The Red Bull Stratos mission, undertaken on October 14, 2012, went off without any major problems. The mission was an attempt for a balloon assisted aircraft to reach a world record altitude of 120,000 ft and for a human to then perform a freefall skydive from the vehicle at that height. The mission also had the potential for a human breaking the speed barrier during freefall. This was achieved during the freefall descent to Earth.
Galaxy Twisted After Collision
About 150,000 light years away, a cosmic collision is producing a twisted galaxy with a bright smooth central core. In April of 2001, Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was trained on a galaxy located in the southern constellation Hydra. This galaxy is known as ESO 510-G13.
Unsuccessful Mars Rovers: The Failed Soviet Prop-M Rover
With the recent landing of NASA’s latest Mars rover, Curiosity, there has been a renewed excitement for discoveries to be found on Mars. However, while the Curiosity rover currently has much of the attention of space rover fans, let’s take a moment and discuss all of the rovers that were sent to land on the planet but failed. After all, Curiosity was not the first rover to attempt to land on Mars.
Perseid Meteor Shower 2012
Keep your eyes on the night sky tonight and tomorrow night. The annual Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on August 11 and August 12 in 2012. Expect to see around 60 meteors per hour this year. Viewing should be pretty good because the moon will not enter the picture until the early hours of the morning.
NASA Curiosity Rover Successfully Lands on Mars!
NASA announced today that the Curiosity Rover made a successful landing on Mars! This landing was the first of it’s kind for NASA. It combined a heat shield, a parachute and a rocket crane designed to hover over the landing site and lower the rover by cable to the Martian surface. Talk about some crazy great engineering!