Wallops Flight Facility to Launch Rockets to Study Eclipse

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Image (Credit): NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. (Timmons Group)

While Virginia will not be in the direct path of the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse, it will be playing a role related to the eclipse that day.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast will be launch three rockets to study disturbances in the Earth’s ionosphere during the eclipse. The rockets will be launched 45 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse.

These launches are part of NASA’s Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission. Such launches during an eclipse are not unusual as NASA hopes to learn a few things from this study.

Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus, stated:

Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.

Pic of the Week: Preparing for the Total Solar Eclipse

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Credit: New York Department of Economic Development

This week’s image comes from the great state of New York, which is advertising the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse on April 8.

New York is one of the state’s that will experience the eclipse, and the New York Department of Economic Development is not missing the chance to ensure everyone knows this.

A handy map also provides the timing of the eclipse in each city.

Credit: New York Department of Economic Development

The Total Solar Eclipse: Some Reminders

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Image (Credit): A view of the Moon’s shadow on Earth during the solar eclipse on August 11, 1999. The image was captured by Russia’s Mir space station. (Mir 27 Crew)

On April 8, should you be outside staring at the Total Solar Eclipse, you may want to take a few precautions so that you can witness future eclipses as well. In other words, protect your eyes!

NASA has provided a few tips related to photographing the eclipse. Please keep all of this in mind.

For instance, NASA notes:

Looking directly at the Sun is dangerous to your eyes and your camera. To take images when the Sun is partially eclipsed, you’ll need to use a special solar filter to protect your camera, just as you’ll need a pair of solar viewing glasses (also called eclipse glasses) to protect your eyes. However, at totality, when the Moon completely blocks the Sun, make sure to remove the filter so you can see the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the corona.

Let’s have some fun and be safe as well.

A Day in Astronomy: Birth of Wernher von Braun

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Image (Credit): Walt Disney (left) and Wernher von Braun. (NASA)

On this day in 1912, German-American aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun was born in Wyrzysk, which was part of Germany at the time and later became a Polish city. His full name was Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun.

Mr. Braun is best remembered for his part in the construction of Nazi Germany’s V-2 rockets as well as his later participation in development of the Saturn V rocket that became the workhorse of the U.S. Apollo space program.

In the above photo from 1954, you can see Walt Disney with Mr. Braun at the Guided Missile Development Operation Division at Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Mr. Braun served as a technical consultant on a few Disney space films.

RIP: Thomas Stafford, Apollo 10 Astronaut

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Image (Credit): The joint U.S.-USSR crew for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (standing on left), commander of the American crew; Cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov (standing on right), commander of the Soviet crew; Astronaut Donald K. Slayton (seated on left), docking module pilot of the American crew; Astronaut Vance D. Brand (seated in center), command module pilot of the American crew; and Cosmonaut Valeriy N. Kubasov (seated on right), engineer on the Soviet crew. (NASA)

As we plan our return to the Moon, we cannot forget the Apollo astronauts who showed us the way last century. One of those astronauts, Thomas Stafford, died today at the age of 93.

Among his many achievements, including his Apollo 10 mission that prepared the way for the first Moon landing by Apollo 11, he may be most remembered for his 1975 space encounter with the U.S.S.R. cosmonauts.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first international mission in space. It involved an Apollo spacecraft (crew of three) connecting with a Soyuz spacecraft (crew of two) in Earth orbit. The two days of joint activities created a precedent that was later followed by the International Space Station (ISS).

We were in the middle of the Cold War in 1975, so any cooperation with the U.S.S.R. was pretty amazing. It is just as surprising to witness SpaceX bringing cosmonauts to the ISS while the U.S. maintains severe sanctions on Russia.

Thomas Stafford died knowing that his early efforts to blaze a path to the Moon and cooperate with the Russians were still going strong today. That must have provided him with a little bit of peace in his final days.

You can watch a NASA video on Mr. Stafford’s accomplishments here.

You can also read more on Mr. Stafford’s life and career at these sites:

Rest in peace.