OrbitalHub

NASA dixit:

“NASA’s InSight mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base for Mars on May 5, 2018—the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. InSight is expected to land on the Red Planet on November 26, 2018. More than a mission to Mars, InSight will help scientists understand the formation and early evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth.”

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dixit:

“Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent on March 17, according to analysis by NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The 2018 extent reached 5.59 million square miles, only about 23,000 square miles larger than the lowest maximum on record, in 2017.

This continues a trend of shrinking sea ice, with the four lowest Arctic sea ice maximum extents on record in the last four years. Dr. Claire Parkinson explains how and why NASA studies Arctic sea ice.”

Music Credit: Children’s Carousel by Maxi Schulze [GEMA], Moritz Limmer [GEMA]

Video Credit: NASA Goddard

Orbital ATK dixit:

“The OmegA rocket is one of Orbital ATK’s largest strategic investments. A new, American intermediate-and large-class space launch vehicle, OmegA is capable of launching the full range of national security mission required by the U.S. Air Force, as well as science and commercial payloads for other customers. OmegA’s design leverages commonality and automation to provide speed, reliability, performance and affordability. Already, approximately 500 Orbital ATK employees are working on OmegA, and that number is expected to grow to approximately 1,000 over the next 24 months. Hundreds of other jobs are also being created in our extensive supply chain.

OmegA uses all-American propulsion and other flight-proven technologies, and will be ready to fly in just three years. Like other Evolvable Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs), OmegA will operate from both east and west coast launch facilities. OmegA will share common propulsion, structures and avionics systems with current and future programs. In addition, OmegA will leverage current in-production programs that already are staffed with a skilled and highly experienced workforce, and will use existing facilities, supplier relationships and available subsystems for the new launch system’s development and production. Because OmegA shares so many common elements with other programs, the system is affordable for the Air Force while also providing savings of approximately $600 million to other government agencies over 10 years.”

Video Credit: Orbital ATK

NASA dixit:

“Forests are living, ever changing ecosystems, affected by aging, natural disasters and human interventions. Annual maps of the lower-48 United States produced from satellite data illustrate how these dynamic systems changed from 1986-2010. Logging and hurricanes play a significant role in the Southeast, and fires and insect invasion damage forest canopy in the West. Trees are one of the world’s best absorbers of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Understanding how trees and forests change through time is one of the first steps to understanding how active they are in pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, which is of profound interest to scientists monitoring climate change.

Developed for the North American Forest Dynamics study, scientists combined 25 years of satellite data from the joint U.S. Geological Survey/NASA Landsat satellite program with information from the U.S. Forest Service to highlight where forest canopy was disturbed.”

Music credit: Dusk On The Plains by B. Boston

Video Credit: NASA Goddard

Additional credits:

Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Lead Producer

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator

Jeffrey Masek (NASA/GSFC): Scientist

Jeffrey Masek (NASA/GSFC): Writer

Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Writer

Chengquan Huang (University of Maryland): Scientist

Feng Zhao (University of Maryland): Scientist

Joy Ng (USRA): Lead Producer

Wikipedia dixit:

“The New Glenn is a privately funded orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin. It is expected to make its initial test launch in 2020. Design work on the vehicle began in 2012. The high-level specifications for the vehicle were publicly announced in September 2016. New Glenn is described as a 7-meter-diameter (23 ft), two- or three-stage rocket. Its first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines that are also being designed and manufactured by Blue Origin.

Like the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle that preceded it, the New Glenn’s first stage is designed to be reusable for up to 100 missions, and will land vertically, a technology previously developed by Blue Origin and tested in 2015–2016 on its New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle. The second stage will share the same diameter as the first and use two BE-3U vacuum optimized engines. It will use hydrogen/oxygen as propellant and will be expendable. The optional third stage will use one BE-3U engine. This engine is manufactured by Blue Origin and has already been used on the New Shepard, as the BE-3 sea-level-optimized version. The company has revealed the planned payload capacity of the 2-stage version of New Glenn as 13,000 kg (29,000 lb) to GTO and 45,000 kg (99,000 lb) to LEO.

Launches of the New Glenn are planned to be made from Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 36, which was leased to Blue Origin in 2015. New Glenn will also be available for space tourism flights, with priority given to customers of New Shepard.”

Video Credit: Blue Origin