North Korean Launch (via AP)

Stick to Bad Astronomy

I wish Bad Astronomy would stick to Bad Astronomy. I know it is a science blog run by Discover Magazine and written by Phil Plait but talking about social or political issues is not Science or Astronomy. I'm talking about the recent ruling in Iowa about same sex marriage. Here is Phil's comments:

Iowa?

Awesome.

And perfectly correct. I’d add "of course", but some folks don’t get it. But it really is simple. We have two choices, legally: allow any consenting adults to be legally married, or allow none. This is because there’s a difference between being married legally — in the eyes of the law — and being married religiously. If your established religion hates teh ghey, then (besides that being your loss) don’t allow them to marry within that religion. But the State has no legal right to tell people to be married or not. So if it allows consenting oppositely-polarized heterosexual couples to be married and exact benefits from it, then they cannot consistently bar any two consenting adults, heterosexual or otherwise.

I want to say so much more but I'm keeping my blog just focused on Space and related subjects. What is important to me on this blog is I don't give a hoot what sexual preference one has.( Or wants to marry his pet dog for that matter.) We are all humans and all I want to talk about is space, Astronomy and space program policies.

I have a personal Blog where I do talk about social and political issues there.

I like you Phil very much and respect your Bad Astronomy. But please stick to the subject of Astronomy and leave the social engineering to the other blogs. Please!

North Korea Launches Missile

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea defiantly carried out a provocative rocket launch Sunday that the U.S., Japan and other nations suspect was a cover for a test of its long-range missile technology.
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Liftoff took place at 11:30 a.m. (North Korean time) Sunday from the coastal Musudan-ri launch pad in northeastern North Korea, the South Korean and U.S. governments said. The multistage rocket hurtled toward the Pacific, reaching Japanese airspace within seven minutes, but no debris appeared to hit its territory, officials in Tokyo said.

The U.N. Security Council approved an emergency session for Sunday afternoon in New York, following a request from Japan that came minutes after the launch.

The South Koreans called it "reckless," the Americans "provocative," and Japan said it strongly protested the launch.

The launch was a bold act of defiance against President Barack Obama, Japanese leader Taro Aso, Hu Jintao of China and others who pressed Pyongyang in the days leading up to liftoff to call off a launch they said would threaten peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

We know it was a multi-stage but did not get high enough to launch a satellite. And not a threat to have Japan fire the Aegas or Missile Shield to go off. Just a rattling of the saber of Kim Il-Jong.

Senate Panel OK's more Shuttle flights

I'm glad the funding was ok'ed by the Senate Panel to fund NASA 2.5 Billion dollars to cover the gap:

CAPE CANAVERAL -- The U.S. Senate Budget Committee passed a spending plan Thursday that would keep NASA's shuttle fleet flying through 2011 and eliminate a fixed retirement date that could create "dangerous scheduling pressures" like those that led to the 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia disasters.
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The provision, included in the committee's version of the fiscal year 2010 budget, would provide NASA with an additional $2.5 billion to fly shuttle missions in 2011, while fully funding the development of next-generation Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft.

The spending provision is an initial -- but major -- legislative hurdle. The budget still must be passed by the full Senate and the House, and it must be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Senator Bill Nelson adds:

"This decision today in the Senate sends a strong signal that the shuttle should not be retired on a date-certain -- but only when the space station can be safely completed," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, who requested the spending provision.

NASA is "not going to be able to fly nine missions in a year-and-a-half, nor should they," said Nelson, a Melbourne native who flew a shuttle mission aboard Columbia that landed just 10 days before the Challenger explosion.

A positive move is the 3,500 space related jobs will be around a little bit longer.

Extending shuttle fleet operations for an additional year would stall an estimated 3,500 job cuts at Kennedy Space Center and help close an anticipated five-year gap between shuttle fleet retirement and the first piloted flights of the orbiter's replacement.

Station Complete!

Space Bat Lives on!

ISS Solar Panels deployed

Great work on the ISS today. The power output has been increased so six crew members can inhabit the ISS. From Flame Trench here.

Activation of the final pair of solar wings brings the station to full power - enough to light up a small neighborhood.

The added power doubles to 30 kilowatts the amount of electricity available for science experiments in orbit, and helps NASA advance its goal of doubling station crews to six people this year.

GOCE Launch today

Watch it here at ESA Portal here.

Wiki here.

New Space Blog

Check out this new Space blog at A Sky Full of Stars.

Former Astronaut against AGW

SANTA FE, N.M. - Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.
"I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York.

Harrison Schmitt was one of the last astronaut to walk on the moon from the Apollo 17 mission. He has a science degree from the California Institute of Technology. He also studied geology at the University of Oslo in Norway and took a doctorate in geology from Harvard University in 1964. I know he isn't a atmospheric scientist but being a geologist he has studied the "Geologic records" connected to climate change.

“Not that the planet hasn’t warmed. We know it has or we’d all still be in the Ice Age,” he said. “But it has not reached a crisis proportion and, even among us skeptics, there’s disagreement about how much man has been responsible for that warming.”

Schmitt said historical documents indicate average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D., and the rise in carbon dioxide is because of the temperature rise.

Schmitt also said geological evidence indicates changes in sea level have been going on for thousands of years. He said smaller changes are related to changes in the elevation of land masses -- for example, the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers.

From Boston Herald here.

From Cave News here.

Apollo 9 documentry

Apollo 9 40th This week

Kepler Launch

Did you see that flying rock?

Picture from Sky and Telescope here.
A small asteroid buzzed by Earth Monday, though only real astronomy geeks in the Pacific would have noticed.

The rock, estimated to be no more than 200 feet wide, zoomed past our planet at an altitude of 40,000 miles at 1:44 p.m. universal time — or 8:44 EST.

Dubbed 2009 DD45, it was discovered only on Friday by Australian astronomers.

Forty thousand miles may sound like a lot, but it's only about one-seventh of the way to the moon, and less than twice as far out as many telecommunications satellites.

Had 2009 DD45 hit the Earth, it would have exploded on or near the surface with the force of a large nuclear blast — not very reassuring when you consider humanity had only about three days' notice.

According to the Australian news Web site Crikey, the asteroid is likely to be drawn in by Earth's gravity, meaning it may return for many more near misses in the future.

Comet Lulin showing today

From Comet Lulin site here

From Fox News here:

Get ready for the night of the comet.

Comet Lulin, a strange, backward-traveling, greenish-hued ball of ice and gas, will make its closest approach to Earth on the evening of Monday, Feb. 23.

It'll still be 38 million miles away, but should be visible with the naked eye in dark locations, and with binoculars or a telescope in more lit-up locations.

Skygazers in North America should look to the west-southwest, where Lulin will be just a bit to the right of Saturn, between the constellations of Virgo and Leo.

This week will probably be humanity's only chance to see Lulin, which was discovered in 2007 by Chinese and Taiwanese astronomers. The comet appears to be on its way out of the solar system for good.

NOAA N Prime Launch at VAFB

Ronald Reagan's Challenger Speech

Iran launches Satellite

From Reuters here:

Iran said it had launched into orbit for the first time a domestically made Omid (Hope) research and telecommunications satellite. The launch was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah.

Iran's satellite technology may also be used in the development of ballistic missiles, the U.S. Defense Department said. Such missiles could be used to deliver a nuclear weapon over large distances.

The United States suspects Iran of developing nuclear weapons, although Iran has long said its nuclear program is purely for civilian energy purposes.

"This development today is cause for concern not just here in the United States but in Europe, throughout the Middle East and I believe throughout the greater world," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. "They (Iran) pose a real threat and it is a growing threat."

Video HT from Wired & LGF here:

Challenger too

I missed posting something on the Challenger disaster that happened on January 28, 1986.

Columbia disaster six years ago

I remember the Columbia coming in and breaking up six years ago. My sister called me when she heard about it. I was in disbelief. But I turned on the cable news and saw the photos of it breaking up over Texas. Here is an article written last year for the 5th anniversary here.