OrbitalHub

NASA dixit:

“On April 6 at Wallops Flight Facility, NASA commercial partner Orbital Sciences Corporation rolled out the first fully-integrated Antares rocket to Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A , in preparation for its inaugural flight. Orbital is testing Antares under NASA\’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA initiatives like COTS are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit.”

Credit: NASA

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NASA dixit:

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) may become one of the most dazzling in decades when it rounds the sun later this year. Like all comets, ISON is a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust. Often described as “dirty snowballs,” comets emit gas and dust whenever they venture near enough to the sun that the icy material transforms from a solid to gas, a process called sublimation. Jets powered by sublimating ice also release dust, which reflects sunlight and brightens the comet.

Based on ISON\’s orbit, astronomers think the comet is making its first-ever trip through the inner solar system. Before beginning its long fall toward the sun, the comet resided in the Oort comet cloud, a vast shell of perhaps a trillion icy bodies that extends from the outer reaches of the planetary system to about a third of the distance to the star nearest the sun.

Formally designated C/2012 S1 (ISON), the comet was discovered on Sept. 21, 2012, by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a telescope of the International Scientific Optical Network located near Kislovodsk.

Credit: NASA

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On April 12, 1961, Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, became the first human to orbit the Earth. He was born on March 9, 1934 and died on March 27, 1968 while flying a MIG-15 during a routine training flight.

In 1960, Yuri Gagarin was selected with nineteen other cosmonauts for the Soviet Space Program. On the day of the Vostok 1 flight, cosmonaut Gherman Titov was his backup.

NASA dixit:

“A solar prominence began to bow out and the broke apart in a graceful, floating style during a little less than four hours of March 16, 2013. The sequence was captured in extreme ultraviolet light. A large cloud of the particles appeared to hover further out above the surface before it faded away.”

Credit: NASA SDO

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