Jonathan McDowell @planet4589@mastodon.cloud
I'm an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, working on Chandra and quasars, and commenting on space launches and space activities.
And less cheerfully (unless you are a North Korean missile engineer) the Hwasong-12 missile made its first flight yesterday. It was launched from Kusong to an apogee of 2111 km and splashed down in the Sea of Japan.
In other recent space news, India's South Asia Satellite, launched on May 5, has reached synchronous orbit and is drifting over the Indian Ocean towards its station. The sat provides comms capability for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Some really nice images of Saturn's rings coming in from the Cassini probe this evening
OK that's odd. I went away for a couple of weeks and now the 'home'
panel gives me 'you arent' following anyone yet' except that I checked
I'm still following 70 people. What gives?
Closest approaches to the Saturnian rings by space probes https://mastodon.cloud/media/O5kU922KbUtV3ME5kCU - note how they find the gaps either side of the dense rings (A-F). Black = planet itself
NASA's Cassini probe passed between Saturn's rings and cloudtops this morning. 3 hours till we hear from it - if it survived OK
At the March for Science in Amsterdam
https://mastodon.social/media/kGEhiExB7MzD7VDQoa4
Sind dann auch mal auf dem March for Science in #heidelberg #marchforscience
Marche pour les sciences: ce mouvement anti-Trump est devenu mondial. S'il a lieu le Jour de la Terre, ce n'est pas par hasard http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/planete/20170422.OBS8351/marche-pour-les-sciences-ce-mouvement-anti-trump-est-devenu-mondial.html #marchforscience #sciencemarchfr https://mamot.fr/media/ixNaKzYS1BmDIuILJoI
The Harvard and MIT marches merging on the MIT campus https://mastodon.cloud/media/npn9dG_tDO7tTrNDUq4
Harvard humanists on Boston Common for the #marchforscience https://mastodon.cloud/media/L58atAfMslbT2Pdz9HU
Harvard and MIT scientists marching across the Charles River to Boston #marchforscience https://mastodon.cloud/media/LpqQEOQM2lx0tN_hvuk
Astronomers at Harvard heading out for the science march today https://mastodon.cloud/media/9OEyueycVNnw_P8v6JU
At 0609 UTC (30 min or so from now) the Cassini space probe will make its final close flyby (T-126) of Saturn's moon Titan. In September it will plunge ito Saturn's atmosphere and be destroyed
Tianzhou-1 天舟一号 has docked with the Tiangong-2 天宫二号 spacelab at about 0418 UTC. Meanwhile, the US cargo ship SS John Glenn is scheduled to arrive at the ISS at 1005 UTC.
China's Tianzhou-1 cargo ship is beginning its rendezvous with the Tiangong-2 spacelab launched last September
Made my sign for the Science March tomorrow - it's getting real! Anyone else here joining the Harvard Yard-to-Boston Common march?
Jonathan's Space Report No. 737, with details of recent launches and ISS activity, published at http://planet4589.com/jsr.html
Orbital decay of stuff recently ejected from the space station. TES-5 has a drag device to make it reenter quickly. The ACBM shield was dropped by a spacewalking astronaut. https://mastodon.cloud/media/X7-glOrD8BAjunAdJfE
A busy day in space today.Cargo ship John Glenn continues its trek to the ISS. Soyuz MS-04 overtook it and docked with the Poisk module, delivering two astronauts to supplement the crew. And China's Tianzhou-1 cargo ship began its voyage to the Tiangong-2 spacelab, currently uninhabited.
