Tag Archives: flight

Inside the quirks of photographing F1 in Las Vegas – Autosport

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We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas

As our flight banked around the neon-speckled sprawl of Sin City I wondered once again if I was the only person arriving for the Las Vegas Grand Prix having not read (or pretended to read for social media grandstanding purposes) Hunter S Thompsons classic gonzo novel Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. I gather it concerns the author following a commission from Sports Illustrated magazine to cover the annual Mint 400 off-road motor race, but then blowing out the job in a blizzard of narcoticsand booze. Apparently, its a savage dissection of the American dream.

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Inside the quirks of photographing F1 in Las Vegas - Autosport

NASA Laser Reflecting Instruments to Help Pinpoint Earth Measurements – NASA

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The best known use of GPS satellites is to help people know their location whether driving a car, navigating a ship or plane, or trekking across remote territory. Another important, but lesser-known, use is to distribute information to other Earth-viewing satellites to help them pinpoint measurements of our planet.

NASA and several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command,the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are improving the location accuracy of these measurements down to the millimeter with a new set of laser retroreflector arrays, or LRAs.

The primary benefit of laser ranging and LRAs is to improve the geolocation of all of our Earth observations, said Stephen Merkowitz, project manager for NASAs Space Geodesy Project at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A team of scientists and engineers with the project tested these arrays earlier this year to ensure they were up to their task and they could withstand the harsh environment of space. Recently the first set of these new laser retroreflector arrays was shipped to the U.S. Space Force and Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado, to be added to the next generation of GPS satellites.

How do Laser Retroreflector Arrays Work?

Laser retroreflector arrays make it possible to do laser ranging using small bursts of laser light to detect distances between objects. Pulses of laser light from a ground station are directed toward an orbiting satellite, which then reflect off the array and return to the station. The time it takes for the light to travel from the ground to the satellite and back again can be used to calculate the distance between the satellite and the ground.

Laser ranging and laser retroreflector arrays have been part of space missions for decades, and they are currently mounted on and essential to the operation of Earth-viewing satellites like ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation satellite 2), SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), and GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On). LRAs for laser ranging were even deployed on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo missions.

The LRAs are special mirrors, said Merkowitz. Theyre different from a normal mirror because they bounce back light directly towards its original source.

For laser ranging, scientists want to direct light beams back to the original source. They do this by placing three mirrors at right angles, essentially forming an inside corner of a cube. The laser retroreflector arrays are made up of an array of 48 of these mirrored corners.

When light enters the array, due to those 90-degree angles, the light will bounce and take a series of reflections, but the output angle will always come out at the same angle as the one that came in, said Zach Denny, optical engineer for the Space Geodesy Project at Goddard.

What Will Laser Retroreflector Arrays Help?

Geodesy is the study of Earths shape, as well as its gravity and rotation, and how they all change over time. Laser ranging to laser retroreflector arrays is a key technique in this study.

The surface of Earth is constantly changing in small ways due to shifting tectonic plates, melting ice, and other natural phenomena. With these constant shifts and the fact that Earth is not a perfect sphere there must be a way to define the measurements on Earths surface. Scientists call this a reference frame.

Not only do these arrays and laser ranging help to precisely locate the satellites in orbit, but they also provide accurate positioning information for the ground stations back on Earth. With this information, scientists can even go so far as to find the center of the mass of Earth, which is the origin, or zero point, of the reference frame.

Geodetic measurements laser ranging to reference satellites like LAGEOS (Laser Geodynamic Satellites) are used to constantly determine the location of Earths center of mass down to a millimeter. These measurements are critical for enabling scientists to assign a longitude and latitude to satellite measurements and put them on a map.

Significant events like tsunamis and earthquakes can cause small changes to the Earths center of mass. Scientists need accurate laser ranging measurements to quantify and understand those changes, said Linda Thomas, a research engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

Satellite measurements of subtle but important Earth phenomena, such as sea level rise, rely on an accurate reference frame. The long-term global trend of sea level rise, as well as its seasonal and regional variations, occur at rates of just a few millimeters a year. The reference frame needs to be more accurate than such changes if scientists want to accurately measure them.

Geodesy is a fundamental part of our daily lives because it tells us where we are and it tells us how the world is changing, said Frank Lemoine, project scientist for NASAs Space Geodesy Project.

ByErica McNameeNASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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NASA Laser Reflecting Instruments to Help Pinpoint Earth Measurements - NASA

NASA’s IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy – NASA

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On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists will commemorate two years of landmark X-ray science by NASAs IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission.

IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light. Polarization is a characteristic of light that can help reveal information about where that light came from, such as the geometry and inner workings of the ultra-powerful energy sources from which it emanates.

Launched Dec. 9, 2021, IXPE orbits Earth some 340 miles high, studying X-ray emissions from powerful cosmic phenomena thousands to billions of light-years from Earth, including quasars, blazars, remnants of supernova explosions such as neutron stars, and high-energy particle streams spewing from the vicinity of black holes at nearly the speed of light.

Adding X-ray polarization to our arsenal of radio, infrared, and optical polarization is a game changer, said Alan Marscher, a Boston University astronomer who leads a research group that uses IXPEs findings to analyze supermassive black holes.

Were all familiar with X-rays as a diagnostic medical tool for humans. Here were using them in a different way, but they are again revealing information that is otherwise hidden from us, said Stanford University researcher Josephine Wong, who co-authored findings in October based on IXPE studies of the pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52, some 16,000 light-years from Earth.

Martin Weisskopf, the astrophysicist who led the development of IXPE and served as its principal investigator until his retirement from NASA in spring 2022, agreed.

Martin Weisskopf

Retired IXPE Principal Investigator

Scientists have long understood, for example, the fundamentals of blazars such as Markarian 501 and Markarian 421. A blazar is a massive black hole feeding off material swirling around it in a disk, creating powerful jets of high-speed cosmic particles which rush away in two directions perpendicular to the disk. But how are those particles accelerated to such high energies? IXPE data published in November 2022 in the journal Nature identified the culprit at Markarian 501 as a shock wave within the jet.

This is a 40-year-old mystery that weve solved, said Yannis Liodakis, a NASA Postdoctoral Program researcher at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. We finally had all of the pieces of the puzzle, and the picture they made was clear.

IXPE also conducted unprecedented studies of three supernova remnants Cassiopeia A, Tycho, and SN 1006 helping scientists further their understanding of the origin and processes of the magnetic fields surrounding these phenomena.

IXPE is even shedding new light on fundamental mechanisms of our own galaxy. According to studies IXPE conducted in early 2022, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, woke up about 200 years ago to devour gas and other cosmic detritus, triggering an intense, short-lived X-ray flare. By combining data from IXPE, Chandra, and the European Space Agencys XMM-Newton mission, researchers determined the event occurred around the start of the 19th century.

We know change can happen to active galaxies and supermassive black holes on a human timescale, said IXPE project scientist Steve Ehlert at NASA Marshall. IXPE is helping us better understand the timescale on which the black hole at the center of our galaxy is changing. Were eager to observe it further to determine which changes are typical and which are unique.

IXPE has also supported observations of unanticipated cosmic events such as the brightest pulse of intense radiation ever recorded, which abruptly swept through our solar system in October 2022.

The pulse stemmed from a powerful gamma-ray burst likely to occur no more than once in 10,000 years, researchers said. Backing up data from NASAs Fermi Space Telescope and other imagers, IXPE helped determine how the powerful emission was organized and confirmed that Earth imagers viewed the jet almost directly head-on.

Perhaps most exciting to space scientists is how IXPE data is upending conventional wisdom about various classes of high-energy sources.

So many of the polarized X-ray results weve seen over the past two years were a big surprise, tossing theoretical models right out the window, Ehlert said.

Steve Ehlert

IXPE Project Scientist

That excitement continues to build among IXPE partners around the world. In June, the mission was formally extended for 20 months beyond its initial two-year flight, meaning IXPE will continue to observe high-energy X-ray emissions across the cosmos through at least September 2025.

The new year also will mark the start of the IXPE General Observer Program, which invites astrophysicists and other space scientists around the world to propose and take part in studies using the IXPE telescope. Beginning in February 2024, as much as 80% of IXPEs time will be made available to the broader scientific community.

About the IXPE Mission

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorados Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.

Elizabeth LandauNASA Headquarters elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov 202-358-0845

Jonathan Deal NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center 256-544-0034 jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov

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NASA's IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy - NASA

SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch of secretive X-37B space plane delayed to Dec. 11 – Space.com

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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is poised to launch the X-37B space plane for the U.S. Space Force on Monday evening (Dec. 11) after a one-day delay due to weather, and you can likely watch the action live.

Liftoff of the Falcon Heavy is scheduled to occur from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 GMT Dec. 12). If, as expected, SpaceX webcasts the liftoff, you can watch it live here at Space.com. SpaceX announced its delay of the flight by 24 hours early Sunday.

"Now targeting Monday, December 11 for Falcon Heavys launch of the USSF-52 mission, with weather conditions forecasted to improve to 70% favorable for liftoff on Monday night," SpaceX wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "The team will use the time to complete additional pre-launch check outs."

The upcoming launch will be the seventh launch to date for the reusable X-37B space plane its first-ever ride on a Falcon Heavy, which could have consequences for its coming orbital mission.

Five of the six X-37B launches to date have employed United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, with one other using a SpaceX Falcon 9. Falcon Heavy, which utilizes three Falcon 9 boosters as its first stage, outclasses both of those other rockets when it comes to getting mass to orbit. According to a recent Space Force release, some of the objectives of the coming X-37B mission, known as OTV-7 ("Orbital Test Vehicle-7"), include "operating in new orbital regimes," which, given the launch vehicle, may indicate a higher orbit than usual, farther from Earth.

Related: The Space Force's secretive X-37B space plane: 10 surprising facts

The upgrade in launch vehicle may also have to do with mass. The X-37B features a cargo bay to house equipment and experiments, and it could be carrying a secondary mission payload that requires Falcon Heavy's added lift capability.

The uncertainty here is not surprising; most details of X-37B missions are classified. However, USSF-52 does carry at lease one unclassified experiment: NASA's "Seeds-2" project, which will test the effects of radiation and long-duration spaceflight on plant seeds.

Each successive X-37B mission has been longer than its predecessors, with its most recent orbital jaunt lasting 908 days. That mission, called OTV-6, landed in November 2022.

When Falcon Heavy launches on Sunday, it will be the rocket's ninth mission to date. It will also be the fifth flight for the side boosters supporting this particular mission; the duo most recently launched NASA's Psyche probe, in October of this year.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Dec. 10 to reflect SpaceX's one-day delay of the launch of the Falcon Heavy and X-37B.

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SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch of secretive X-37B space plane delayed to Dec. 11 - Space.com

Stratolaunch’s huge Roc plane flies with fueled-up hypersonic vehicle for 1st time (photos) – Space.com

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The world's biggest airplane took to the skies over the weekend with a new type of payload under its expansive wings.

Stratolaunch's Roc carrier plane conducted its first-ever captive-carry flight with a powered and fueled-up hypersonic test vehicle on Sunday (Dec. 3).

The main goal was to evaluate the propulsion system of that vehicle the first of Stratolaunch's robotic Talon-A craft, known as TA-1 and to see more generally how it behaves while being carried in flight, company representatives said.

"Talon-A's propulsion system supports a liquid-propellant rocket engine that provides the thrust needed for Talon-A to reach hypersonic speeds," Stratolaunch CEO Zachary Krevor said in a statement on Sunday.

"While we have conducted several successful ground tests fueling and igniting the system, we needed to evaluate how the system performs in the flight environment prior to release," he added. "Initial results from today's flight show that the system has performed as predicted, and we will determine our next steps pending the full data review of the test."

Related: Stratolaunch test photos: The world's largest plane in action

Sunday's flight was the 12th overall for Roc, which has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). The huge, twin-fuselage plane had last flown in May of this year, when it performed its first-ever drop test with a Talon prototype.

Roc stayed aloft for three hours and 22 minutes on Sunday's sortie, which originated from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California. TA-1 stayed attached to its carrier plane from liftoff to landing.

The flight "represented a significant step forward in the company's near-term goal of completing a powered flight with the Talon-A vehicle," company representatives said in the same statement.

Stratolaunch was founded by Microsoft's Paul Allen in 2011. The initial aim was to air-launch rockets from high in Earth's atmosphere, much as Virgin Galactic sends tourists aloft using its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane and VSS Unity spaceliner.

But in 2019, a year after Allen's death, the company's focus shifted: It now intends to use Roc as a platform for hypersonic research and development. (Hypersonic vehicles are highly maneuverable craft capable of flying at least five times faster than the speed of sound.)

The reusable Talon-A craft will be Stratolaunch's first line of hypersonic vehicles, though others are in the offing; the company's website also teases a Talon+ vehicle, as well as a space plane.

Stratolaunch has already inked some customers for its hypersonic services. Last week, for example, the company announced that it had signed a contract with Leidos, the prime contractor for the U.S. Navy's Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB). The deal funds five hypersonic flights with Talon-A vehicles.

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Stratolaunch's huge Roc plane flies with fueled-up hypersonic vehicle for 1st time (photos) - Space.com