на навыки городского наблюдателя спутников. Привыкнув с лёгкостью находить -1 зв. величину, которая быстро превращается в -2 или -3, начинаются проблемы уже со 2 зв. величиной какого-нибудь шпиона или "Терры". Хочется сбегать за биноклем, ещё раз проверить время и карты, хотя для сравнения рядом всё созвездие Льва. В общем, сплошные хлопоты, ( Read more... )

Первый приз за 2012 год в последний момент вырвала Северная Корея, запустив таки свой спутник. Некоторые, встав в позу "а он у вас всё равно не работает" с пальцем в носу, только добавляют веселья. Второй приз - у китайцев, орбитальная станция, пусть и "посещения" а не "непрерывно обитаемая" - это очень и очень много. Третий приз... вообще ( Read more... )

Hooray! The first unofficial space race on the Korean peninsula ends with a definite and unquestionable victory for the North. The way was long and difficult, but they have gone thus far despite all the setbacks, international isolation and scarce resources. Congratulations to them!

Video with the rocket-cam footage and MCC/Tо самое видео с рокет- ( Read more... )

To get going, here is a bit from BBC Nature News, providing some nice photos from trap camera in norhtern Kenya. I love that leopard expression! Next, is a pretty owl-print from Cumbria, also courtesy of BBCNews. And a wondrous bathing stripey cat!

I should write a digest from some political news, coming after the end of STS era... Unfortunately, I ( Read more... )

I have no idea, whether this will be useful to anyone, but considering there was another comet impacting the Sun on 6 of July, who knows...  Suppose You follow the news or just watch from time to time those animated GIFs on SOHO site, and spot something interesting. Where to look for? Real-time images, obviously, and GIFs, use 1/4 resolution, ( Read more... )

Ariane V, possibly saved from a mishap in a last instant abort after its Vulcain main engine ignition, has successfully launched two comsats. The problem has been traced to one of the engine actuators, possibly not critical, but noone should take any chances when dealing with these amounts of liquid energy.

There has been yet another spectacular ( Read more... )

Yes, despite promising frequent updates I am once again on the brink of a depression. Well, maybe not a full blown one, but changing weather seems to be changing my mood in an equally unpredictable pattern.

It's already past the first half of March, but the last really neat picture from Saturn orbit on CYCLOPs site is still dated February. Well, ( Read more... )

OK, here is a brief and already quite delayed orbital news summary. Russia regained some of its lost meteorological observational capability with the successful launch of "Elektro-L" satellite. This also marks the first use of "Fregat" upper stage / orbital booster, usually seen on "Soyuz" launchers, on "Zenit" and also the first deployment of much ( Read more... )

Примечание: сказка содержит много намёков на техническое несовершенство и будет неинтересна большинству, поэтому прячу под урез. Ну а для всех читателей вне зависимости от степени космофилии - очередной новогодний шарик. С наступающим!!!



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Good news first. USAF successfully concluded the first flight of their reuseable space plane X-37B. It was a long and interesting cat-and-mouse game with amateur sat-trackers around the globe. X-37 was repeatedly lost after each orbit alteration and then found back, sometimes after days absence. This experiment provides a stark change in goals and ( Read more... )