[Spacetalk] https://www.nasa.gov/index.html;

[Gabe]

Hi all,

   I want to thank everyone who took the time to respond to Rich’s story….I always appreciate your very kind and heartfelt thoughts…I’m especially thankful for those who share it, use it in your classroom, and let others know we have to remember this day and share it with those who only know it through history books…

We have to stay positive and always be thankful… remembering to do our best, enjoy everything we do, believe in ourselves, and let those we care about most know (I always say this, we all need to take it to heart) …hugs and smiles… STAY SAFE, TAKE CARE, Love ya, Gabe  

http://www.spotthestation.nasa.gov

Ottawa’s Fall Rhapsody


Image Credit: NASA

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station shot this photo of peak fall colors around Ottawa, the capital of Canada. West of downtown Ottawa lies Gatineau Park, where sugar maple leaves turn orange-red and hickories turn golden-bronze during the season, known regionally as “the Fall Rhapsody.”


SpaceX's private Polaris Dawn astronauts splash down to end historic spacewalk mission 


Polaris Dawn has landed.

The historic SpaceX <https://www.space.com/18853-spacex.html> astronaut mission — which conducted the first-ever private spacewalk, among other achievements —returned to Earth today (Sept. 15), splashing down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 3:36 a.m. EDT (0736 GMT).

"Polaris Dawn we are mission complete. Thanks for all the big help pulling this mission together," said mission commander Jared Isaacman after the crew splashed down in the ocean.

The reentry was seen by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. "We actually had a pretty neat view of Polaris Dawn entering. All of us were more or less crowded in the cupola watching it," said NASA astronaut Mike Barratt, according to CBS' William Harwood <https://x.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1835226073824432240>. "That was pretty spectacular for us.”



Super Harvest Moon lunar eclipse: How to watch Sept. 17
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(Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)






















A partial lunar eclipse of September's Super Harvest Moon is coming, and if you're plagued with cloud cover, or are just in the wrong part of the planet, we've got you covered. You can watch the celestial event online! On Tuesday (Sept. 17), the Full Harvest Moon will experience a partial lunar eclipse that will be visible for North and South America (except for Alaska), Europe, most of Africa, western Asia, and parts of Antarctica. This eclipse will take place during a "supermoon," which will make the moon appear slightly larger in the night sky.
Full Story: Space <https://r.smartbrief.com/resp/suhiCKojllDDjcsOCigydsCicNvVgK?format=multipart> (9/13) 



'We just ran out of time': Boeing Starliner astronauts on why their spaceship returned to Earth without them
News <https://www.space.com/news> published September 13, 2024

Boeing's Starliner capsule might have been able to finish its mission as planned if time had been on its side.

Starliner launched June 5 <https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-crew-flight-test-launch> on its first-ever crewed flight, a trial run that sent NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station <https://www.space.com/16748-international-space-station.html> (ISS). The duo were supposed to live on the orbiting lab for just a week or so, but NASA extended their stay to about three months while studying thruster issues that cropped up during Starliner <https://www.space.com/19367-boeing-cst-100.html>'s rendezvous with the ISS.

Ultimately, the agency concluded that bringing Williams and Wilmore home on Starliner was just too risky, so the capsule returned to Earth uncrewed on Sept. 6 <https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-lands-earth-crew-flight-test-mission>; its former crew will come home next February on a SpaceX <https://www.space.com/18853-spacex.html> Crew Dragon capsule. But that decision was made under some time pressure, Wilmore said, noting that 12 astronauts are currently living and working on the ISS.

Click here for more Space.com videos... <https://videos.space.com/m/0r3eq6jH/nasas-starliner-astronauts-talk-about-watching-their-ride-leave-without-them?list=9wzCTV4g>
NASA's Starliner astronauts talk about watching their ride leave without them

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore talk about Starliner's return trip and requesting an absentee ballot for the US election in November. Credit: NASA

Earth's new 'mini-moon' will orbit our planet for the next 2 months
News <https://www.livescience.com/news>

Earth is set to gain another moon by the end of the month — a small asteroid that will be snared by our planet's gravity until the end of the year, scientists say.

The mini-moon, an asteroid called 2024 PT5, was spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System <https://atlas.fallingstar.com/> (ATLAS) on Aug. 7. The space rock will  make one complete orbit of our planet between Sept. 29 and Nov. 25 before escaping Earth's gravity.

Yet despite this 57-day close flyby of our planet, the asteroid will be hard to spot as it's just 33 feet (10 meters) wide. 

Our planet occasionally snags extra moons <https://www.livescience.com/space/the-moon/new-quasi-moon-discovered-near-earth-has-been-travelling-alongside-our-planet-since-100-bc>. For instance, a similar event occurred in 1981 and 2022, when the object 2022 NX 1 became an ephemeral companion to our planet before swinging further away, the astronomers noted. The researchers published their findings in September in the journal Research Notes of the AAS <https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f>.

New record! 19 people are orbiting Earth right now
News <https://www.space.com/news> published September 11, 2024

Earth orbit is busier right now than it's ever been.

Three people launched toward the International Space Station <https://www.space.com/international-space-station-soyuz-ms-26-launch> (ISS) today (Sept. 11) aboard a Russian Soyuz <https://www.space.com/40951-soyuz-spacecraft.html> capsule, pushing the total number of people in Earth orbit to a new high-water mark.

"With the trio now in orbit, there is a record of 19 people currently in orbit," NASA commentator Anna Schneider said during the agency's webcast of the Soyuz liftoff. The old record was 17, set last year <https://www.space.com/record-17-people-in-earth-orbit-at-once>.

The Soyuz that launched today is carrying NASA's Don Pettit and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The trio is expected to arrive at the ISS around 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT), just three hours after launch.

They'll join nine people aboard the orbiting lab: NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams, and cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.

Wilmore and Williams were supposed to be home already; they launched this past June on Crew Flight Test (CFT), the first-ever crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner capsule. CFT was supposed to last just 10 days or so, but Starliner suffered thruster problems in orbit, and NASA kept the capsule docked to the ISS for three months while studying the issue. Ultimately, the agency decided to return Starliner to Earth uncrewed — which happened over the weekend <https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-lands-earth-crew-flight-test-mission> — and bring Williams and Wilmore home on a SpaceX <https://www.space.com/18853-spacex.html> Crew Dragon capsule next February.


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