GOS AND NOS: We've had our eyes on the skies this past weekend.
Saturday afternoon, we watched a launch, an Atlas 5 that roared off the pad with a satellite, AFSPC-11m for the US Air Force (ULA).
The launch on Saturday had five solid rocket boosters, and was super pretty lifting off. (That's important for a rocket launch, right?)
Monday, we were all about TESS, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is expected to discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky.
TESS is planned for a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, monitoring more than 200,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. The spaceborne transit survey is expected to cover about 85 percent of our skies, and will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances.
We watched multiple press conferences about the launch and its mission on Monday morning.
https://youtu.be/ZsPStvGgNuk
In the end, today's TESS launch was a no go. SpaceX, the vehicle sending the observatory skyward, tweeted that they'd be performing more analysis of the launch guidance, navigation and control and that they were targeting Wednesday for another attempt.
So eyes on the skies on Wednesday, as well!
PARKING LOTS: Mark your calendard - National Park Week kicks off on April 21, and to celebration all national parks will offer free admission on Saturday, 4/21. (www.sharetheexperience.org).
No comments:
Post a Comment