Update: SpaceX confirms second burn success. Engineers will now review data and prepare for the launch on May 7, to ISS.


Update: Looks like test successful, waiting for official report.

Update: T minus 2 minutes to flame.

Update: Terminal Count Auto sequence initiated.

Update: Countdown sequence resumed.



Update: Elon Musk, tweets "Flight computer aborted rocket hold down firing. Anomaly addressed. Cycling systems to countdown."



Update: SpaceX is now reviewing the data, may recycle and try the test again today. Stay tuned.

Update: SpaceX, tweeted "Terminal count aborted. Reviewing Data".
Engine test was aborted 47 seconds before ignition.

Watch Live, here. (note: seems you are late to the party, Live stream is over!)

Today April 30, SpaceX will static fire test the Flacon 9 rocket's nine powerful Merlin engines in preparation for the company’s upcoming launch to International Space Station.

You can watch the live webcast of the Static Fire Test of Flacon 9 rocket, here. The webcast is set to begin at 2:30 PM ET/ 11:30 AM PT, with the actual static fire targeted for 3:00 PM ET/ 12:00 PM PT.

After the test, SpaceX will conduct through review of all the data and make final preparations for the upcoming launch. SpaceX plans to launch its Dragon spacecraft into low-Earth orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket to ISS on May 7, 2012. This mission would make SpaceX the first commercial company to attempt to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Previously the launch was scheduled to be on April 30, but was delayed to finish hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Labels: news

Just how small are atoms? And what's inside them? Watch the video below from TEDEducation to know about them,

Labels: video

Sander van den Berg compiles a video of Saturnian system and Jupiter from the images of NASA's Cassini and Voyager missions. The images used in this video are real images taken in space. At 00:49 in the video you can see one of the Moons Moonlet of Saturn dives in to the disk causing a "mini jet" (#Mind_Blown).

A brilliant video footage put together from the image archive.

You can also see the raw images from the Cassini mission, here

Labels: jupiter, saturn, video

By now, you should have heard a company called "Planetary Resources" is going to mine Near Earth Asteroids for their precious metals like platinum and water. I am really excited about this news. It is about time, I can drink my coffee looking at the Blue Marble! One asteriod may contain more platinum that has been mined in all of history.

Watch the Planetary Resources press conference here, which was held on April 24, 2012 at Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

Also Planetary Resources has released a video about the company and what they will be doing,



The company was founded by space visionary Peter H. Diamandis, M.D. and leading commercial space entrepreneur Eric Anderson, and is supported by an impressive investor and advisor group, including Google's Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Ph.D.; film maker & explorer James Cameron; Chairman of Intentional Software Corporation and Microsoft's former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, Ph.D.; Founder of Sherpalo and Google Board of Directors founding member K. Ram Shriram; and Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr.

Labels: news

Tonight (April 24, 2012) Venus and Crescent Moon are shining side-by-side. Look towards the western sky to see them.

Karthikeyan VJ photographs this conjunction in Tallinn, Estonia.

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, (Full Image)

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, (Full Image)

Labels: moon, pictures, venus

On April 22 at 10:39 a.m. EDT, the ISS Progress 47 cargo craft docked to the Pirs docking compartment of the International Space Station. Progress 47 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 20, loaded with 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the six crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory.

In the video you can see the cargo craft thrusts many times to dock to the space station, a wonderful site.

Labels: video

Lyrid Meteor Shower peaked on April 21, 2012. Pictures below,

Shawn Malone photographs Lyrid Meteor Shower along with aurora near Marquette, MI.

Image Credit: Shawn Malone (Full Image)

Shawn Malone says, "The aurora was visible most the night as a persistent glowing arc low on the horizon. Was a beautiful clear moonless night, saw some nice meteors starting around 2am"

Brian Emfinger photographs a spectacular Lyrid Meteor fireball at Ozark, Arkansas, USA.

Image Credit: Brian Emfinger (Full Image)

Image Credit: Brian Emfinger (Full Image)

Jimmy Westlake photographs the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Stagecoach, Colorado, USA.

Image Credit: Jimmy Westlake (Full Image)

Jimmy Westlake says, "This bright Lyrid meteor flashed below Vega at 2:08 am MST on the morning of April 22, 2012. This is a 30 second exposure taken with a Nikon D700 set at ISO 6400 and a 16mm lens at f2.8".

Nori Masuda photographs the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Kananaskis, Alberta.

Image Credit: Nori Masuda (Full Image)

Sergio Garcia Rill photographs the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Vanderpool texas (at the Orchad Inn of the FireFox cabins).

Image Credit: Sergio Garcia Rill (Full Image)

Ireneusz Nowak photographs the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Wroclaw Poland.

Image Credit: Ireneusz Nowak (Full Image)

Ireneusz Nowak says, "We were on visual observations on Tapadla Pass near Wroclaw Poland trying to seize the opportunity of the last new Moon with astronomical night this spring. The first part of the night was quite cloudy, but after 1.30am the sky became very transparent and contrast. I was just taking some photos of MilkyWay when suddenly very spectacular and bright "shooting star" brightened the night exploding on the southern part of the sky. Happily it caught in the frame."
Picture was taken using NikonD90 + Nikkor AF-S 18-105DX @ 18mm, 1600ASA, 20s exposure.

Phil Ostroff photographs the Lyrid Meteor Shower,

Image Credit: Phil Ostroff (Full Image)

Phil Ostroff says, "The one, single Lyrid meteor I captured within two hours of exposures. This one was fairly bright and the only meteor I saw visually during my two-hour observing session."

Adam Cross photographs the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Cinderford, Gloucestershire, UK. Also check the time lapse video of the meteor shower here.

Image Credit: Adam Cross (Full Image)

Karthikeyan VJ photographs the lyrid meteor shower at Tallinn, Estonia. In the image below you can see the two meteors zipping away. (One at the center and other one in bottom right)

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ (Full Image), Image taken at Tallinn, Estonia.
Canon EOS 1100D, Canon EF 18-55mm lens.

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ (Full Image), Image taken at Tallinn, Estonia.

Stephen Cheatley photographs a faint Lyrid meteor at Pilling, England during a Blackpool and District Astronomy meet.

Image Credit: Stephen Cheatley (Full Image)

Stephen Cheatley says, "I guess about 7-8 meteors were spotted between five of us within 2 hours. One of them was a super fireball type, one of the best I've seen, anyway. We also spotted several satellites including the ISS on its 2nd pass of the night."

If you have taken pictures of the Lyrid Meteor Shower and want to share it with us, send the pictures to,

Labels: lyrid_2012, pictures

Solar disk is covered with four sunspots now. Three sunspots (AR 1459, AR 1460, AR 1462) are crackling with C-class solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of an M-class flare during the next 24 hours. The Sunspot AR 1465 which was formed today and quite young, will most likely be the source.

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ (Image with no label)

Labels: news, sunspot

Brilliant video of northern lights shot in the northern parts of Norway, Finland and Sweden during autumn 2011, winter and spring 2012. Video taken by Ole C. Salomonsen. Music composed by Norwegian composer Kai-Anders Ryan.

Just WOW!! Definitely must watch video. Watch it in HD Fullscreen and bump up the volume (ignore your neighbours just for now).

Labels: northern lights, video

Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times and traveled 238,539,663 km. On April 17, 2012 Space Shuttle Discovery departed from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for one last time. Discovery was mounted atop of NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and transported to the National Air and Space Museum.

Watch the Discovery Arrival Ceremony at Dulles here.

Pictures of the fly-over below,

Image Credit: NASA/Rebecca Roth (Full Image)

Image Credit: NASA/Rebecca Roth (Full Image)

Image Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann (Full Image)

Labels: nasa, pictures

To celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope this month (April 24), episode 54 of the Hubblecast gives a slideshow of some of the best images from over two decades in orbit.

Video below displays the best images taken by Hubble from the year of 1990 to 2011.

Labels: video

Jim Lafferty photographs the solar flare that erupted from Sun yesterday (April 16, 2012). Photograph was taken at Redlands, California using Lunt 100 Ha telescope and DMK 41 camera.

Jim Lafferty says, "A wonderful sight in the eyepiece and in the camera!"


more images from Jim Lafferty,
#2, #3, #4

Labels: CME, pictures

Between April 02 - 04 of 2012 Venus passed through the Pleiades open star cluster.

Tavi Greiner photographs the Venus and Pleiades conjunction on April 02, 2012. This conjunction happens once every 8 eight years. If you have missed the conjunction, don't worry. We have featured loads of images here.

Image Credit: Tavi Greiner, view Full Image

Image Credit: Tavi Greiner, view Full Image

previously,
- Venus and Pleiades Conjunction - Pictures [April 03, 2012]
- Venus Exits Pleiades Star Cluster

Labels: pictures, Venus_and_Pleiades_Conjunction_2012

On April 16, 2012 around 17:45 UT, A large CME blasts off over the north-eastern limb of the Sun producing M1.7 class flare. The CME produced will not hit the Earth, but it is likely to hit the NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft. The active region that produced this flare, will rotate to Earth facing side soon.

Below is the image of the CME blasts off the Sun,

Image Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA

Watch the video below, compiled using the data from SDO.

Labels: CME, news

The night sky of Namibia is one of the best in the world, about the same quality of the deserts of Chile and Australia. This 13 minute video contains about 250 hours of actual exposures, gathered at Tivoli Farm, Namibia, during 10 perfectly cloudless nights.

Watch the video in HD (1080p).

Labels: video

On April 12, 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. He spent 108 minutes of orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft.

Labels: news, russia

Elon Musk appears as guest on The Daily Show. If you are wondering who Elon Musk is? you must be living under a rock. He is the CEO and Chief Designer for SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Motors.
As Jon Stewart (host) quotes, "He is one of the four entities have launched rocket into space and placed a spacecraft in orbit and brought it back to Earth - United States, China, Soviet Union and Elon Musk".

Watch the video here, Part 1 and Part 2.

Labels: Elon Musk, SpaceX, video

Saturn reaches opposition on April 16, 2012. Look towards the south eastern side of the sky to locate Saturn, it shines along with Spica. During the opposition Saturn is at closest to Earth and can be seen quite easily. Check the sky map here.

Skywatcher Kadri Tinn photographs Saturn on April 09, 2012 using Skywatcher 114 / 600 telescope, Canon EOS 500D camera and Canon 22 - 55mm lens.

Image Credit: Kadri Tinn, Picture taken at Tartu, Estonia (Full Image)

Labels: pictures, sky watch

Watch the video below compiled from sequence of images from NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft. Mercury is the bright object moving from right to left against the background of stars near the center of the images.

Labels: CME, mercury, video

On April 21, 2012 the annual Lyrid Meteor Shower will peak under new Moon. The Lyrid meteor shower comes from the comet "Thatcher". Every year in late April Earth passes through the stream of debris from the old comet. 15 to 20 meteors per hour could shower the night sky and produce some fire balls. Good time to see the Meteor Shower is after midnight.

Image Credit: Greg Hinson.
A Lyrid meteor (top right) streaks over Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, in April 2010.

Labels: event, lyrid_2012, sky watch

Frank Olsen photographs this awesome aurora display over Blokken in Sortland, Norway on April 03, 2012. On the pictures you can also see the Venus and Pleiades conjunction.

Photographs taken using Canon EOS 7D with Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 and Canon EF 24-70L 2.8 ISO 400 - 640 and 13 - 24 seconds.

Labels: auroras, northern lights, pictures

Today (April 04, 2012) Venus moves away from the open star cluster Pleiades. Today will be the last day to see this conjunction. You will have to wait 8 more years to see the next one.

Pictures of Venus exiting Pleiades below,

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Picture taken at Tallinn, Estonia (Full Image)
Canon EOS 1100D and Canon EF 55-250mm lens.

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Picture taken at Tallinn, Estonia (Full Image)
Canon EOS 1100D and Canon EF 55-250mm lens.

See the pictures from yesterday, where the conjunction was at maximum.

Labels: pictures, Venus_and_Pleiades_Conjunction_2012

On April 03, 2012 Venus and Pleiades attracted more attention but Moon, Mars and Regulus had their own show. Moon, Mars and Regulus formed a triangle in the night sky.

Kadri Tinn photographs this Moon, Mars and Regulus alignment.

Image Credit: Kadri Tinn, Picture taken at Tartu, Estonia (Full Image)

Labels: pictures

Update: April 04, 2012 will be the last night to see the Venus and Pleiades conjunction, as Venus slowly moves away from the Pleiades star cluster. This conjunction occurs only once in every 8 years, so don't miss it.

Pictures of Venus and Pleiades star cluster conjunction below,

Image Credit: M. Raşid Tuğral, Picture taken at Ankara, Turkiye (Full Image)

Image Credit: Kadri Tinn, Picture taken at Tartu, Estonia (Full Image)

Image Credit: Kadri Tinn, Picture taken at Tartu, Estonia (Full Image)


"It was quite hard to see the conjunction here in Tallinn, because of the clouds. However had a chance to sneak on the conjunction between the cloud gaps!"

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Picture taken at Tallinn, Estonia (Full Image)
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D, Lens: Canon EF 55-250mm

Image Credit: Karthikeyan VJ, Picture taken at Tallinn, Estonia (Full Image)
Camera: Canon EOS 1100D, Lens: Canon EF 55-250mm

If you have taken photos of the conjunction, take time to share it with us. Send the photos to,

Labels: pictures, Venus_and_Pleiades_Conjunction_2012

Check out this cool hexapod robot that could transform into sphere and back. The robot is designed by Kåre halvorsen.

Labels: technology, video

Kadri Tinn, photographs the Moon Halo at Tartu, Estonia on April 1, 2012. Halos are formed around Moon by tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere which refract and reflect the light.

In the below picture you can see (from left) Mars, Moon and Venus




Previously,
- Sun Halo

Labels: halo, moon, moon halo, pictures