Artemis II crew members (from left) CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman pose for a group photograph after their meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Dec. 14, 2023.
The crew will travel aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft on a 10-day mission around the Moon, testing spacecraft systems for the first time with astronauts for long-term exploration and scientific discovery.
In the early hours of April 24 this bright Lyrid meteor flashed along the central Milky Way. For a moment, it cast a bright reflection across Lake Nian, Yunnan province, China. The annual Lyrid meteor shower, one of the oldest known, is active in late April, as our fair planet plows through dust left along the orbit of long-period comet Thatcher. The trail of the bright fireball points back toward the shower's radiant in the constellation Lyra high in the northern springtime sky and off the top of the frame. Just rising in that starry sky, light from a third quarter moon also cast a glow on the peaceful waters of the lake. via NASA https://ift.tt/i25BPoU
by Jeff Foust WASHINGTON — Bill Nelson is one step closer to being NASA’s next administrator after his former colleagues on the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance his nomination. The committee, meeting in executive session April 28, favorably reported his nomination on a voice vote and without debate. The nomination was part of a session that included consideration of more than a dozen other unrelated bills and nominations. The committee’s approval was expected after Nelson breezed through a confirmation hearing one week earlier . At that hearing, members praised Nelson for his expertise on space issues. No members of the committee expressed any reservations about Nelson leading the space agency. “We were really excited that Bill Nelson was nominated for head of NASA,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who chaired the executive session, said in her opening remarks. “I think you all know Sen. Nelson and how much we respect him, and how excited he is. You could just feel it as ...
The natural filter of a hazy atmosphere offered this recognizable architecture and sunset view on March 27. Dark against the solar disk, large sunspots in solar active regions 2975 and 2976 are wedged between the Duomo of Pisa and its famous Leaning Tower. Only one day later, Sun-staring spacecraft watched active region 2975 unleash a frenzy of solar flares along with two coronal mass ejections. The largest impacted the magnetosphere on March 31 triggering a geomagnetic storm and aurorae in high-latitude night skies. On March 30, active region 2975 erupted again with a powerful X-class solar flare that caused a temporary radio blackout on planet Earth. via NASA https://ift.tt/BVAjD4T
