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12/26/2014 – Ephemeris – Tragedies and triumphs of 2014
Ephemeris for Friday, December 26th. The sun will rise at 8:18. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:08. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 11:02 this evening.
2014 was a year of personal tragedy and also tragedy and triumph in space. The Space tragedies came in October with the destruction and loss of Orbital Science’s third supply mission to the International Space Station when the their Antares rocket blew up right after launch. A few days later Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo disintegrated on a test flight killing a pilot. In the Triumph department the European Space Agency’s Rosetta caught up and orbited its comet 67P, for short, in August and bounced down its lander Philae in November. It wasn’t supposed to bounce, but stick the landing. Bruised and battered Philae delivered its science before its batteries died. And this month an unmanned Orion capsule made its maiden voyage into space.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes seconds after liftoff on October 28, 2014. Credit NASA.
SpaceShipTwo disintegrates October 31, 2014 killing a pilot. Credit USA Today.
After a second bounce on the Comet 67P the Philae lander ended up sideways apparently on the base of a cliff. Researchers were able to get data from just about all the instruments before the battery discharged. The team hopes and the comet gets closer to the sun and the sun angle changes they can revive Philae. Credit: ESA.
Screen capture of Delta IV Heavy rocket liftoff carrying the Orion test article into orbit on December 4, 2014. Credit .NASA via BBC
Ride back to the earth with Orion via a camera mounted in a window. The window is facing aft as the capsule re-enters the atmosphere heat shield first at 20,000 miles per hour. You’ll experience everything except the G forces. It comes with appropriate spacey music. It’s as close as I’ll ever get to ride in one of these things.
11/04/2014 – Ephemeris – Last week was a bad one for commercial space
Ephemeris for Election Day, Tuesday, November 4th. The sun will rise at 7:24. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 5:27. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:46 tomorrow morning.
Last week was not a happy one for commercial space companies. First, last Tuesday the Orbital Science’s Antares blew up (or in space-talk: “Suffered an anomaly”) attempting to deliver it’s third contracted commercial cargo to the International Space Station. No one was killed because it was an unmanned rocket and the spectators were kept at a safe distance. Then on Friday an anomaly occurred during a test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. In that mishap the co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed. “Space is hard.” was the phrase heard quite often last week. And it’s true. I’ve found that the natural state of any mechanism is not to work. The more complicated the device is, like a rocket, the harder it is to get it to work.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The initial signs that the Antares rocket was in trouble. Credit: Parabolic Arc.
A sequence of photos of the flight and breakup of SpaceShipTwo. Credit: Kenneth Brown/Reuters.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 