A Day in Astronomy: Launch of Sputnik

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the orbiting Sputnik 1. (thegravitywell.org/)

On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, humanity’s first artificial satellite, setting of a space race that continues to this day. The U.S. National Archives has a copy of minutes from an October 9 meeting between President Eisenhower and his advisors to discuss Sputnik I. The text accompanying the minutes demonstrates the shock this event caused:

At first, some in the Eisenhower administration downplayed the satellite as a “useless hunk of iron.” As David Halberstam wrote in The Fifties, “The success of Sputnik seemed to herald a kind of technological Pearl Harbor, which was exactly what Edward Teller said it was.” Others in America and around the world saw Sputnik as an ominous leap ahead in prestige and military ability, whether or not the new missiles could actually hit a target with nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower and some of his advisors, when they realized the significance of the Soviet achievement, met to discuss the alarming developments.

Of course, Russia is more of a wounded bear at the moment while China tries to take the lead in the latest space race. This is not to diminish what the Soviet Union accomplished in the last century, nor what Russia can accomplish tomorrow if it put its energy into science rather than war.

The New Space Force Anthem

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Baltimore Oriole, the Maryland State Bird. (Statesymbolsusa.org).

You may not have heard the news, but the U.S. Space Force now has its own anthem, similar to other military services. Here are the lyrics to the new song called “Semper Supra” (Latin for “Always Above”) first unveiled at the 2022 Air & Space Forces Association Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, September 20th:

We’re the mighty watchful eye,
 Guardians beyond the blue,
 The invisible front line,
 Warfighters brave and true.
 Boldly reaching into space,
 There’s no limit to our sky.
 Standing guard both night and day,
 We’re the Space Force from on high.

You can hear the anthem here. It is not something I will be humming in the shower, but maybe some will like knowing the words to this new song, like knowing the name of the Maryland State Bird (Baltimore Oriole) or Maryland State Reptile (Diamondback Terrapin Turtle).

And you can read more about the anthem itself here.

Image (Credit): Diamondback Terrapin Turtle, the Maryland State Reptile. (Statesymbolsusa.org)

A Day in Astronomy: New Space Agencies

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Original NASA seal. (NASA)

October 1 is a significant date for two of the world’s largest space agencies.

On this day in 1958, NASA had its first day of operations after being created a few months earlier by President Eisenhower in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. Here is more about the creation of the Agency as noted by NASA’s History Division:

On this date the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began operation. At the time it consisted of only about 8,000 employees and an annual budget of $100 million. In addition to a small headquarters staff in Washington that directed operations, NASA had at the time three major research laboratories inherited from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics-the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory established in 1918, the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory activated near San Francisco in 1940, and the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory built at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1941-and two small test facilities, one for high-speed flight research at Muroc Dry Lake in the high desert of California and one for sounding rockets at Wallops Island, Virginia. It soon added several other government research organizations.

Today NASA has a budget of about $24 billion and approximately 17,000 employees.

And on this day in 2003, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was formed from a merger of three previous Japanese space agencies – the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan, and National Space Development Agency of Japan.

Here is more information about JAXA today:

With about 1,500 staff, JAXA carries out the following main activities:

  • Promoting satellite utilization to enhance the quality of life;
  • Advancing scientific knowledge of the universe and the origin of life;
  • Exploring the Moon and planets, to broaden the horizon of human activity;
  • Ensuring the operation of the ISS and promoting space environment utilisation to create new opportunities for the society;
  • Developing rocket technologies, to respond to diversifying launch needs;
  • Advancing engineering research, to pursue aviation safety and environmentally-friendly technologies; and
  • Pursuing fundamental engineering research, to carry out autonomous space activities.
Credit: JAXA

Hubble: SpaceX to the Rescue

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Hubble Space Telescope orbiting Earth. (Hubblesite.org)

The Washington Post reports that NASA and SpaceX are looking into the idea of extending the life of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has already been in service more than 30 years. The space telescope’s orbit has been deteriorating since 2009, when it was last visited for repairs. The current orbit should be okay until the mid-2030s, and then it will fall to Earth.

To keep the Hubble in service for even more years, it would need to be pushed into a higher orbit. This is where SpaceX comes in. It can assist NASA by moving Hubble just 40 miles higher in order to get another 15 to 20 years out of the space telescope.

The article notes that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was not developed to replace Hubble but rather to complement it. Hence, the extra life for Hubble means more and better astronomical observations over additional years in conjunction with the JWST. For instance, we will get more shots like the one below where the Hubble captured the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission before and after it struck the asteroid.

Update: I have also included the JWST DART image below just to show the two space telescopes can work in tandem.

Image (Credit): This animated GIF combines three of the images NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured after NASA’s DART spacecraft intentionally impacted Dimorphos, a moonlet asteroid in the double asteroid system of Didymos. The animation spans from 22 minutes after impact to 8.2 hours after the collision took place. As a result of the impact, the brightness of the Didymos-Dimorphos system increased by 3 times. The brightness also appears to hold fairly steady, even eight hours after impact. (NASA, ESA, Jian-Yang Li (PSI); animation: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))
Image (Credit): This animation gif is a timelapse of images from NASA’s JWST. It covers the time spanning just before impact at 7:14 p.m. EDT, Sept. 26, through 5 hours post-impact. Plumes of material from a compact core appear as wisps streaming away from where the impact took place. An area of rapid, extreme brightening is also visible in the animation. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Cristina Thomas (Northern Arizona University), Ian Wong (NASA-GSFC); Joseph DePasquale (STScI))