Astro Aviator - Part 3

STS-135 Crew With Big Bang Theory Cast

by Assad

STS-135 crew, the last shuttle mission visited the Big Bang Theory set at the Warner Bros. Studio on Tuesday 23rd August 2011.

Back row, from left to right: Mission specialist Rex J. Walheim, pilot Douglas G. Hurley, co-creators/executive producers Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, commander Christopher J. Ferguson and mission specialist Sandra H. Magnus.

Boeing 747-8F Completes Certification

by Assad

Boeing has finally announced the completion of the certification of it’s new freighter Boeing 747-8F. Boeing is poised to deliver a new member of the 747 family and the company’s largest-ever airplane after receiving the official stamps of approval from the U.S. and European regulatory authorities.

Russian Progress Goes Down

by Assad

The Russian space agency has confirmed that they have lost the freighter and that it has crashed after it failed to deploy in the designated orbit. According to the agency the rockets failed and therefore the cargo ship lost height and fell towards the Earth losing nearly three tons of cargo supply which was to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS).

Pakistan PAKSAT R1 Satellite Launch

by Assad

Here is a rare video of Pakistan satellite launched by the help of Chinese rocket. It is a geosynchronous communications satellite operated by Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. It was launched on 11 August 2011 aboard a Long March 3B/E carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China’s Sichuan province. It is expected to replace PAKSAT-1 in geostationary orbit at 38° East.

Jet Engine Icing

by Assad

According to recent NASA research on the jet engine icing problem, it is revealed that at high altitude or in storm clouds, small ice crystals get sucked into the core of the engine. Due to high temperatures in the aircraft engine, some of the ice melts and covers the warm engine parts with a thin film of water that traps additional ice crystals. Whereas the super-cooled water chills the engine components such as compressor blades to form ice over it and this results to loss of power and can lead to engine flame out.

Tracking Space Storm

by Assad

Recently NASA is able to track the solar storms far from the sun through the Stereo spacecraft. CMEs are billion-ton clouds of solar plasma launched by the same explosions that spark solar flares. When they sweep past our planet, they can cause auroras, radiation storms, and in extreme cases power outages. Tracking these clouds and predicting their arrival is an important part of space weather forecasting.

Crescent Earth

by Assad

This picture of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon — the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft — was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by NASA’s Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth.

This photo was made from three images taken through color filters, then processed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Because the Earth is many times brighter than the moon, the moon was artificially brightened so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints.

NASA Shuttle: Time Period History

by Assad

Here is a image I came across about the time period and history of NASA’s space shuttle program. Even though the Shuttle is grounded by the legacy will move on and more innovation and researches will open a new door to space exploration…

NASA Probe Dawn to Orbit Vesta

by Assad

US space probe Dawn has finally approached the asteroid Vesta and now preparing for orbiting the rocky object. Dawn task is to orbit the asteroid situated in the asteroid belt for a year and then will advance to the so called dwarf planet Ceres for analysis but for now it will be analyzing Vesta. Vesta is termed as a deflated or a punctured football because of it shape and is 530km wide which was discovered in 1807 and is the fourth object to be discovered in the belt which is 188 million kilometers away from Earth.

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