Angus McKie

Virgin Galactic completes first powered flight of VSS Unity (April 5, 2018.) Two and a half years after a fatal accident temporarily halted flight activities, Virgin Galactic completed its first powered flight test of the VSS Unity Thursday, April 5. The company’s last powered flight experienced an anomaly during the beginning of its descent phase, resulting in the disintegration of the vehicle midair and the death of one pilot. Shortly after 9am MDT, The Unity, attached to the VSS Eve carrier mothership, took off from Spaceport America in the Mojave Desert. The two vehicles climbed to 14,200 meters where the Unity was released. The Unity’s powered ascent lasted for 30 seconds, 40 seconds shorter than a nominal flight profile, and achieved a speed of Mach 1.87 or 2,309 kilometers per hour. Unity reached a peak altitude of 25,686 meters, or 25.6 kilometers.  By comparison, the Unity’s sister craft, the VSS Enterprise, reached a top speed of Mach 1.4 and a maximum altitude of 21,000 meters during its third powered flight in January 2014. The spacecraft’s descent through the atmosphere and feathering of its wings was performed flawlessly, succeeding where the final, fatal flight of the VSS Enterprise did not in 2014. Unity successfully landed back at Spaceport America’s runway one hour and twelve minutes after takeoff and eleven minutes after separation from Eve.

The Unity coming to a landing at Spaceport America’s runway after its first powered flight test, April 5, 2018. P/c: Virgin Galactic

The company’s last powered flight with the VSS Enterprise experienced an anomaly during the beginning of its descent phase, resulting in the disintegration of the vehicle midair and the death of one pilot.

Almost nearly completed at the time of the incident, the VSS Unity was unveiled to the public in February of 2016. It subsequently underwent a system of ground checks and eleven unpowered flights to validate the modifications made after the 2014 incident. Following Thursday’s flight, Virgin Galactic did not state how long the powered flight test program would last before operational flights with paying customers would begin. CEO Richard Branson tweeted shortly after Unity landed that the company is back on track following the 2014 incident.

P/c: Virgin Galactic.

Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr, speaks out on the tragic shooting in Uvalde, TX.

If you’re not as angry as he is, you should be.

Traverse - 211226

Pulling Away.

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Mare Imbrium and Copernicus Crater l Manuel Huss

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‘jump’

O_o  When we peer deep into space, we don’t expect to find something staring back at us…

This galactic ghoul, captured by our Hubble Space Telescope, is actually a titanic head-on collision between two galaxies. Each “eye” is the bright core of a galaxy, one of which slammed into another. The outline of the face is a ring of young blue stars. Other clumps of new stars form a nose and mouth.

Although galaxy collisions are common most of them are not head-on smashups like this Arp-Madore system. Get spooked & find out what lies inside this ghostly apparition, here. 

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Inner Depth.

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An image of Jupiter taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light on Aug. 25, 2020, is giving researchers an entirely new view of the giant planet and offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet's haze and particles. This complements Hubble’s visible-light pictures that show the ever-changing cloud patterns. In this photo, the parts of Jupiter’s atmosphere that are at higher altitude, especially over the poles, look red from atmospheric particles absorbing ultraviolet light. Conversely, the blue-hued areas represent the ultraviolet light being reflected off the planet. A new storm at upper left, which erupted on Aug. 18, 2020, is grabbing the attention of scientists in this image. The “clumps” trailing the white plume appear to be absorbing ultraviolet light, similar to the center of the Great Red Spot, and Red Spot Jr. directly below it. This provides researchers with more evidence that this storm may last longer on Jupiter than most storms.

Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL team