Monday, July 21, 2025
Buzz Aldrin turned 95 in January
Trump's NASA budget cuts threaten Congressionally-mandated identification of city-killing near-earth-objects
... Astronomers have found roughly 95 per cent of the near-Earth objects larger than 1km, and none of them poses any threat to Earth. We know much less about the smaller ones. An asteroid as slender as 50m across can wreck a city. Of the nearly quarter of a million that are around that size in Earth’s neighbourhood, 93 per cent remain undiscovered. ...
In July 1994, fragments of a comet called Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter, and Nasa, for the first time ever, caught the spectacle on video. Later that summer, Congress tasked Nasa with mapping all near-Earth objects larger than 1km, sobered by the sight of the comet’s cataclysmic Earth-sized impacts. The brief was then expanded to include 90 per cent of all objects 140m or larger — a task that is still less than halfway complete. ...
In 2028, Nasa plans to launch an infrared asteroid-detecting telescope called NEO Surveyor. The following year, which the UN has designated “International Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defence”, an asteroid called Apophis [~375m] will pass within 32,000km of Earth, closer than some satellites. A Nasa spacecraft is on its way to study Apophis in detail. ...
More.
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Missing us by 180k miles yesterday, asteroid 2024 MK was only discovered on June 16 and was one of the 60% larger than 140 meters still unknown
Gee that's . . . not a happy thought.
The asteroid, named 2024 MK, is estimated to measure about 480 feet (146 meters) across, which is greater than the height of a 40-story building or the Great Pyramid of Giza.
More.
A sucker that size could destroy London, England:
"If [an asteroid as big as Dimorphos] were to fall on the city of
London, windows would break over the whole south east of England and the
damage in [the Greater London] area would be very extreme," Collins
said. "There would be no survivors in the center of London because of
the impact itself and also because of the severity of the air blast." ...
While asteroids of this size crossing the path of our planet are rare, astronomers estimate that 60% of near Earth asteroids larger than 140 meters are still unknown.
NASA said it came in at 152.4 meters.
European Space Agency said it came as close as 180k miles.
Talk about giving two weeks notice.
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Thankfully NASA determines an object which weighed 1.6 pounds and smashed through a Florida man's roof wasn't the bag lost by two female astronauts last November
Nope, it was a 5,800 pound pallet heaved over the side of the ISS in March 2021.
Go big or go broke I always say.
NASA confirms space junk that hit Florida home came from space station
Astronauts accidentally drop tool bag during ISS spacewalk
Monday, November 13, 2023
Sunday, July 23, 2023
NASA Psyche Mission headed to iron and nickel-rich asteroid possibly worth quadrillions
The current value of ~208,874 tonnes of all the gold ever mined is only $14.47 trillion, so the discovery and mining of huge new supplies of precious metals could cause a deflationary depression . . . some day.
Launch date is October, arriving in 2029.
Meanwhile we can exchange worthless pieces of paper for all kinds of stuff made in China.
Seems fair.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Someone should tell NASA Mars helicopter team that a Wright Brothers moment requires a HUMAN piloting a PLANE
NASA scores Wright Brothers moment with first helicopter flight on Mars :
Monday, October 21, 2019
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Everything human beings touch turns into a shit-hole, including near-earth orbit
Space debris from India’s anti-satellite missile test a threat to ISS, NASA says :
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Dan Henninger: The Democrats summon Hurricane Christine
Monday, July 31, 2017
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Friday, December 5, 2014
Leftist UK Guardian means to slam USA as fading empire in headline, backtracks in actual article to slam empire of NASA
Here:
The Empire, of course, is Nasa, a once noble but now creaky agency that has devolved from moonshots to renting rides from the Russians, all in the span of Buzz Aldren’s adulthood.
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Hey commies! Learn how to capitalize. It's called NASA. And what exactly is notable in the history of British spaceflight, anyway?
Hm. Is there something called British spaceflight?
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
US Antares rocket to intl space station with 5K lbs of supplies explodes on launch
Another photograph of Obama's incompetence. We can't send even supplies reliably after cancelling the Shuttle program, but the Russians can get our astronauts there and back safely. Watch for yourself here.
Maybe NASA should spend less time making nice with Muslims who only want to kill us.