OrbitalHub

NASA dicit:

Landsat 9 is the latest satellite to continue the legacy of global observations of Earth’s land surface. With unmatched longevity, accuracy, and coverage, the Landsat program has been the cornerstone of global land imaging since 1972. Landsat 9 continues this tradition, and will carry us into the next 50 years of Earth observations. The two instruments aboard will make the most advanced measurements of any Landsat satellite.

Design and construction of the spacecraft and its instruments is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and operation and archiving of the data is managed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Goddard and Ball Aerospace each built one of the instruments, and the spacecraft was built by Northrop Grumman.

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Landsat satellites have been consistently gathering data about our planet since 1972. They continue to improve and expand this unparalleled record of Earth’s changing landscapes for the benefit of all.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Lead Producer/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support/Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Editor/Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Narrator/Kate Ramsayer: Writer/Jeffrey Masek (NASA/GSFC): Scientist/Music Marble Place by Matias Suescun [SACEM], published by KTSA Publishing [SACEM], available from Universal Production Music

ULA dicit:

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket will launch NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars. The spacecraft will explore the Jezero Crater to study the planet’s habitability, seek signs of past microbial life, collect and store samples of selected rock and soil and prepare for future human missions. The rover also carries the Ingenuity helicopter, a technology demonstration to prove that powered flight can be achieved at Mars.

Video credit: United Launch Alliance

NASA dicit:

In February 2020, NASA’s Perseverance Rover began its long journey to Mars by first traveling across the United States. The rover was built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and then carefully packed and flown to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. There, engineers integrated the rover with the spacecraft that carries it to Mars, and the Atlas V rocket chosen to send it on its way.

Video credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA dicit:

This video shows how NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is designed to fold to a much smaller size in order to fit inside the Ariane V rocket for launch to space. The largest, most complex space observatory ever built, must fold itself to fit within a 17.8-foot (5.4-meter) payload fairing, and survive the rigors of a rocket ride to orbit. After liftoff, the entire observatory will unfold in a carefully choreographed series of steps before beginning to make groundbreaking observations of the cosmos.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA dicit:

Hear the rapid beat of HD 31901, a Delta Scuti star in the southern constellation Lepus. The sound is the result of 55 pulsation patterns TESS observed over 27 days sped up by 54,000 times. Delta Scuti stars have long been known for their apparently random pulsations, but TESS data show that some, like HD 31901, have more orderly patterns.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Simon Murphy, University of Sydney

Wikipedia dicit:

ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2), part of NASA’s Earth Observing System, is a satellite mission for measuring ice sheet elevation and sea ice thickness, as well as land topography, vegetation characteristics, and clouds. ICESat-2, a follow-on to the ICESat mission, was launched on 15 September 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, into a near-circular, near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 496 km (308 mi). It was designed to operate for three years and carry enough propellant for seven years. The satellite orbits Earth at a speed of 6.9 kilometers per second (4.3 mi/s).

The ICESat-2 mission is designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as vegetation canopy information. It will provide topography measurements of cities, lakes and reservoirs, oceans and land surfaces around the globe, in addition to the polar-specific coverage. ICESat-2 also has the ability to detect seafloor topography up to 100 feet (30m) below the surface in clear watered coastal areas. Because the great changes of polar ice cover in global warming are not quantified, one of the main purposes of ICESat-2 is measuring the changing of the elevation of ice sheets by its laser system and lidar to quantify the influence of melting ice sheet in sea-level raising. Additionally, the high accuracy of multiple pulses allows collecting measurement of the heights of sea ice to analyze its change rate during the time.

The ICESat-2 spacecraft was built and tested by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems in Gilbert, Arizona, while the on board instrument, ATLAS, was built and managed by Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The ATLAS instrument was designed and built by the center, and the bus was built by and integrated with the instrument by Orbital Sciences (later Orbital ATK). Orbital ATK, which was a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, was acquired by the Northrop Grumman Corporation on June 6, 2018. The satellite was launched on a Delta II rocket provided by United Launch Alliance. This was the last launch of the Delta II rocket.

Video credit: Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer/Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer/Alek A. Petty (University of Maryland): Scientist/Thomas A. Neumann Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC): Scientist/Nathan T. Kurtz (NASA/GSFC): Scientist