Friday, April 3, 2015

Friday Update

           Image: SpaceX
GETTING READY:  Today, SpaceX shared this lovely photo on social media of their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule undergoing prep in Florida in advance of a planned April 13 launch to the International Space Station. 

Look at that shiny rocket. Its engine bells are absolutely sparkling!  Falcon 9 has nine Merlin engines on its first stage.  We sure hope they are able to land the first stage on the barge after the launch - that would be a remarkable accomplishment and a big step forward in making launches more affordable.

More about the mission on this NASA page: http://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/, and check out an awesome graphic of Falcon 9 on SpaceX's Web site: http://www.spacex.com/falcon9

ECLIPSED: A Facebook post by NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (Little SDO) alerted us to the fact that very early tomorrow (Saturday, April 4) morning, we'll have an opportunity to see the shortest lunar eclipse of the century. 

At 4:58 Pacific Daylight Time, the eclipse will start, and 4.5 minutes later it will be over. Per NASA, portions of the eclipse will be visible from much of North America, observers in the western third of the continent have the best view. The moon will be low, on the western horizon during the event. 

During the eclipse,the moon will turn red, because Earth’s atmosphere acts as a filter and a prism of the sunlight. There's a good article about the event on the Sun's Web site: http://bit.ly/1asRmE9

And here's a short video about it


PONYPALOOZA: Tomorrow morning is a Big Darn Deal in the household, as it marks the premiere of Season 5 of "My Little Pony Friendship is Magic." CJ and Annabelle spent a little time today getting the television room ready. :)




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