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NASA

Ammonia Leak On Space Station Appears to Be Fixed

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An ammonia leak on the International Space Station was hopefully fixed today as astronauts went on a spacewalk for five hours and thirty minutes to repair it. The leak seemed to be coming from a cooling system that cools down vital systems onboard the ISS.

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Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn working on the space station (credit: NASA TV)

The ammonia leak created what looked a lot like snow flakes flying off into space. You can see this “snow’ in the video above. NASA has not yet called the mission a complete success as they are waiting to see if the repairs hold up over time. So far everything seems to be looking good.

You can check out NASA.gov for more information on how the mission was performed along with further updates on the status of the leak itself..

 

Saturn’s Great Hurricane

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“The Rose” in False-Color Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

We haven’t really had the opportunity to see Saturn’s north pole, at least with any great clarity, since the last time we got close which was in 1981 when Voyager 2 was making it’s way past our solar system’s second largest planet. Thankfully, Cassini on Nov. 27, 2012 has offered up an updated and much more detailed view of the northern pole of Saturn and what they found was spectacular.

A massive vortex was discovered that spans 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) across with clouds whizzing around at 330 miles per hour. It’s like a massive hurricane, one that’s many times as large and powerful as any hurricane on Earth. What’s also interesting about “the Rose” is that we are not sure how long it has actually existed. We will have to keep an eye on this storm and see how things progress throughout the year.

For more details about Cassini and associated projects along with more amazing photos, you can head the NASA’s Cassini page.

Antares Rocket Launch Successful

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The Antares Rocket, which was built as a project between NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp, has made it’s first launch as it  successfully carried a “dummy” payload into space. Liftoff occurred at  5 p.m. EDT on Sunday April 21st from Wallops Island, Va.

One thing you will undoubtably notice in the video above is the rate of acceleration, it’s awfully slow, which is because of the low amount of thrust involved in this launch. As the rocket gains altitude it finally begins to break the sound barrier and make it’s way into space.

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Antares launch (Image Credit: NASA)

 

Today’s successful test flight of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket from the spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, demonstrates an additional private space-launch capability for the United States and lays the groundwork for the first Antares cargo mission to the International Space Station later this year. The growing potential of America’s commercial space industry and NASA’s use of public-private partnerships are central to President Obama’s strategy to ensure U.S. leadership in space exploration while pushing the bounds of scientific discovery and innovation in the 21st century. With NASA focusing on the challenging and exciting task of sending humans deeper into space than ever before, private companies will be crucial in taking the baton for American cargo and crew launches into low-Earth orbit. I congratulate Orbital Sciences and the NASA teams at Wallops, and look forward to more groundbreaking missions in the months and years ahead.” – White House Statement

Powerful Solar Flare Hits Earth

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Image Credit: SOHO/Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) consortium

We are getting closer to a solar maximum, the peak of the sun’s activity, which will occur later this year and is part of an 11 year cycle that our Sun goes through. This of course means the the likelihood of major solar flares is quite high. One such solar flare hit the Earth this past Thursday (11th) at 3:16 am EDT and actually caused a short lived radio blackout.

The radio blackout was assigned an R2 on the NOAA Space Weather Scale for Radio Blackouts. The highest rating on the scale is an R5 with the lowest impact being an R1. This is just one of several scales used to determine the intensity of space weather and it’s potential impacts here on Earth. There is also a scale for Geomagnetic Storms and Solar Radiation, all of which can be found on NOAA’s Space weather Scale page.

Increased solar activity can wreak havoc on electronic devices, power grids, satellites and even pose a threat to astronauts in space. In very rare cases, radiation can pose a risk to those flying in aircraft at high altitudes. Fortunately, the Sun has been pretty quite otherwise, with Thursday being the largest event of the year so far.

Meteor Lights Up East Coast

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East Coast Meteor Sighting Report Map (Source: Mike Hankey/American Meteor Society )
East Coast Meteor Sighting Report Map (Source: Mike Hankey/American Meteor Society )

Yet another ancient space rock has decided to visit Earth, this time in a highly populated area. Hundreds of reports came in form cities all along the East Coast of the U.S as a meteor approximately  3 feet (0.9 meters), according to NASA, came blazing through the sky.

Although it may seem like we have had more meteor activity than usual, it’s actually quite common for meteors to hit the Earth. Meteors of this size hit the Earth about every 3 days but most of the time they occur in areas that are relatively unpopulated and sometimes they occur during hours at which most people aren’t out and about.

The reality is that we are under a constant bombardment from space debris, some of it man-made. Our atmosphere causes most of it to burn up well before it even gets close to the surface of Earth. It’s nice to get a show every once and a while, it always sparks up curiosity about what’s going on out there, which is something we should spend a lot more time researching.