the mostly ionized form in which it exists today. However, to ionize intergalactic hydrogen, high-energy radiation from these early stars would have had to escape their host galaxies without first being absorbed by interstellar matter. So far only a small number of galaxies have been found to “leak” high-energy photons into deep space. How this light escaped from the early galaxies remains a mystery.

The analysis of the Sunburst Arc helps astronomers to add another piece to the puzzle—it seems that at least some photons can leave the galaxy through narrow channels in a gas rich neutral medium. This is the first observation of a long-theorized process [5]. While this process is unlikely to be the main mechanism that led the Universe to become reionized, it may very well have provided a decisive push.

Notes
[1] The official designation of the Sunburst Arc galaxy is PSZ1 G311.65-18.48.

[2] The further we look into space, the further back we look in time. This allows astronomers to study different epochs of the Universe, by studying objects at different distances.

[3] Ionization is the process of gaining or losing electrons to leave electrically charged particles. The era is known as reionization because, after the Big Bang, matter formed first into protons and electrons. Then, during the era of recombination—about 380 000 years after the Big Bang—neutral hydrogen formed from these particles for the first time.

[4] While an ionized hydrogen atom consists of only the core of the atom (one proton) a neutral hydrogen atom contains a nucleus of one proton which is orbited by one electron.

[5] The paper outlining these observations will appear in the journal, Science, on November 8, 2019.

Image Credit: ESA, NASA, E. Rivera-Thorsen et al.
Release Date: November 7, 2019


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Sunburst #Arc #PSZ1G311651848 #Cluster #Gravitational #Lens #Apus #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

Islands and Clouds | International Space Station

Islands and Clouds | International Space Station

Iceberg-like blades cutting through the clouds in Earth's South Atlantic Ocean. This image shows the islands of: Zavodovski; Visokoi; (small un-named outcrops towards right); Candlemas and Vindication; Saunders; Montagu; and Bristol; and three at the top (left to right): Bellingshausen, Cook, and Thule. It was captured by European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during his Beyond mission on the International Space Station.

Learn about Luca's Beyond mission:
http://lucaparmitano.esa.int

Credit: NASA/ESA
Image Date: October 29, 2019

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A Cosmic Bat in Flight | ESO

A Cosmic Bat in Flight | ESO

Hidden in one of the darkest corners of the Orion constellation, this Cosmic Bat is spreading its hazy wings through interstellar space two thousand light-years away. It is illuminated by the young stars nestled in its core—despite being shrouded by opaque clouds of dust, their bright rays still illuminate the nebula. Too dim to be discerned by the naked eye, NGC 1788 reveals its soft colors to ESO's Very Large Telescope in this image—the most detailed to date.


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: March 14, 2019

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