“You know, the world needs a hero… and today it got one.” – Jonathan Clark, M.D., Red Bull Stratos Medical Director Earlier today… this: After years of preparation, two “practice” jumps and one aborted launch attempt due to uncooperative weather, extreme BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner successfully ascended to over 128,000 feet in a pressurized capsule…
Author: Jason Major
Jason is a Rhode Island-based graphic designer, photographer, nature lover, and space exploration fanatic.
Jump From the Edge of Space: LIVE FEED
UPDATE: Today is the second launch attempt for the Red Bull Stratos “Mission to the Edge of Space.” Regardless if you would do it or not, today Red Bull Stratos BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner will ride a high-tech pressurized capsule into the stratosphere and jump out at 120,000 feet — 22 miles/36 km — becoming…
Endeavour Rolls Through LA Neighborhoods
This weekend the space shuttle Endeavour is on its way to the California Science Center, getting driven via Overland Transporter along 12 miles of Los Angeles roads at a more-or-less steady 2 mph. Hundreds of onlookers have gathered along the route to catch a glimpse of a real-life spaceship passing by just outside their front…
New MSL pic of “shiny thing” shows it’s totally a piece of plastic
Remember that curious object spotted on Mars a few days ago by Curiosity? After JPL researchers determined it was likely a piece of plastic wrap from a cable that shook loose during the landing sequence, the rover took this shot with its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on 10/12. I’m no scientist, but yeah……
Curiosity Spots an Unidentified Object on Mars
While scooping its first samples of Martian soil NASA’s Curiosity rover captured the image above, which shows what seems to be a small, seemingly metallic sliver or chip of… something… resting on the ground. Is it a piece of the rover? Or some other discarded fleck of the MSL descent mechanisms? Or perhaps an exotic Martian pebble of…
Curiosity Leaves its “Bootprint”
In an image reminiscent of the historical photo of Buzz Aldrin’s boot print in the lunar soil, Curiosity leaves a wheel scuff in a wind-formed ripple at a site called “Rocknest”. The rover’s right Navigation camera took this image of the scuff mark on the mission’s 57th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 3, 2012). For…
Mercury’s Sufferingly Sulf’rous Surface
Named for the 17th-century Venetian composer, the southern half of Mercury’s Vivaldi basin is seen in this image acquired on August 26 by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. The 213-km (132-mile) -wide crater’s smooth floor is contrasted by the incredibly rugged terrain beyond its outermost ring — a result of the ejected material that was flung out…
Venus Has a Surprisingly Chilly Layer
Although similar in size to Earth, the planet-next-door Venus is typically perceived as a hellish inferno of caustic clouds, crushing pressures and kiln-like temperatures. And while those are indeed all very much the case, Venus has recently been found to have a cooler side too… although it’s 125 km (77 miles) up in its atmosphere.
A Daytime Moon on Mars
A raw image taken on September 21 by Curiosity’s right Mastcam shows a daytime view of the Martian sky with a crescent-lit Phobos in the frame… barely visible, yes, but most certainly there. Very cool! The image above is a crop of the original, contrast-enhanced and sharpened to bring out as much detail as possible….
Curiosity’s Roving Along an Ancient Riverbed!
Not even two months after landing on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover has already found good evidence that water once flowed within Gale Crater! And not just as a random occurrence either, but an honest-to-goodness stream… long-lived and possibly hip-deep, according to both rocks and researchers.
Our Sharpest (Ground-Based) View of Pluto Yet:
Real planet, dwarf planet, KBO… who cares? What matters here is that astronomers from NASA, NOAO and the Gemini Observatory have created the sharpest image of Pluto ever made with ground-based observations — and developed a new way to verify potential Earth-like exoplanets at the same time. Not too shabby, I’d say. Here’s how they…
Poll: Would YOU Jump From the Edge of Space?
The light is GREEN, all systems are GO… on October 8, 2012, pilot and extreme BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner will perform a record-breaking freefall from a capsule at the staggering altitude of 120,000 feet — that’s over 22 miles (36.5 kilometers) up! On the way down Baumgartner will go supersonic, setting both height and speed…
Lights in the Dark 