“The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft arrived at the International Space Station April 20, delivering almost 5,000 pounds of scientific experiments and supplies for the Expedition 39 crew. Dragon was launched atop the commercial company’s Falcon 9 rocket April 18 from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on the third commercial resupply mission to the station for SpaceX. After a two-day rendezvous to catch up to the orbital laboratory, Dragon was grappled by Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module using the station’s Canadian-built robot arm, where it will remain until it departs the outpost on May 18 for a parachute-assisted return to Earth and a splashdown in the Pacific west of Baja California.”
“Approximately 2.4 tons of NASA science investigations and cargo were launched to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. The launch aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket took place from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, April 18 at 3:25 p.m. EDT. Dragon’s cargo will support more than 150 experiments that will be conducted during space station Expeditions 39 and 40. Dragon is scheduled to depart the space station May 18 for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California, bringing with it about 3,500 pounds of science and research, hardware, crew supplies and spacewalk tools from the space station.”
“The SpaceX-3 launch to the International Space Station was scrubbed April 14, 2014 due to a helium leak on the Falcon 9 first stage. The next launch opportunity would be Friday, April 18 at 3:25pm EDT if the issue can be resolved.”
Satoshi Nakamoto is a member of a crypto-anarchist organization (Krypt0) that does not exist yet. Far in the future, he is the citizen of a totalitarian Martian federation which eventually tracks down and takes down one by one all of Krypt0’s members; all but one, Satoshi. He has to leave Mars and return to Earth. Once back on Earth, he contacts local underground resistance groups. But the local resistance is more interested in preserving the status quo, and he realizes that a very effective way of fighting the established power is to travel back in time, create Bitcoin, and destroy centralized currencies. An energy smuggler helps him do the jump into the past. He is unaware that members of the Martian opposing factions followed him. More careful about messing with the timeline, they have infiltrated the FBI and other US government agencies in order to erase Bitcoin from existence.
“The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 is NASA\’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide in Earth\’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the main human-produced driver of climate change. The Observatory will collect hundreds of thousands of measurements each day, providing a global description of the atmospheric carbon dioxide distribution with unprecedented coverage and resolution. OCO-2 will provide new insights into the sources emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the processes at Earth\’s surface that absorb this gas.”
[…] the Sentinel-1A liftoff on a Soyuz launcher from Europe\’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST) on 3 April 2014. Sentinel-1A is the first in a fleet of ESA satellites poised to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to Europe\’s Copernicus programme.
[…] footage was acquired by cameras on the Soyuz Fregat upper stage that released Sentinel-1A into orbit on 3 April 2014. It shows the Sentinel-1A satellite separating from the Fregat to start its life in orbit around Earth. The 2.3 tonne satellite lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe\’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). The first stage separated 118 sec later, followed by the fairing (209 sec), stage 2 (287 sec) and the upper assembly (526 sec). After a 617 sec burn, the Fregat upper stage delivered Sentinel into a Sun-synchronous orbit at 693 km altitude. The satellite separated from the upper stage 23 min 24 sec after liftoff.
Designed as a two-satellite constellation — Sentinel-1A and -1B — the Sentinel-1 mission uses an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth\’s surface. The data will benefit numerous services, including the monitoring of Arctic sea-ice extent, the surveillance of the marine environment, the monitoring of land surface for motion risks and mapping to support humanitarian aid and crisis situations.
Sentinel-1 is the first in the family of satellites for Europe\’s Copernicus programme. It carries an advanced radar to scan Earth\’s surface in all weather conditions and regardless of whether it is day or night. This new mission will be used to care for many aspects of our environment, from detecting and tracking oil spills and mapping sea ice to monitoring movement in land surfaces and mapping changes in the way land is used.