“Around 13 times per century, Mercury passes between Earth and the sun in a rare astronomical event known as a planetary transit. The 2016 Mercury transit occurred on May 9, between roughly 7:12 a.m. and 2:42 p.m. EDT.”
“A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Mercury can be seen as a very small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Mercury with respect to Earth are much more frequent than transits of Venus, with about 13 or 14 per century, in part because Mercury is closer to the Sun and orbits it more rapidly. Transits of Mercury occur in May or November. The last four transits occurred in 1999, 2003, 2006, and May 9, 2016. The next will occur on November 11, 2019, and then on November 13, 2032. A typical transit lasts several hours.
On June 3, 2014, the Mars rover Curiosity observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth.”
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein
“On April 28th 2016, a Soyuz-2.1a lifted off from Vostochny (Восточный) with three satellites: Lomonosov (Ломоносов), AIST-2D (Аист-2Д), and SamSat-218. This was the first launch from Vostochny. Construction of the cosmodrome began in January 2011 and it is expected to be completed in 2018.”
“Vostochny (which means “eastern” in Russian) is in the Svobodny and Shimanovsk districts of Amur Oblast in the Russian Far East, on the watershed of the Zeya and Bolshaya Pyora rivers, approximately 600–800 km (370–500 mi) from the Pacific Ocean, depending on launch azimuth. The planned total area is 551.5 km2, being a region approximately 30 km in diameter centred on 51°53′N 128°20′E. The nearby train station is Ledyanaya and the nearest city is Tsiolkovsky. The cosmodrome’s latitude, 51° north, means that rockets will be able to carry almost the same amount of payload as they can when launched from Baikonur at 46°N. Other arguments for choosing this location include the ability to use sparsely populated areas and bodies of water for the rocket launch routes; proximity to major transportation networks such as the Baikal–Amur Mainline, the Chita–Khabarovsk Highway; abundance of electricity production resources in the area; and the infrastructure supporting the former Svobodny Cosmodrome, on which the new spaceport will be based. The site’s location in the Russian far eastern region allows for easier transport of materials to the site, and allows rockets to jettison their lower stages over the ocean. It was expanded as part of the plan of modernization of the supporting infrastructure. Putin said that among places offered was an area on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, near Vladivostok, but that experts recommended not to locate it there since the proximity to the ocean can create problems and delays in launches, and as a result the current place was chosen.
The new cosmodrome is to enable Russia to launch most missions from its own land, and to reduce Russia’s dependency on the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Currently, Baikonur is the only launch site operated by Russia with the capability to launch crewed missions to ISS or elsewhere. The Russian government pays a yearly rent of $115 million to Kazakhstan for its usage. Satellites bound for geostationary orbit and high inclination orbits can be currently launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia. The new site is intended mostly for civilian launches. Roscosmos plans to move 45% of Russia’s space launches to Vostochny by 2020, while Baikonur’s share will drop from 65% to 11%, and Plesetsk will account for 44 percent. In a draft strategy, which was presented at a meeting of the club of friends of the cluster space technology and telecommunications fund “Skolkovo” and published in the official fund microblog on Twitter said that in 2011 the share of space launches from Russia’s territory stands at 25% today and by 2030 this figure will stand on 90%.”
“On April 17, 2016, an active region on the sun’s right side released a mid-level solar flare, captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. This solar flare caused moderate radio blackouts, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Scientists study active regions – which are areas of intense magnetism – to better understand why they sometimes erupt with such flares. This video was captured in several wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, a type of light that is typically invisible to our eyes, but is color-coded in SDO images for easy viewing.”
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO/Genna Duberstein
“The U.S. SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft arrived at the International Space Station April 10, two days after its launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida Loaded with some three and a half tons of supplies and experiments including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), Dragon will remain attached to Harmony for a month. For the first time, Dragon is occupying a port next door to the U.S. Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo vehicle, which was berthed to the Unity module on March 26.”
“SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon spacecraft to low Earth orbit to deliver critical cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. SpaceX is targeting an afternoon launch of its eighth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-8) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The instantaneous launch window opens on April 8th at 8:43pm UTC, and a backup launch window opens at 8:20pm UTC on April 9th. Dragon will be deployed about 10 minutes after liftoff and attach to the ISS about two days after launch. Following stage separation, the first stage of the Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.”
“An unpiloted Russian resupply ship automatically docked to the International Space Station April 2, delivering three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the residents of the orbital complex. The ISS Progress 63 cargo vehicle (Roscosmos Progress MS-02) arrived at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module, completing a two-day journey to the station that began with its launch March 31 on a Soyuz booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.”
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