Saw this beauty on my way out the door to start the weekend..   It is a bit old – Oct 2011- but still awesome to watch the beast fly in and out of the deck of a floating pad.. Description (as shown in the video below): the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant completed ship suitability testing aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) off the coast of Virginia in October 2011. Combined, F-35B test aircraft BF-2 and BF-4 accomplished 72 short takeoffs and 72 vertical landings during the three-week testing period.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki86x1WKPmE&hd=1′]

On a related note, if you are an aviation/space enthusiast, there is a good reason why you should be up early on Sunday .. This weekend is you get to see the launch of the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services-1 (CRS-1) mission. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Capsule is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Launch coverage will begin at 7 p.m. on NASA Television and http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. On Saturday, NASA TV will air an International Space Station Science Briefing at 3 p.m. and the SpaceX CRS-1 Prelaunch News Conference at 6 p.m. Have fun!

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Shown below is the celebration of an iconic occasion in the history of mankind – This day, July 20, in 1969, three men landed on the moon and kicked off a generation of dreamers and achievers.  Legendary astronaut, Neil Armstrong  said it in one succinct phrase: “One small Step for a Man, one giant leap for mankind”.. Read all about the famous Apollo 11 mission here

Image courtesy: New York Times

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Private space venture SpaceX successfully launched its space capsule last week and safely brought back the capsule yesterday. Here are a few pictures sourced from the web (primarily via tweets) that tell you the story as the craft arrived on earth…

http://storify.com/transportgooru/visually-narration-of-a-dragon-s-fiery-plunge-from

Visually Narration of A Dragon’s Fiery Plunge From Space

Private space venture SpaceX successfully launched its space capsule last week and safely brought back the capsule yesterday. Here are a few pictures sourced from the web (primarily via tweets) that tell you the story as the craft arrived on earth…

Storified by Andy Palanisamy · Fri, Jun 01 2012 18:39:17

(via National Geographic)

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c48ag_Mnz7M’]

After decades of tireless hardwork and 39 trips, a national icon – NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery – made its final journey to its resting place in Washington, DC region today.  The shuttle will be permanently retired at the Smithsonian Udvar Hazy Center near Dulles, VA. NASA coordinated with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to navigate through the restricted air space over Washington, D.C. I got a chance to see the shuttle fly-by as it floated majestically perched atop a NASA jet. It was a bitter sweet moment watching it fly-by for not just me but for the entire nation that grew up watching the marvelous machines soar into the space.  Not only did the shuttles ferry supplies to the space station but along the way they inspired a generation of innovators and encouraged many of us to dream big.

Image Courtesy: Washington Post (Photo by Linda Davidson)

On this momentous occasion, the shuttle in one single fly-by also accomplished what usually takes a government billions of dollars and decades of hard work . It left people inspired at what is possible if we put our heads together and encouraged everyone to dream big.  The pic. above, taken by Linda Davidson (courtesy of Washington Post) shows the excitement on the faces of a few from the next generation of dreamers.  Look at the inspiration on the faces of these children as they react to the shuttle Discovery fly-by. Priceless!

Awesome X 3! Three generations of Mars rovers (via Reddit).

Image Courtesy: NASA.gov via Reddit - Click image to enlarge

Via www.nasa.gov

(Source: Open.NASA)

What an amazing and inspiring project by the Brits!  The Bloodhound Supersonic Car project is currently underway in UK and its primary objective (as stated in the project website)  is to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in science, engineering, technology and maths – by demonstrating how they can be harnessed to achieve the seemingly impossible by building a car that is 12.8 meters long, weighs 6.4 tons, and cruises on high grade aluminum wheels and reach 0–>1050mph in 40 secs on land.  Whew!!! Below is an extract from Open.NASA blog.  Wishing the project team all the very best in their mission to notch a new land speed record.

Image Courtesy: Bloodhound SSC

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From zero to 1,050 miles per hour, the team behind the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car is taking the everyone along for the ride on their engineering adventure to break the world land speed record in 2013. The project is a huge challenge that will produce untold technology spin-offs and aims to inspire the next generation of engineers around the world through openness and engagement.

Project Director Richard Noble and his team are building a car that will go zero to 1,050 miles per hour (mph) in 40 seconds. Named after Britain’s 1950s Bloodhound Missile Project, the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) car is 12.8 meters long, weighs 6.4 tons, and cruises on high grade aluminum wheels, which will experience radial stresses of up to 50,000 times the force of gravity at full speed.

The project is risky, dangerous, and unprecedented. Focused on building the safest car possible, Noble’s Bloodhound team intends to overthrow the current FIA World Land Speed Record by 30 percent. “It’s such a huge leap, of course we’re going to get into trouble,” said Noble. “We’re going to learn an awful lot as we develop it.”

Click here to read more.

The first flight of NASA‘s hurricane airborne research mission is scheduled to take off from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 17. NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft will be making a planned five-hour flight along the Gulf Coast from western Florida to Louisiana primarily as a practice run for the many scientific instruments aboard.

Image Courtesy: NASA.gov - The NASA DC-8 airplane on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida on Aug. 15 as preparations continue for its part in the GRIP hurricane experiment. Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers

The target for Tuesday’s “shakedown” flight is the remnants of Tropical Depression 5, a poorly organized storm system whose center is currently hugging the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana and moving westward. While forecasters do not expect this storm system to strengthen significantly before it reaches landfall in Louisiana, the system offers the DC-8’s seven instrument teams an opportunity to try out their equipment on possible convective storms. Rainfall rates, wind speed and direction below the airplane to the surface, cloud droplet sizes, and aerosol particle sizes are just some of the information that these instruments will collect.

Read more on  NASA’s GRIP mission website.

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(Source: BBC, TMC Net, US Infrastructure)

For the first time in more than a quarter-century, a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. The Ares I-X rocket, its simulated crew module and launch abort system are assembled on a mobile launch platform at Kennedy in preparation for launch this fall.  Ares I rocket is a key component of Nasa’s next-generation space transportation system.

Image Courtesy: NASA

“More than three years of hard work with the NASA and contractor team has brought us to this historic moment,” said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “This flight test is a critical step in continuing our design process for the Ares vehicle and the first flight for the Constellation Program.” The Ares I-X is wired with more than 700 sensors to gather data during the two-and-a-half minute flight test. The launch will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. The data collected during the launch will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Ares I rocket.

The Ares I rocket will be used to launch the Orion capsule, the next man-controlled space craft destined to take over from the Space Shuttle.

The craft was finished a few days ago with the final elements being constructed on the 13 August; them being the stacking of the simulated crew module and launch abort system on the mobile launcher platform. Below is the presser from NASA on this topic (courtesy of PRnewswire.com).

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — For the first time in more than a quarter-century a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. The Ares I-X rocket, its simulated crew module and launch abort system are assembled on a mobile launch platform at Kennedy in preparation for launch this fall.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The final segments of the Ares I-X were stacked on Aug. 13, completing the 327-foot launch vehicle and providing the first look at the finished rocket’s distinctive shape. The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for Oct. 31.

“More than three years of hard work with the NASA and contractor team has brought us to this historic moment,” said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “This flight test is a critical step in continuing our design process for the Ares vehicle and the first flight for the Constellation Program.”

The Ares I-X is wired with more than 700 sensors to gather data during the two-and-a-half minute flight test. The launch will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. The data collected during the launch will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Ares I rocket.

Now that the Ares I-X is assembled, numerous evaluations will be run on all the rocket systems, including complex instruments that will constantly measure the vehicle’s movements as it launches and the first stage separates. The evaluations include a process called “modal testing,” which will shake the stack slightly to test stiffness of the rocket, including the pinned and bolted joints.

Video B-roll of the Ares I-X will be available on NASA Television’s Video File feed. For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

To follow Ares I-X processing on Twitter, visit:

http://twitter.com/NASA_Ares_I_X

For more information about the Ares I-X and NASA’s next-generation spacecraft, visit.

http://www.nasa.gov/ares

The Energy Department has requested $30 million to relaunch a program to make radioactive plutonium-238, the supply of which is running low.

The Energy Department plans to restart its program of making radioactive fuel for NASA’s deep space missions, the agency announced Thursday, a decision that came only hours after the National Research Council warned that the nation was fast running out of the fuel.

Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the department, said the agency had requested $30 million in its fiscal 2010 budget proposal to restart the fuel-making process. In its budget statement, the agency said it had “a long and successful history” of supporting NASA’s needs. It said it welcomed the National Research Council findings.

For such research, which includes the New Horizons mission now heading for Pluto and the Cassini mission now orbiting Saturn, the electricity that powers onboard instruments comes from devices called radioisotope power generators. The RPGs make electricity with the heat from the radioactive decay of small amounts of plutonium-238 carried on board. 

According to Ralph McNutt, a space scientist at Johns Hopkins University and co-chairman of the committee that produced the report, the United States stopped making Pu-238 about 20 years ago, with the end of the Cold War. Although Pu-238 is not weapons-grade material, it is a byproduct of making the more dangerous Pu-239, he said.

(Source: LA Times)