From October 2019 to February 2020, Betelgeuse (the bright orange star at Orion’s right shoulder, not Tim Burton’s magical necroprankster) was seen to dim dramatically, even more so than it typically does. It was something that wasn’t just observed with telescopes but also it was quite obvious to the naked eye from most locations. This…
Tag: Orion
Support Your Nation’s Spacefaring Team This Weekend in a “Fight for Space”
“We are making this film to help push the people of the world and the decision makers that govern them to look up at the stars instead of at our feet.” This weekend, millions of people across the U.S. will sit in front of their TVs to eagerly watch two professional football teams fight over…
Watch This Hauntingly Beautiful Footage From Orion’s Fiery Return to Earth
On December 5, 2014, at 7:05 a.m. EST, an enormous Delta IV Heavy roared into the sky from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, sending a test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft on a “flawless” four-and-a-half hour, two-orbit voyage which took it 3,604 miles away from Earth – farther than any spacecraft…
NASA Makes Orion’s First Launch a Social Event
“It’s gonna be a BFD,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden last week during a live broadcast on NASA TV, regarding the then-imminent launch of the Orion spacecraft. And it certainly was a “BFD” – to NASA and its partners, to the nation, and especially to the 150 participants of the EFT-1 NASA Social who were seated…
Orion to Soar Into Space This Week for a NASA Social
This Thursday, at 7:05 a.m. EST, the launch window for NASA’s Orion will open and – weather permitting – it will lift off aboard an enormous ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral for its maiden voyage into space. The event will be broadcast live on NASA TV starting at 4:30 a.m., and I’ll also be…
NASA’s Turning Up the Heat: Orion’s Upcoming Trial by Fire
On the morning of December 4 2014, at 7:05 a.m. EST, a ULA Delta IV Heavy will thunder into the sky from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Pad 37, its orange-and-white triple-barreled, Boy Scout salute-shaped rocket carrying NASA’s next-generation Orion space vehicle 3,600 miles into space where it will perform a multi-stage orbital test before…
Orion Versus the Space Station
I captured the Space Station careening toward the Hunter on the night of March 2, 2012, just a little after 7:50 pm. A half-moon illuminated the event… who won? Well, let’s just say Orion’s still up there and the ISS faded away shortly after! (I’m sure they’ll be back for another go! They’re a plucky…
Lights in the Dark 