Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 622

Final Fantasy director’s Paralympics RPG is launching next month,

The first project from Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata’s new studio JP Games will finally be released next month, the company has announced. The Pegasus Dream Tour is a mobile RPG themed around the Paralympic Games, the first game ever to carry the official Paralympics license. It was initially announced more than two years ago, but the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were postponed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and there’d been radio silence on the project ever since.

JP Games describes The Pegasus Dream Tour as an “avatar RPG” set in Pegasus City. You can create a character based on a selfie from your phone, and train them in various para-sports. The game features illustrated versions of nine real-world para-athletes who compete in sports like javelin, athletics, and wheelchair basketball. Popular Japanese robot cat mascot Doraemon is also included as a guide to Pegasus City.

Badminton player Rie Ogura, who is featured in The Pegasus Dream Tour. The athletes are illustrated by Japanese artist Godtail.

The teaser trailer doesn’t give too much information away about how The Pegasus Dream Tour will actually play, with very brief glimpses at the in-game action. The style and scope of the game appear to have changed quite a bit since its initial announcement, and Tabata suggests the Games’ delay altered the focus of the project.

“The format of The Pegasus Dream Tour, which was originally planned to be a “Para-Sports RPG” was switched to that of an “Avatar RPG” in the wake of the global pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Tabata says in a statement. “This is because I felt that the Tokyo Paralympics, which would be held after the postponement, could allow humanity to overcome their divisions and help bring our spirits together. No matter what the outcome of the Tokyo 2020 Games is, it is my wish that people everywhere will come and receive the positive energy that is abundant inside Pegasus City.”

The Pegasus Dream Tour will be available for iOS and Android on June 24th. It’s a free download with in-app purchases; JP Games says some of the profits will go to the Agitos Foundation, an organization that helps people with disabilities get involved in sports. Pre-launch registration for the game will open today.

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On This Day in Space! May 16, 2011: Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on final flight, ,

On May 16, 2011, the space shuttle Endeavour launched on its 25th and final flight. This was also the penultimate mission of the entire shuttle program.

Five NASA astronauts and one Italian astronaut made up the STS-134 crew. They launched from Kennedy Space Center and spent nearly 16 days in orbit. The first two days were spent catching up to the International Space Station.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour: 6 Surprising Facts

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A Saturn V launched the Skylab space station on May 14, 1973. (Image credit: collectSPACE.com/Robert Z. Pearlman)

When they got there, they dropped of a bunch of science experiments and other supplies. They also did four spacewalks to install new equipment outside of the space station and do some other routine maintenance.

Endeavour’s primary payload was the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics experiment that would study cosmic radiation and look for antimatter and dark matter. They also installed new external sensors to help future missions dock there.

Over the course of this mission, Endeavour clocked more than 6 million miles. The shuttle traveled more than 122 million miles over the course of its 19 years in service. After it retired, it was moved to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Catch up on our entire “On This Day In Space” series on YouTube with this playlist.

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Still not enough space? Don’t forget to check out our Space Image of the Day, and on the weekends our Best Space Photos and Top Space News Stories of the week.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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ESA partners with startup to launch first debris removal mission in 2025, ,

The recent fall to Earth of a massive Chinese rocket has renewed concerns about the perils of space junk and one project from the European Space Agency might be able to help.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced plans to launch a space debris removal mission in 2025 with the help of a Swiss start-up called ClearSpace. The mission, dubbed ClearSpace-1, will use an experimental, four-armed robot to capture a Vega Secondary Payload Adapter (Vespa) left behind by ESA’s Vega launcher in 2013. The piece of space junk is located about 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth and weighs roughly 220 lbs. (100 kilograms).

“Think of all of the orbital captures that have occurred up until this point and they have all taken place with cooperative, fully-controlled target objects,” Jan Worner, ESA Director General at the time, said in a December statement from the space agency. “With space debris, by definition no such control is possible: instead the objects are adrift, often tumbling randomly.”

Related: 7 wild ideas to clean up space junk

ESA recently signed a $104 million (EUR86 million) contract with ClearSpace to accomplish this feat. The team will use the ClearSpace-1 robot to capture Vespa from low Earth orbit and drag it down into Earth’s atmosphere, where both spacecraft will burn up. If all goes according to plan, the mission will be the first removal of a previously generated piece of space debris from orbit, according to the statement.

“This first capture and disposal of an uncooperative space object represents an extremely challenging achievement,” Worner said in the statement. “With overall satellite numbers set to grow rapidly in the coming decade, regular removals are becoming essential to keep debris levels under control, to prevent a cascade of collisions that threaten to make the debris problem much worse.”

Low Earth orbit is cluttered with debris, ranging from inactive satellites to the upper stages of launch vehicles and discarded bits left over from separation. These pieces of space junk move at tens of thousands of miles per hour and could collide with and cause damage to active satellites and spacecraft in their path.

“At orbital velocities, even a screw can hit with explosive force, which cannot be shielded against by mission designers; instead the threat needs to be managed through the active removal of debris items,” Luc Piguet, founder and CEO of ClearSpace, said in the statement. “Our ‘tow truck’ design will be available to clear key orbits of debris that might otherwise make them unusable for future missions, eliminating the growing risks and liabilities for their owners, and benefitting the space industry as a whole. Our goal is to build affordable and sustainable in-orbit services.”

This is the first time ESA has paid for a service contract such as this instead of directly procuring and running the entire mission. The space agency says that this new way of business is the first step in establishing a new commercial sector in space, according to the statement.

In addition to the contract with ESA, ClearSpace will rely on commercial investors to cover mission costs. As part of ESA’s Clean Space Initiative and Active Debris Removal/ In-Orbit Servicing project (ADRIOS), the space agency will provide essential technologies, including advanced guidance, the robotic arms, navigation, control systems and vision-based AI, which will allow ClearSpace-1 to grapple its target autonomously.

Vespa is a reasonable first target for ClearSpace-1 given it is a relatively simple shape, sturdy construction, and about the size of a small satellite. If all goes according to plan, the team can leverage the same technology to capture larger, more challenging pieces of space debris in future missions. The team plans to first test ClearSpace-1 in a lower orbit of about 310 miles (500 km), prior to launching the mission to capture Vespa in 2025.

“The plan is that this pioneering capture forms the foundation of a recurring business case, not just for debris removal by responsible space actors around the globe, but also for in-orbit servicing,” Luisa Innocenti, head of ESA’s clean space office, said in the statement. “These same technologies will also enable in-orbit refuelling and servicing of satellites, extending their working life. Eventually, we envisage this trend extending into in-orbit assembly, manufacturing and recycling.”

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Photos: 10 extraordinary ocean worlds in our solar system, ,

We may live on a planet covered in water but Earth is not the only ocean world in our solar system. From dwarf planet Ceres, to Jupiter’s heavily cratered moon Callisto, check out ten extraordinary places on our galactic doorstep.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute)Europa

Europa is Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, and the smoothest of all the celestial bodies. There are almost no craters, and despite a dense network of cracks and ridges covering this moon, none are higher or deeper than a few hundred meters. This suggests that Europa’s surface is geologically young and possibly floating on a liquid mantle. The Hubble Space Telescope has also spotted plumes of water vapor spewing 124 miles (200 kilometers) into the air from the south pole. This lends weight to the idea that Europa has a subsurface saltwater ocean with a layer of ice that may be just a few kilometers thick in places, according to NASA.

Tidal flexing and friction from the gravitational interaction with Jupiter generates enough heat to keep the interior ocean liquid, but because it is so far from the sun, the surface remains frozen. Europa also has a very thin oxygen atmosphere, generated when radiation splits water molecules in the surface ice. A tiny fraction of this could become trapped within the ice, and eventually would be carried down to the subsurface ocean by tectonic subduction. A 2007 study at Stanford University, California, calculated that it was possible for the oxygen levels in Europa’s ocean to equal that of Earth’s own deep seas, which further bolsters the moon’s chances of harboring life.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL)Ganymede

Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, is 8% larger than Mercury, but only half of its mass. Such a low density suggests that it should be made of equal parts rock and water. In the 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft found that Ganymede has its own magnetic field, which means that it must have a molten iron core. The heat from this core would be enough to melt the ice and create an enormous subterranean ocean.

This ocean could be a 62-mile (100 kilometer) thick layer, sandwiched between an icy crust on the surface and another layer of ice below, which is held solid by the enormous pressures. Other models have suggested that there might be several different oceans, arranged in concentric rings like an onion, with different phases of solid ice separating them. Ganymede’s ocean is trapped a long way underground, so we don’t see any water plumes spewing at the surface like on other moons, but there are other observations that provide direct evidence of its ocean.

As Ganymede completes its orbit around Jupiter, the parent planet’s massive magnetic field creates polar aurorae in Ganymede’s thin atmosphere. But the salt in Ganymede’s seawater makes it electrically conductive, and this creates magnetic drag, which reduces the amount that the aurorae oscillate around Ganymede’s poles.

The Hubble Space Telescope has observed Ganymede’s auroras, and discovered that the oscillations are damped in exactly the way that an underground ocean would predict.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL)Callisto

Callisto is Jupiter’s second largest moon. It is almost as large as Mercury, but one third as massive, which means that it is about 50% water. The strange thing about Callisto is that the surface is completely saturated with craters, with no breaks or smooth plains caused by geological processes below. Not only is Callisto geologically dead today, it probably always has been. Gravity measurements from the Galileo spacecraft show that the internal structure hasn’t fully separated out into a rock core with a pure water/ice mantle. This means that the ice has never fully melted during Callisto’s formation, according to a study from the NIH.

Despite this, we know that Callisto does have a liquid ocean near the surface. Measurements of its interaction with Jupiter’s magnetic field show that it must have an electrically conducting layer at least 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) thick just below the surface. Callisto orbits too far away from Jupiter to receive any significant tidal heating, so for this ocean to remain liquid, it must contain something besides water to act as antifreeze. A 5% mixture of ammonia would be enough, for example. Callisto lies outside Jupiter’s main radiation belt, and has ample water ice on the surface, which makes it a good candidate for a future human base. But conditions within its underground ocean are much less hospitable. As well as being very cold, the liquid water is sandwiched between two layers of ice, so there is no influx of minerals, and only very slow heat transfer from the core.

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(Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)Pluto

Pluto is too small to have retained enough heat to keep its core molten. Radioactive heating under the surface only provides a fiftieth of the energy that radiates upwards on Earth. But that’s still enough to melt the lighter elements and allow the heavier silicate minerals to sink. The result is a rocky core 1,056 miles (1,700 kilometers) across, surrounded by a layer of water and ice 62-112 miles (100-180 kilometers) thick. Pluto’s surface is so cold that it is blanketed by snow made of solid nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide, but spectrometry data from New Horizons suggests the ‘bedrock’ is water ice, according to NASA.

Deep in the mantle, the heat from the core could be keeping this as a mixture of slush and water. The heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio is in an area absent of craters, suggesting the surface is geologically active. The western half, , lies close to Pluto’s equator, keeping it at a stable temperature. For millions of years, the nitrogen ice on the surface has been slowly circulating on convection currents driven by the subterranean ocean. This provides a clue that the water inside Pluto behaves like the molten magma in Earth’s mantle, according to a study at Purdue University.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)Ceres

Ceres is the largest object in the Asteroid Belt, and the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. It was originally formed as a mixture of porous rock with about 10% ice.

Early in Ceres’ formation, heating from the radioactive decay of the heavier elements melted the ice, which caused most of the rock to sink down towards the core. The heating wouldn’t have been enough to melt all the way to the surface — the outer 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) or so has stayed frozen — but as the subterranean ocean warmed, it expanded and forced cracks in the surface. Over billions of years, convection currents have carried away the heat from the core, and allowed the interior to mostly freeze solid again, but Ceres still seems to have some liquid water beneath the surface.

The Herschel Space Telescope has observed plumes that are ejecting water vapor into space at a rate of 13.2 lbs. (6 kilograms) per second. The total amount of water in Ceres’ icy mantle is more than all the fresh water on Earth, but it’s difficult to tell how much of this is liquid. Since Ceres doesn’t have a large gas giant parent to generate significant tidal heating, all of its core energy comes from radioactive decay, and the proportion of radioactive isotopes in the core is currently unknown.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS)Triton

Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. It is slightly larger than Pluto, and has almost the same composition. It’s likely that they were both formed in the Kuiper Belt, and later fell deeper into the solar system as a result of the gravitational pull of Neptune and Uranus. Neptune gravitationally captured Triton, but unusually, the moon has a retrograde orbit — it orbits in the opposite direction to Neptune’s own spin. When it was first captured, its initial orbit was very eccentric, and this generated a lot of tidal heating as Triton flexed and relaxed with each orbit. This heat was enough to melt the interior and cause it to separate into a dense core with a liquid water mantle and a solid crust of water and nitrogen ice. Once the crust was isolated from the core by this liquid layer, it was free to flex, which increased the effect of tidal heating, and helped to stop the ocean refreezing as Triton’s orbit decayed.

Eventually, after a billion years, Triton’s orbit became circular enough to lose most of its tidal heating, but it still receives energy from the core’s radioactive elements. Computer models show it would only take a small amount of dissolved impurities in the water, such as ammonia, to lower the freezing point and keep Triton’s ocean liquid.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)Mimas

Saturn’s moon, Mimas, may mostly be composed of water ice with a smattering of rock — like a gritty snowball. It is only just large enough to be pulled into a rounded shape by its own gravity (it’s actually slightly ovoid). Unlike its slightly larger cousin, Enceladus, there are no visible plumes or geysers, and its surface is very heavily cratered, which suggests that the crust has remained frozen for billions of years, according to NASA, and doesn’t get recycled into the moon’s interior. This is odd, because Mimas orbits closer to Saturn and in a more eccentric orbit, so it should receive much more tidal heating.

However, recent analysis of images from Cassini found that Mimas does wobble slightly in its orbit, according to a report from Cornell University, and there are only two theoretical models that explain this. Either Mimas has a dense, elongated core that throws it off balance, or it has a liquid ocean under the crust that lets the core move around inside. If Mimas does have a liquid ocean, it must be capped with a very thick, strong crust to prevent any cracking or geysers. That doesn’t fit in with our observations of other moons and dwarf planets around the solar system. But then, current models of moon formation also can’t explain why Enceladus has a liquid mantle and Mimas doesn’t.

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(Image credit: JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)Enceladus

In 2005, NASA’s Cassini probe observed plumes of water vapor erupting near the south pole of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. Because the gravity on Enceladus is only 1% of Earth’s, the ice crystals are easily flung into orbit, and we now know they are responsible for most of the material in Saturn’s E Ring, according to NASA. Enceladus has a rocky core around 230 miles (370 kilometers) across, surrounded by a 28-mile (10 kilometer) deep ocean under an icy crust. Initially, scientists thought the ocean was only present as an underground lake at the south pole, as that’s where the plumes have all been seen.

But measurements of Enceladus’ slight wobble, or libration, show that the rocky core is likely completely detached from the crust, according to NASA. This means that the ocean envelopes the moon and probably accounts for 40% of its volume. The reason that the plumes only occur at the south pole is that the surface ice is believed to be much thinner — just 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) thick, compared with 12-28 miles (20-45 kilometers) thick surface across the rest of Enceladus. If this view of the moon were correct, Saturn’s tidal heating wouldn’t be enough to explain its liquid ocean. Instead, there may be more geothermal heat coming from the core than was previously thought. This might help to generate hydrothermal upwellings of nutrients and organic molecules, offering hope that life evolved there.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)Dione

Saturn’s moon Dione could be 50% water with a heavier rocky core. Dione is twice as large as Enceladus, but it has a much less eccentric orbit, so it receives less heat from tidal stresses. This gives it a much thicker frozen crust — some 62 miles (100 kilometers) thick. By analyzing the variations in the trajectory of Cassini, as it made several flybys of Dione between 2011 and 2015, one group of scientists at NASA have concluded that this crust could be floating on a liquid ocean 22-59 miles (35-95 kilometers) deep.

Dione is heavily cratered, and doesn’t have any of the geysers found on Enceladus, but one hemisphere is covered with huge cliffs of ice that are hundreds of meters high and hundreds of kilometers long. These are probably scars left over from early in Dione’s life when the surface was still geologically active. An important feature of Dione is that its ocean may be liquid all the way down to the bedrock, rather than sandwiched between two layers of ice, according to a study at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

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(Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)Titan

Titan is unusual because it is the only body in the Solar System, besides Earth, that has a substantial atmosphere and bodies of surface liquids. Titan’s surface temperature is -292 degrees Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius), so it’s far too cold for liquid water on the surface, but it’s just about right for liquid methane and ethane. These organic compounds evaporate into the atmosphere and rain down to form rivers, lakes, and seas. The lakes and rivers only cover about 3% of the surface, so Titan is still much drier than Earth. Titan’s thick orange haze comes from sooty tholin particles formed when the sun ultraviolet light breaks up the methane in the atmosphere. This ought to have used up all the methane on the surface billions of years ago, so Titan must have some underground reservoir that is replenishing it, according to a study by Juan Lora at Yale University. So far, scientists haven’t found any strong evidence of cryovolcanoes that could be supplying this methane.

Like Callisto, Titan may have an ocean that is kept liquid by the antifreeze effects of dissolved ammonia. It would be equally hard for life to evolve there, as the liquid ocean is probably sandwiched between solid, impermeable ice layers. Life might have evolved in the hydrocarbon seas on the surface, according to NASA, but without access to liquid water, it would have a very different chemistry to life on Earth.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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China’s moon-sampling Chang’e 5 probe beams home eerie images from deep space, ,

China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft completed a historic delivery of moon rocks to Earth late last year, but the mission is still continuing with experiments in deep space.

In December, the Chang’e 5 orbiter delivered a return capsule to Earth packed with about 4.4 lbs. (2 kilograms) of lunar material — the first such delivery in decades.,

Related: The latest news about China’s space program

After the delivery, the orbiter module fired its engines to head for a point in space known as Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1, which is about 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth in the direction of the sun. From orbit around this gravitationally balanced area, the spacecraft has returned a unique image of the Earth and moon together.

Chang’e 5 is now carrying out a range of tests related to orbit control and Earth and solar observations which would help inform future missions.

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A view of the Sun from Chang’e 5 at Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1. (Image credit: CNSA/CLEP)

The current Chang’e 5 operations are bonus work for an already hugely successful mission, so its imagers are not optimized for detailed observations from deep space.

Meanwhile NASA’s DSCOVR deep-space observatory has been working in this same region of space since 2015, taking advantage of unhindered views of our planet to study the Earth’s climate.

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(Image credit: CNSA/CLEP)

Chinese scientists have said that Chang’e 5 may head to new targets after completing its tests at Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1.

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Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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NASA rocket launch may spark visible light show over US East Coast and Bermuda Sunday, ,

NASA is targeting an 8:04 p.m. EDT (0004 GMT) launch on Sunday, May 16 for the Kinet-X sounding rocket mission after a weather delay in Bermuda on Saturday, May 15.

A small NASA sounding rocket will launch tonight (May 10), creating a brief, colorful light show over the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, and you can watch all the action live.

NASA is scheduled to launch a four-stage Black Brant XII rocket from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia for a special space mission called the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X. The rocket is scheduled to lift off during a 40-minute launch window, beginning at 8:04 p.m. EDT tonight (0004 GMT on Tuesday, May 11). The launch has been delayed twice in the last two days due to bad weather.

You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA; coverage begins at 7:40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT). You can also follow the flight on the NASA’s Wallops IBM video site.

Related: Space calendar 2021: Rocket launches, sky events & more!

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The map on the left shows where observers may be able to see the launch of NASA’s Black Brant XII sounding rocket from Wallops Island, weather permitting, on May 9, 2021. On the right is a photo of a four-stage Black Brant XII sounding rocket. (Image credit: NASA)

The rocket launch will release barium vapor, forming two green-violet clouds that may be visible, weather permitting, for about 30 seconds to spectators in most of the eastern U.S., from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River, and just north of Bermuda. NASA shared a visibility map illustrating that the vapor clouds could be spotted, weather permitting, from Maine to central Florida and from the East Coast as far west as Illinois, between 90 and 120 seconds after launch.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will not be open to the public for launch, viewers can receive the latest updates from NASA via the Wallops center’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

The vapor will be released about 10 minutes after launch, when the rocket is about 217 to 249 miles above the Atlantic Ocean, or 540 to 560 miles downrange from the Wallops Flight Facility. However, the barium vapor is not harmful to the environment or public health, NASA officials said in a statement.

“Immediately after release of the vapor, the spherical clouds are a mixture of green and violet, but that phase only lasts about 30 seconds when the un-ionized component of the cloud has diffused away,” NASA officials said in the statement. “After exposure to sunlight the vapor clouds quickly ionize and take on a violet color.”

The KiNet-X mission is designed to explore energy transport in space. Specifically the mission will study how energy and momentum is transported between regions of space that are magnetically connected, according to the statement.

“The ionized portion of the cloud becomes tied to the magnetic field lines and diffuses parallel to the field lines but not perpendicular to it. In the mid-Atlantic region latitudes, the field lines are inclined by about 45 degrees to the horizontal, so the violet clouds stretch out in a slanted orientation and look more like short trails than a cloud,” NASA officials said in the statement. “Because the motion of the neutral portion of the clouds is not constrained by the magnetic field lines, they spread out more quickly and become too thin to see with the naked eye much sooner than the ionized component.”

However, the late hour of tonight’s launch may make it difficult for viewers to see the colorful clouds with the unaided eye. Given the human eye does not see violet colors very well in darkness, the closer the launch is to sunset, the harder it will be to see.

In the event tonight’s launch is delayed, backup launch days run through May 16.

Editor’s note: If you spot the vapor clouds from tonight’s NASA rocket launch and snap a stunning photo, let us know! You can submit photos and descriptions to spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Replay! SpaceX launches 52 Starlink satellites and 2 rideshare payloads, ,

Update for 7:57 pm ET: SpaceX has successfully launched its Starlink 27 mission to deliver 52 Starlink internet satellites and two rideshare payloads for customers into orbit. You can read our wrap here for the full story, launch video and photos

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 52 Starlink internet satellites for the company’s broadband network on Saturday (May 15), in a mission designated Starlink 27.

The reused and refurbished Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 6:56 p.m. EDT (2256 GMT).

You can watch it live in the window above, courtesy of SpaceX. The live broadcast will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff.

SpaceX is targeting Saturday, May 15 for its next Starlink mission launching aboard Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous window is at 6:54 p.m. EDT, or 22:54 UTC, and a backup opportunity is available on Sunday, May 16 at 6:33 p.m. EDT, or 22:33 UTC. On board this mission are 52 Starlink satellites, a Capella Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, and Tyvak-0130.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster that supported this mission previously launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and three Starlink missions. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be located in the Atlantic Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously supported the SXM-7 mission, and the other previously supported the NROL-108 mission.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

After a week of delays, NASA will again attempt to launch a Black Brant XII sounding rocket from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on Saturday (May 15), and you can watch it live online or in person.

Observers in the eastern U.S. may have an opportunity to see a colorful light show following the rocket’s liftoff, weather permitting. The sounding rocket will release nontoxic barium vapor that will form two visible, green-violet clouds in the evening sky. The clouds will remain visible for about 30 seconds, according to NASA, but they will be more difficult to see earlier in the launch window while the twilight sky is still bright.

Liftoff is scheduled to occur during a 40-minute launch window that opens at 8:10 p.m. EDT (0010 May 16 GMT). You can watch the mission live in the window above beginning about 20 minutes before liftoff, courtesy of NASA Wallops, or directly via the Wallops IBM video site.

Full story: NASA rocket launch may spark visible light show over US East Coast and Bermuda tonight

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The map on the left shows where observers may be able to see the launch of NASA’s Black Brant XII sounding rocket from Wallops Island, weather permitting. On the right is a photo of a four-stage Black Brant XII sounding rocket. (Image credit: NASA)

UPDATE 5/13: The launch of the Black Brant XII sounding rocket carrying the KiNET-X payload has been postponed to no earlier than 8:10 p.m. EDT, Saturday, May 15. The launch has been postponed to provide time for inspection of the rocket after the vehicle came in contact with a launcher support during today’s preparations. A mission to explore energy transport in space using a NASA suborbital sounding rocket launching May 8, 2021, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia may provide a brief light show for residents of the eastern United States and Bermuda.

The mission is scheduled for no earlier than 8:02 p.m. EDT with a 40-minute launch window, Saturday, May 8. Backup launch days run through May 16. The launch may be visible, weather permitting, in much of the eastern United States from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.

A four-stage Black Brant XII rocket will be used for the mission that includes the release of barium vapor that will form two green-violet clouds that may be visible for about 30 seconds. The barium vapor is not harmful to the environment or public health

The mission, called the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X, is designed to study a very fundamental problem in space plasmas, namely, how are energy and momentum transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected?

The vapor will be released approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds to around 10 minutes after launch at about 217-249 miles altitude over the Atlantic Ocean and 540-560 miles downrange from Wallops and just north of Bermuda.

Immediately after release of the vapor, the spherical clouds are a mixture of green and violet, but that phase only lasts about 30 seconds when the un-ionized component of the cloud has diffused away. After exposure to sunlight the vapor clouds quickly ionize and take on a violet color.

The ionized portion of the cloud becomes tied to the magnetic field lines and diffuses parallel to the field lines but not perpendicular to it. In the mid-Atlantic region latitudes, the field lines are inclined by about 45 degrees to the horizontal, so the violet clouds stretch out in a slanted orientation and look more like short trails than a cloud. Because the motion of the neutral portion of the clouds is not constrained by the magnetic field lines, they spread out more quickly and become too thin to see with the naked eye much sooner than the ionized component.

In general, the human eye does not see violet colors very well in darkness. The KiNET-X clouds will therefore be more difficult for the casual observer to see than some of the previous vapor missions launched from Wallops.

Live coverage of the mission will be available on the Wallops IBM video site (previously Ustream) beginning at 7:40 p.m. on launch day. Launch status updates can be found on the Wallops Facebook and Twitter sites.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will not be open for launch viewing.

Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the “ISS Live” broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.

“Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will see a blue screen.

“Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.”

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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SpaceX rocket launches Starlink fleet and 2 small satellites, sticks landing at sea, ,

SpaceX will launch its third Falcon 9 rocket in two weeks Saturday evening (May 15), with the launcher carrying a new fleet of Starlink broadband satellites into space.

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Watch live tonight! SpaceX launching 52 Starlink satellites @ 6:56 pm ET, ,

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 52 Starlink internet satellites for the company’s broadband network on Saturday (May 15), in a mission designated Starlink 27.

The reused and refurbished Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, at 6:56 p.m. EDT (2256 GMT).

You can watch it live in the window above, courtesy of SpaceX. The live broadcast will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff.

SpaceX is targeting Saturday, May 15 for its next Starlink mission launching aboard Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous window is at 6:54 p.m. EDT, or 22:54 UTC, and a backup opportunity is available on Sunday, May 16 at 6:33 p.m. EDT, or 22:33 UTC. On board this mission are 52 Starlink satellites, a Capella Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, and Tyvak-0130.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster that supported this mission previously launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and three Starlink missions. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be located in the Atlantic Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously supported the SXM-7 mission, and the other previously supported the NROL-108 mission.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.

After a week of delays, NASA will again attempt to launch a Black Brant XII sounding rocket from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on Saturday (May 15), and you can watch it live online or in person.

Observers in the eastern U.S. may have an opportunity to see a colorful light show following the rocket’s liftoff, weather permitting. The sounding rocket will release nontoxic barium vapor that will form two visible, green-violet clouds in the evening sky. The clouds will remain visible for about 30 seconds, according to NASA, but they will be more difficult to see earlier in the launch window while the twilight sky is still bright.

Liftoff is scheduled to occur during a 40-minute launch window that opens at 8:10 p.m. EDT (0010 May 16 GMT). You can watch the mission live in the window above beginning about 20 minutes before liftoff, courtesy of NASA Wallops, or directly via the Wallops IBM video site.

Full story: NASA rocket launch may spark visible light show over US East Coast and Bermuda tonight

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The map on the left shows where observers may be able to see the launch of NASA’s Black Brant XII sounding rocket from Wallops Island, weather permitting. On the right is a photo of a four-stage Black Brant XII sounding rocket. (Image credit: NASA)

UPDATE 5/13: The launch of the Black Brant XII sounding rocket carrying the KiNET-X payload has been postponed to no earlier than 8:10 p.m. EDT, Saturday, May 15. The launch has been postponed to provide time for inspection of the rocket after the vehicle came in contact with a launcher support during today’s preparations. A mission to explore energy transport in space using a NASA suborbital sounding rocket launching May 8, 2021, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia may provide a brief light show for residents of the eastern United States and Bermuda.

The mission is scheduled for no earlier than 8:02 p.m. EDT with a 40-minute launch window, Saturday, May 8. Backup launch days run through May 16. The launch may be visible, weather permitting, in much of the eastern United States from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.

A four-stage Black Brant XII rocket will be used for the mission that includes the release of barium vapor that will form two green-violet clouds that may be visible for about 30 seconds. The barium vapor is not harmful to the environment or public health

The mission, called the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X, is designed to study a very fundamental problem in space plasmas, namely, how are energy and momentum transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected?

The vapor will be released approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds to around 10 minutes after launch at about 217-249 miles altitude over the Atlantic Ocean and 540-560 miles downrange from Wallops and just north of Bermuda.

Immediately after release of the vapor, the spherical clouds are a mixture of green and violet, but that phase only lasts about 30 seconds when the un-ionized component of the cloud has diffused away. After exposure to sunlight the vapor clouds quickly ionize and take on a violet color.

The ionized portion of the cloud becomes tied to the magnetic field lines and diffuses parallel to the field lines but not perpendicular to it. In the mid-Atlantic region latitudes, the field lines are inclined by about 45 degrees to the horizontal, so the violet clouds stretch out in a slanted orientation and look more like short trails than a cloud. Because the motion of the neutral portion of the clouds is not constrained by the magnetic field lines, they spread out more quickly and become too thin to see with the naked eye much sooner than the ionized component.

In general, the human eye does not see violet colors very well in darkness. The KiNET-X clouds will therefore be more difficult for the casual observer to see than some of the previous vapor missions launched from Wallops.

Live coverage of the mission will be available on the Wallops IBM video site (previously Ustream) beginning at 7:40 p.m. on launch day. Launch status updates can be found on the Wallops Facebook and Twitter sites.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will not be open for launch viewing.

Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the “ISS Live” broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.

“Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will see a blue screen.

“Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.”

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Go read this look at how Clubhouse’s blocking system is problematic,

Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes on social media can tell you that most platforms have plenty of trolls, reply-guys and other people who may just be unpleasant to interact with. On big platforms like Twitter, Faecbook, and Instagram, the option to block another user allows you to keep someone out of your feed. Blocking is far from a perfect solution, but at least it gives users a way to continue to use the platforms and avoid (some) nasty interactions.

But as Will Oremus writes for The Atlantic, the year-old audio chat platform Clubhouse has a different mechanism for blocking, one that affects more than just the blocker and the blockee (I know, but what would you call it?):

When you block someone on Clubhouse, it doesn’t just affect communications between the two of you, as it would on Facebook or Twitter. Rather, it limits the way that person can communicate with others too. Once blocked, they can’t join or even see any room that you create, or in which you are speaking–which effectively blocks them for everyone else in that room. If you’re brought “onstage” from the audience to speak, anyone else in the audience whom you have blocked will be kept off the stage for as long as you’re up there. And if you’re a moderator of a room, you can block a speaker and boot them from the conversation in real time–even if they’re mid-sentence.

So in essence, a “black badge” on Clubhouse can limit who speaks, where, and when on the platform. As Oremus notes, it’s a social act to block another person on Clubhouse, one that affects multiple interactions. And members of underrepresented groups said that blocking can be “weaponized” on Clubhouse, to squelch certain points of view or restrict conversations:

One, a Black woman in her 20s who’s studying medicine, said she has been barred from rooms discussing vaccination in Black communities, because one influential anti-vaxxer who frequents those rooms blocked her. She also found herself abruptly shut out of a weekly WandaVision watch-party club that had become her favorite experience on the app, evidently because one member had blocked her.

The buzz around Clubhouse– which attracted 10 million users in its inaugural year– has started to fizzle out a bit; it only recently released a version for Android devices, and new users can only join when invited by a current user. Add to that the rising popularity and superior accessibility of Twitter’s audio chat platform Spaces, and it seems Clubhouse may be in for a bumpy ride ahead. Go read this analysis of why its unusual blocking system may ultimately contribute to the platform’s decline.

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