SpaceX Returns to Flight With Successful Falcon 9 Launch

SpaceX ‘s Falcon 9 returned to flight, launching successfully from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California today, just four and a half months after a fiery explosion destroyed Facebook’s AMOS-6 satellite. An investigation conducted by SpaceX concluded that the September 1 explosion was likely caused by a failure of a pressurized second-stage tank.

SpaceX launches first rocket since explosion in Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Saturday and placed a constellation of satellites in orbit, marking the company’s first launch since a fireball engulfed a similar rocket on a Florida launch pad more than four months ago. The two-stage rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:54 a.m. carrying a payload for Iridium Communications Inc., which is replacing its entire global network with 70 next-generation satellites.

Hidden figures: What Trump’s AG pick Jeff Sessions wants to keep in the shadows

As the Senate hearings for Jeff Sessions’ nomination as attorney general ran into their second day, I kept thinking about the movie “Hidden Figures,” which my wife Judith and I saw three days earlier. The film is based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly about three African-American women in the early 1960s who lived in the segregated South while working on NASA’s first manned space missions.

SpaceX Launches First Rocket Since Explosion

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Saturday and placed a constellation of satellites in orbit, marking the company’s first launch since a fireball engulfed a similar rocket on a Florida launch pad more than four months ago. The two-stage rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:54 a.m. carrying a payload for Iridium Communications Inc., which is replacing its entire global network with 70 next-generation satellites.

SpaceX finances ‘on a knife edge’ following disastrous rocket explosion

SpaceX finances ‘on a knife edge’ following disastrous rocket explosion – and Elon Musk is relying on satellite internet service being a success to fund his Mars plans, leaked figures show Elon Musk watched in horror as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 burst into flames and rained debris over the Atlantic Ocean in 2015. The botched takeoff led to delayed launches, hindered the firm’s ability to fulfill contracts and contributed to annual loss and drops in revenue.

Spacewalking astronauts upgrade orbiting lab’s power grid

The International Space Station’s solar power grid got three more top-of-the-line batteries on Friday during the second spacewalk in a week. This photo made by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency shows him in a selfie photograph with the Earth reflected in his visor, during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017.

Edmonds CC students participate in NASA-funded undergraduate research

From left, Edmonds CC students Cali Drake, Stephanie Bernard, Chris Nguyen, and Thinh Pham participated in a NASA-funded undergraduate research project during fall quarter. Edmonds Community College students have partnered with a local technology company to test how well plasma jets can eliminate specific types of bacteria from the surface of spacecraft.

Kepler’s unusual orbit

A couple more interesting things about the just-launched Kepler telescop e – then we’ll let it get on with the business of searching for distant planets. The spacecraft will be controlled, at times, by college kids working alongside professional operators.

Scientists: Moon over the hill at 4.51 billion years old

In this Feb. 13, 1971 file photo, Apollo 14 astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. conducts an experiment near a lunar crater, using an instrument from a two-wheeled cart carrying various tools. On Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, a California-led research team reported that the moon formed within 60 million years of the birth of the solar system.

Hubble Looks at Voyager’s Future

Nothing built by humans has ever gotten as far from our planet as Voyager 1, which is now almost 21 billion kilometers from Earth. We’ve talked about the future of both Voyagers before in these pages – Voyager 1 passes within about 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445 in some 40,000 years, its closest approach to a neighboring star.

Hidden Figures Read More

We’ll start with three reasons to see Hidden Figures in theaters: Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, and Octavia Spencer. These three brilliant actors portray the black women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, an achievement that restored the nation’s confidence and turned the Space Race around.

Davis: Kelowna’s movie news and reviews

While you may be favouring your pocketbook looking at the expenses you incurred over the Holiday Season, it does not mean you must forego the movie experience. If you head over to Landmark Cinemas Encore in West Kelowna you can get some great deals on recent movies.

Syracuse native set to make history with future NASA mission

NASA has selected a central New York woman for a mission to space that will make her the first African-American woman to live on the International Space Station as a crew member. Syracuse native Jeanette Epps will serve as a flight engineer for a mission that’s scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan in May 2018.

West Virginia native featured in ‘Hidden Figures’ film

A West Virginia native is one of the elite team of female African-American mathematicians at NASA featured in a new film, “Hidden Figures.” The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington reports the film tells the story of West Virginia State University graduate Katherine Johnson, now in her 90s, who helped win the space race against the Soviet Union.

Syracuse native set to make history with future NASA mission

NASA has selected a central New York woman for a mission to space that will make her the first African-American woman to work as a crew member on the International Space Station. Syracuse native Jeanette Epps will serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 56 and 57, the first of which is scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan in May 2018.

NASA sees storms affecting the western US

VIDEO: This animation of visible and infrared imagery from NOAA’s GOES-West satellite shows a series of moisture-laden storms affecting California from Jan. 6-9, 2017. view more Extreme rain events have been affecting California and snow has blanketed the Pacific Northwest.

NASA announces two new asteroid missions

Lucy, which will launch in 2021, is going to visit the mysterious Trojans – a group of asteroids in orbit around the planet Jupiter – while also paying a visit to a separate, smaller asteroid on the way. Psyche on the other hand, which launches in 2023, will be heading towards 16 Psyche – a 130-mile-wide object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Hubble creates interstellar road map for future galactic trek

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is creating a road map for the two Voyager spacecraft, that will travel through unexplored territories beyond our solar system, by measuring the material along the probes’ future trajectories. Even after the Voyagers run out of electrical power and are unable to send back new data, which may happen in about a decade, astronomers can use Hubble observations to characterise the environment of through which these silent ambassadors will glide.

Hidden Figures

HIDDEN FIGURES is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson , Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson -brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world.

Scotland poised to reap benefits of private space travel

IT was an arena where the great powers once fought it out without coming to blows, a hot zone in a cold war where the rockets were instruments of peace and exploration instead of violence. But this week a private company will boldly go back into space as the march to claim the skies from government agencies continues apace.

Hubble Discovers Comets Plunging onto a Young Star

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered comets plunging onto the star HD 172555, which is a youthful 23 million years old and resides 95 light-years from Earth. Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Feild and G. Bacon The above illustration image shows several comets speeding across a vast protoplanetary disk of gas and dust and heading straight for the youthful, central star.