(Image and article credit: NASA)

The Delta IV carrying GOES-P lifted off at 6:57 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

After reaching orbit, GOES-P will become GOES-15. The satellite will be used to monitor and predict weather, measure ocean temperatures, perform climate studies, and detect hazards with its emergency beacon support and Search and Rescue Transponder.

GOES-P was built by Boeing for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

 

We are holding a basic course for beginners but a brush up course for the rest of us.
Duration: Every Wednesday for the next 5 weeks
Starting When : Wednesday 24 February 2010
Ending When : Wednesday 24 March 2010
Time : 6pm to 7pm followed by some practical work.
Venue : Innes Dome adjacent Hall at Observatory
Cost : ASSA JHB members FREE
Non Members R50 per course (R250 total)
Presenter: Gil Jacobs
 

The International Space Station's Cupola in the Alenia Spazio clean room in Turin, Italy. Photo and article credit: NASA

The space shuttle Endeavour delivered the new Tranquility module to the ISS during the STS-130 mission, as well as this Cupola. In addition to it's real function as a true view of the robotics operations on the Stations exterior, it will also provide stunning views of Earth for the astronauts.

The Tranquility node will provide a centralized home for the station’s environmental control equipment – one of the systems that remove carbon dioxide from the station’s air, one of the station’s bathrooms and the equipment that converts urine into drinkable water, all of which is currently taking up space in the Destiny laboratory. And there’s enough room left over to house the station’s new treadmill and its microgravity equivalent of a weight machine, moving it out of the Unity node where it’s in the way whenever spacewalk preparations are going on inside the adjacent Quest airlock.

Only four more missions are planned for the shuttles. The last one is scheduled for 16 September 2010 with the Discovery vehicle.
 

This infrared portrait of the Small Magellanic Cloud, taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, reveals stars and dust in this galaxy as never seen before. The image shows the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is comprised of the "bar" and "wing" on the left and the "tail" extending to the right. The bar contains both old stars (in blue) and young stars lighting up their natal dust (green/red). The wing mainly contains young stars. The tail contains only gas, dust and newly formed stars.

Spitzer data has confirmed that the tail region was recently torn off the main body of the galaxy. Two of the tail clusters, which are still embedded in their birth clouds, can be seen as red dots. The data in this image are being used by astronomers to study the lifecycle of dust in the entire galaxy: from the formation in stellar atmospheres, to the reservoir containing the present day interstellar medium, and the dust consumed in forming new stars. The dust being formed in old, evolved stars (blue stars with a red tinge) is measured using mid-infrared wavelengths.

The present day interstellar dust is weighed by measuring the intensity and color of emission at longer infrared wavelengths. The rate at which the raw material is being consumed is determined by studying ionized gas regions and the younger stars (yellow/red extended regions). The Small Magellanic Cloud, and its companion galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, are the two galaxies where this type of study is possible.

Credit: NASA Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI