OrbitalHub

NASA dicit:

Asia’s high mountains are a crucial freshwater source to one-seventh of the world’s population. Snow and glaciers in these mountains contain the largest volume of freshwater outside of Earth’s polar ice sheets, leading hydrologists to nickname this region the “third pole.”

Rapid changes in the region’s climate, however, are affecting glacier flows and snowmelt. Local people are already modifying their land-use practices in response to the changing supply, and the region’s ecology is transforming. Scientists estimate that by 2100, these glaciers could be up to 75% smaller in volume.

NASA’s satellites observe and measure snow and ice cover remotely with multiple types of sensors. This allows scientists to create an authoritative estimate of the water budget of this region and a set of products local policy makers can use in responding to hazards and planning for a changing water supply.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katie Jepson (USRA): Lead Producer/Carol Rasmussen (NASA/JPL CalTech): Lead Writer/Bailee DesRocher (USRA): Animator/Music credit: “The Mystery Novelist” by Quentin Bachelet [SACEM]

Wikipedia dicit:

An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917, but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. This was followed by the confirmation of a different planet, originally detected in 1988. As of 1 January 2020, there are 4,160 confirmed exoplanets in 3,090 systems, with 676 systems having more than one planet.

There are many methods of detecting exoplanets. Transit photometry and Doppler spectroscopy have found the most, but these methods suffer from a clear observational bias favoring the detection of planets near the star; thus, 85% of the exoplanets detected are inside the tidal locking zone. In several cases, multiple planets have been observed around a star. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars have an “Earth-sized” planet in the habitable zone. Assuming there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, it can be hypothesized that there are 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way, rising to 40 billion if planets orbiting the numerous red dwarfs are included.

Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA dicit:

In a generic brick building on the northwestern edge of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, thousands of computers packed in racks the size of vending machines hum in a deafening chorus of data crunching. Day and night, they spit out five quadrillion calculations per second. Known collectively as the Discover supercomputer, these machines are tasked with running sophisticated climate models to predict Earth’s future climate.

But now, they’re also sussing out something much farther away: whether any of the more than 4,000 curiously weird planets beyond our solar system — or exoplanets — discovered in the past two decades could have the ingredients necessary to support life.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward (USRA): Lead Producer/Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC): Lead Public Affairs Officer/Lonnie Shekhtman (ADNET): Lead Writer/Alex Kekesi (GST): Lead Visualizer/Anthony DelGenio (NASA/GSFC GISS): Lead Scientist/Avi Mandell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist/Michael J. Way (NASA/GSFC GISS): Scientist/Chris Smith (USRA): Animator/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support/Music: “Machine Learning” by Jon Cotton and Ben Niblett; “No Wave” by Julien Vignon; “The Missing Star” by Matthew Charles Gilbert Davidson; all from Universal Production Music

Wikipedia dicit:

The Boeing Starliner (CST-100 – Crew Space Transportation-100) is a crew capsule manufactured by Boeing as its participation in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. It is planned to transport crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and to private space stations such as the proposed Bigelow Aerospace Commercial Space Station.

The capsule has a diameter of 4.56 meters (15.0 ft), which is slightly larger than the Apollo command module and smaller than the Orion capsule. The Boeing Starliner holds a crew of up to seven people and is being designed to be able to remain in-orbit for up to seven months with reusability of up to ten missions. It is designed to be compatible with four launch vehicles: Atlas V, Delta IV, Falcon 9, and Vulcan.

In the first phase of its CCDev program NASA awarded Boeing US$18 million in 2010 for preliminary development of the spacecraft. In the second phase Boeing was awarded a $93 million contract in 2011 for further spacecraft development. On 3 August 2012, NASA announced the award of $460 million to Boeing to continue work on the CST-100 under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Program. On 16 September 2014, NASA selected the Boeing CST-100, along with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program, with an award of $4.2 billion. On 30 July 2019, NASA had no specific dates for Commercial Crew launches, stating that this was under review pending a leadership change.

The Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test (uncrewed test flight) launched with the Atlas V N22, on 20 December 2019 from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. During the test, the Starliner experienced a timing anomaly that precluded a docking with the International Space Station. Two days after launch, on 22 December 2019 at 07:58 EST (12:58 UTC), with the successful landing at White Sands, New Mexico, the Boeing Starliner Calypso became the first-ever crew-capable space capsule to make a land-based touchdown in the United States.

Video credit: United Launch Alliance

They will always be remembered…

Apollo 1 (January 27, 1967)

Virgil “Gus” Grissom – Commander, Edward White – Command Pilot, Roger Chaffee – Pilot

STS-51 L (January 28, 1986)

Francis R. Scobee – Commander, Michael J. Smith – Pilot, Judith A. Resnik – Mission Specialist 1, Ellison Onizuka – Mission Specialist 2, Ronald E. McNair – Mission Specialist 3, Gregory B. Jarvis – Payload Specialist 1, Sharon Christa McAuliffe – Payload Specialist 2

STS-107 (February 1, 2003)

Rick D. Husband – Commander, William C. McCool – Pilot, Michael P. Anderson – Payload Commander, David M. Brown – Mission Specialist 1, Kalpana Chawla – Mission Specialist 2, Laurel Clark – Mission Specialist 3, Ilan Ramon – Payload Specialist 1

Video credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

EVA Officer Sandy Fletcher narrates an animation showing Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Christina Koch of NASA teaming up for their second spacewalk together. They venture outside the Quest airlock of the International Space Station for a spacewalk to continue the replacement of aging nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries on the port truss of the orbital outpost. The spacewalk is the third in a series of four spacewalks to upgrade the station’s power systems on the port truss that began with two days of work outside the station last October. It is the 225th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the second spacewalk in Meir’s career and the fifth for Koch.

Video credit: NASA