From gabe at educatemotivate.com Sat Jan 4 20:46:10 2025 From: gabe at educatemotivate.com (Gabe) Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2025 21:46:10 -0500 Subject: [Spacetalk] https://www.nasa.gov; https://www.jpl.nasa.gov; https://spaceflightnow.com Message-ID: <174F263D-115D-4749-A9BF-5ACB0F8D2997@educatemotivate.com> Hi all, Good evening from Florida?MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, HAPPY KWANZAA, HAPPY BODHI?.AND HAPPY NEW YEAR?I hope your holiday, whatever you celebrate, was awesome?I always say we should share in each other?s Holidays because we are so much alike... I?m sure many of you, like me, are thinking what happened to this year? It absolutely amazes me how fast time goes?when I try to look back on the year, it is filled with so much joy?I am always so thankful?it is actually the first time, other than the pandemic, that I have not been in Norway or Denmark?in the snow and amazing decorations of Christmas?I did go to Morocco this month, which was amazing in its own way? I want to thank everyone for their kindness and caring?I am treated so well on these visits?it is always so humbling and I really don?t know how to adequately express my thanks?I know it takes time and effort to prepare for the visits, most of which few people have, so I am always thankful for all you do to support each visit. It is always a team effort for me?I look at each of you as my teammate and together we are able to make these visits so beneficial?I know, from the feedback I receive from the kids, it is very beneficial to them, and so many stay in touch for many years?it has been almost 12 years since may first visit to Norway which effectively changed my life and opened so many door for International Travel?now, 18 countries, hundreds of thousands of students later, it is still as magical as the very first time?which I remember like it was yesterday. In January/February I will be going to Norway?it will be my last time as the scheduling and planning is getting to be so time consuming anti is more and more challenging to get support?as I progress through 2025, I know it will be so special?there simply is nothing like being with the kids, I?ve always said the connection is magical, equally shared, and I am so thankful for every single friend I have made along the way. You have all touched my heart in the most special way?it has been awesome to have so many families stop bye my house and spend the day at Kennedy Space Center?this is a way for me to give a little back... The Space Program is always so amazing?I still go to Kennedy Space Center every chance I can?for me, just driving through is awesome?I never get tired of seeing the historic building, of reliving so many amazing memories, of exploring new adventures? 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 NASA?s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun ? #NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the sun NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration 's pioneering Parker Solar Probe made history on Dec 24, flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures topping 1,700 ?F (930 ?C). ?? https://bit.ly/49VRJ8J via Phys.org Launched in August 2018, the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast hashtag#SpaceWeather events that can affect life on Earth. "Right now, Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to a star than anything has ever been before," at 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) away, NASA official Nicky Fox said. If the distance between Earth and the sun is the equivalent to the length of an American football field, the spacecraft should have been about four yards (meters) from the end zone at the moment of closest approach?known as perihelion. "This is one example of NASA's bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe," Parker Solar Probe program scientist Arik Posner said. So effective is the heat shield that the probe's internal instruments remain near room temperature?around 85F (29C)?as it explores the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. Parker will also be moving at a blistering pace of around 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), fast enough to fly from the US capital Washington to Japan's Tokyo in under a minute. "Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory," said Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. By venturing into these extreme conditions, Parker has been helping scientists tackle some of the sun's biggest mysteries: how hashtag#SolarWind originates, why the corona is hotter than the surface below, and how coronal mass ejections?massive clouds of plasma that hurl through space?are formed. The flyby on December 24, 2024 is the first of three record-setting close passes, with the next two?on March 22 and June 19, 2025?both expected to bring the probe back to a similarly close distance from the sun. ? Video via X post: t.co/ui3yXZW0xB Moon landings and more: 2025's top space missions ? (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; image processing by Gary Eason ? CC B) 2025 is set to dazzle with a wide array of exciting and spectacular space missions. On tap are a flurry of moon landing attempts, high-profile test launches of SpaceX's Starship megarocket, human spaceflight adventures and asteroid sampling missions. Here's a look at some of the most alluring space events expected in the coming year.Full Story: Space (1/1) Full moons of 2025: Names, dates and everything you need to know ? (Saad Janjua / 500px via Getty Images) Find out exactly when to see the full moons of 2025, including dates for two total lunar eclipses and three supermoons. In 2025, you'll have the chance to see 12 full moons, including three supermoons and two lunar eclipses. Although experienced moon gazers know that the night of the full moon is not the best for observing the lunar surface (even with a good pair of binoculars ), the full moon rising as an orb at dusk is a celestial view that's hard to beat. Each full moon has a unique name that reflects its agricultural past. Besides the usual collection of full moons in 2025, there will also be three supermoons (when the moon's monthly perigee, or closest point to Earth, coincides with its full phase) and two total lunar eclipses, the first since 2022. The moon will be big news in late 2025, with NASA targeting September 2025 to launch its Artemis II mission. The first crewed Artemis mission to the moon since 1972 will send four astronauts on a 10-day mission to orbit and travel beyond the moon. The following mission, Artemis III, will ferry two astronauts to the lunar surface. That?s scheduled for September 2026. Full moon guide: When's the next full moon? Here are all of the full moon dates and times for 2025, according to timeanddate.com , including the most commonly used names in North America: Monday, Jan. 13: Wolf Moon (22:26 UTC/5:26 p.m. EST) Wednesday, Feb. 12: Snow Moon (13:52 UTC/8:52 a.m. EST) Friday, March 14: Worm Moon (6:54 UTC/2:54 a.m. EDT) ? also a total lunar eclipse Saturday, April 12: Pink Moon (0:22 UTC/8:22 p.m. EDT) Monday, May 12: Flower Moon (16:56 UTC/12:56 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, June 11: Strawberry Moon (7:45 UTC/3:45 a.m. EDT) Thursday, July 10: Buck Moon (20:39 UTC/4:39 p.m. EDT) Saturday, Aug. 9 Sturgeon Moon (7:58 UTC/3:58 a.m. EDT) Sunday, Sept. 7: Corn Moon (18:12 UTC/2:12 p.m. EDT) ? also a total lunar eclipse Monday, Oct. 6: Harvest Moon (3:50 UTC/11:50 p.m. EDT) ? also a supermoon Wednesday, Nov. 5: Beaver Moon (13:21 UTC/8:21 a.m. EST) ? also a supermoon Thursday, Dec. 4: Cold Moon (23:15 UTC/6:15 p.m. EST) ? also a supermoon Will 2025 be the year of Starship? ? (Chandan Khanna/Getty Images) SpaceX's Starship megarocket may come into its own in 2025. The 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket system ever built, and it's designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. In 2025, SpaceX could try to launch it up to 25 times. Full Story: Space (12/30) India launches ambitious space docking test flight ? (ISRO) India successfully launched twin satellites on the country's first-ever space docking test flight on Monday, a mission that aims to demonstrate a key technology the country will need to build its own space station and return moon samples to Earth. Full Story: Space (12/29) ? NASA?s LEXI Will Provide X-Ray Vision of Earth?s Magnetosphere ? NASA?s LEXI Will Provide X-Ray Vision of Earth?s Magnetosphere A NASA X-ray imager is heading to the Moon as part of NASA?s Artemis campaign, where it will capture the first global images of the magnetic field that shields Earth from solar radiation. The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager, or? Media Day with Artemis II Crews From left, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jenni Gibbons, NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman participate in a media day event on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency?s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Parker%20Into%20the%20Sun.png Type: image/png Size: 341452 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Moon landings and more: 2025's top space missions.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 49287 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Full moons of 2025: Names, dates and everything you need to know.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 15873 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Will 2025 be the year of Starship?.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 24976 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: India launches ambitious space docking test flight.png Type: image/png Size: 274193 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Email.png Type: image/png Size: 1564 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 53879543672_542be071cc_o.png Type: image/png Size: 352314 bytes Desc: not available URL: