Category: space.com

Pisces, named for the Latin plural of fish, occupies 889 square degrees, making it the 14th largest constellation overall. While it is a fairly large constellation, its stars are faint — none are brighter than fourth magnitude — making it challenging to see in the sky with the naked eye.

Pisces is notable for containing the point at which the sun crosses the celestial equator into the Northern Hemisphere around March 20 each year. This point, called the vernal equinox, used to lie in Aries, but has moved into Pisces because of the Earth’s wobble on its axis, called precession, according to astronomer and author Ian Ridpath.

Locating Pisces

Pisces is in the first quadrant of the Northern Hemisphere and covers a large V-shaped region. Its large area, coupled with its dim stars, makes it hard to pick out in the night sky. Northern Hemisphere observers are able to see Pisces most clearly in early autumn.

• Right Ascension: 0.85 hours
• Declination: 11.08 degrees
• Visible: Between latitudes 90 degrees and minus 65 degrees.
• Best viewed: at 9 p.m. between Nov. 6 and Nov. 9.

Pisces is located northeast of Aquarius and to the northwest of the constellation Cetus the Sea-monster. Other constellations bordering Pisces are Triangulum, Andromeda, Pegasus and Aries.

One of the key ways to identify Pisces is to find the Circlet of Pisces — also known as the head of the Western Fish — to the south of the Square of Pegasus. The Eastern Fish can be seen leaping upward to the east of the Square of Pegasus.

Notable stars and objects

Eta Piscium, also known as Alpherg or Kullat Nunu, is Pisces’ brightest star. It is a bright giant star (G class) that is 294 light-years from Earth and has a luminosity that is 316 times that of the sun. The constellation’s second brightest star is a yellow giant about 130 light-years from Earth known as Gamma Piscium.

Alpha Piscium is the third brightest star in Pisces and is made up of a pair of white dwarf stars in close proximity. It is also called Alrescha (“the cord”) as it illuminates the spot where it appears that the tails of the two fish are tied together.

Also known as Fum al Samakah, Arabic for “mouth of the fish,” Beta Piscium has a magnitude of 4.53 and is about 492 light-years from Earth.

Pisces also boasts Van Maanen’s Star, named for Adrian van Maanen, the Dutch astronomer who discovered it in 1917. It is the 31st closest star system and the nearest single white dwarf to the sun, at just 14.1 light-years away.

Pisces also contains a Messier object — which are galaxies, nebulae and star clusters recorded by 18th Century French astronomer Charles Messier. Messier 74 is a spiral galaxy located between the stars alpha Arietis and eta Piscium.

Recent news about Pisces

The Hubble Space Telescope imaged a pair of bizarre galaxies, called Pisces A and Pisces B, in 2014. Two years later, researchers announced that data from those observations showed the dwarf galaxies used to be by themselves, but over time they moved to a nearby group of galaxies — a process that accelerated star formation. Researchers said the study of Pisces A and Pisces B can also shed light on what dwarf galaxies today may have looked like in the ancient past.

Researchers looking at the galaxy NGC 660 announced a huge explosion there in 2013, which likely came from a black hole. They ruled out a supernova (star explosion) event as the researchers saw five locations with bright radio emissions near the galaxy’s core. “The most likely explanation is that there are jets coming from the core, but they are precessing, or wobbling, and the hot spots we see are where the jets slammed into the material near the galaxy’s nucleus,” stated Chris Salter of the Arecibo Observatory.

Several exoplanets have also been found in the constellation. In 2014, researchers found a world called GU Pisces b that orbits an incredible 2,000 times the Earth-sun distance, which means the planet takes roughly 80,000 Earth years to go around its star once. The Kepler space telescope, when it started its new observing mission in later that year, discovered a super-Earth called HIP 116454b about 180 light-years from Earth. A Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) probe examined HIP 116454b for signals the next year, but the search turned up empty.

Mythology

In the sky, Pisces is represented as two fish swimming at right angles to each other, one to the north and one to the west. They are attached by a cord. The fish themselves are apparently the Greek goddess Aphrodite and her son, Eros, who turned into fish and jumped into the Euphrates River to evade the fiery breath of the monster Typhon, “the most awful monster the world had ever seen,” according to Ridpath.

In astrology, which is not a science, Pisces is the 12th sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Feb. 20 and March 20.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howell, Space.com contributor

Following a comet around the sun is no picnic, as a newly released photo dramatically shows.

The image, taken by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft, depicts hundreds of dust particles barreling away from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which the probe orbited from August 2014 to September 2016.

The dust grains look like streaks against the deep-space backdrop, because the 146-second-long exposure captured the movement of these frigid motes. [Photos: Europe’s Rosetta Comet Mission in Pictures]

Rosetta took the picture on Jan. 21, 2016 — five months after Comet 67P made its closest pass by the sun over the course of its orbit, which lasts 6.45 Earth years. The dust blizzard was doubtless much worse around the comet’s closest approach to the sun, when solar energy heated the object up even more. So Rosetta’s handlers backed the probe away during that time.

They didn’t do this to keep Rosetta nice and shiny, though.

“Excessive dust in Rosetta’s field of view presented a continual risk for navigation: The craft’s startrackers used a star-pattern-recognition function to know its orientation with respect to the sun and Earth,” ESA officials wrote in a description of the photo, which was released Sunday (Jan. 21). 

“On some occasions, flying much closer to the comet, and therefore through denser regions of outflowing gas and dust, the startrackers locked on to dust grains instead of stars, creating pointing errors and in some cases putting the spacecraft in a temporary safe mode,” the officials added.

But the dust was a blessing as well as a curse; Rosetta studied the material intently during its two years at 67P, gathering information about comet structure and composition.

Rosetta launched in March 2004 and arrived at 67P in August 2014, in the process becoming the first probe ever to orbit a comet. In November of that year, Rosetta pulled off another first, dropping a small piggyback lander called Philae onto the icy wanderer’s surface.

The groundbreaking mission came to an end on Sept. 30, 2016, when Rosetta team members guided the orbiter to a controlled, slow-motion impact on its longtime travel companion. The time had come, ESA officials said at the time: Rosetta was getting up there in years, and the sunlight that was needed to power the probe was getting much harder to come by. Rosetta, and the comet, were more than 356 million miles (573 million kilometers) from the sun on that fateful day (far beyond the orbit of Mars), and the duo were only going to get more and more distant.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

WASHINGTON — SpaceX and mobile satellite services provider Iridium, now halfway through deploying the Iridium Next constellation, are preparing for their fifth mission on March 18 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Falcon 9 launch is expected to kick off a “rapid-cadence launch schedule targeting completion of the Iridium manifest by mid-2018,”according to a Jan. 22 Iridium statement.

Iridium CEO Matt Desch told SpaceNews by email that the rapid cadence equates to “an average of about 5 weeks between launches to ensure we complete launch 8 mid-year.” [Watch: SpaceX’s Amazing Iridium 4 Rocket Launch]

Following the March 18 mission, the sixth Iridium Next launch is scheduled for mid-to-late April.

Like Iridium’s last SpaceX mission, the March launch will employ a booster that previously carried 10 Iridium Next satellites into low Earth orbit. SpaceX will use the same first stage as its third Iridium Next launch in October.

Iridium switched its fourth and fifth launches from new to pre-flown Falcon 9s in order to preserve the operator’s deployment schedule.

“We are entering the home stretch,” Desch said in a press release. “This is going to be a monumental year for us as we complete our constellation refresh.”

All 10 satellites in the fifth mission will form part of the active constellation following testing and validation. Iridium Next consists of 66 active satellites, nine in-orbit spares and six ground spares. French satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space is building the 81 satellites, with U.S. satellite builder Orbital ATK assembling, integrating, and testing each spacecraft at its manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona.

The sixth Iridium Next launch will share a Falcon 9 with GRACE-FO, two research satellites for NASA and the German Research Center for Geosciences’ (GFZ) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On mission. Iridium ordered that launch in February 2017 to fill in for a Dnepr mission that fell years behind schedule in a Russian regulatory quagmire. The change in plans increased the number of orbital spares from six to nine.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

A trailer for the final episodes of Star Wars Rebels has ben released by Lucasfilm and Disney XD. The final six episodes will air in pairs for three weeks beginning February 19. Take a look above. 

Especially noteworthy in this trailer (and these final episodes) is the return of Emperor Palpatine – and actor Ian McDiarmid – as the show dovetails back into the live-action Star Wars films. [The Greatest Satar Wars Villians of All Time]

Star Wars Rebels resumes its fourth season February 19 on DisneyXD.

Origially published on Newsarama.

WASHINGTON — It should be no surprise that China is moving to challenge the United States for dominance in space, cyber, artificial intelligence and other key technologies that have wide national security applications. But the question that is still being debated is whether the United States is taking this threat seriously.

This may not be a Sputnik moment, but the United States could soon be unpleasantly surprised as China continues to shore up its domestic capacity to produce high-end weapons, satellites and encryption technologies, a panel of analysts told the House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee.

At the Tuesday hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said lawmakers are not entirely convinced that China’s dominance in many technology sectors is a “foregone conclusion.” But the committee does believe that China’s technological accomplishments should inform U.S. policies and defense investments. [The Most Dangerous Space Weapons Concepts Ever]

“China continues to increase their research and development investments at an alarming pace and is rapidly closing many of their technology gaps,” Stefanik said. “More and more, we see China using only domestic Chinese firms and creating high market access barriers to support domestic capacity.”

This has obvious national security implications, she said, “should they corner the market on advanced technologies critical to national security.”

There are strict laws and regulatory barriers in place to prevent China from accessing U.S. technology and from acquiring American companies. Fear of Chinese theft of space technology has shaped some of the most stringent U.S. export control policies. But China nonetheless has built up a significant satellite manufacturing industry, and has managed to develop quantum communications spacecraft with advanced encryption features.

“China’s satellite manufacturing industry is growing at an alarming rate,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Co. “In the past two years Chinese factories have pumped out 40 satellites.”

The government there subsidizes launch costs to prop up its state-owned entities, he said. “This in turn places our own satellite manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage.”

Lamborn included a provision in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act that bans the procurement of satellite communication by the U.S. government if such systems use satellites or components designed or manufactured by China.

Dean Cheng, senior research fellow with the Asia Study Center at the Heritage Foundation, said China is filling global market needs for cheaper satellites. Countries like Nigeria, Bolivia and Venezuela are able to buy satellites “for a price that frankly no country can really compete with,” said Cheng. “The question is whether Intelsat and Eutelsat are going to necessarily buy a satellite from Boeing if the Chinese can offer a satellite of relatively comparable capability for a purely commercial purpose.”

China also is poised to become a major player in the burgeoning small-satellite sector, Cheng said. “We expect to see the Chinese start moving into that arena. These are areas that will potentially constitute revolutionary capabilities and the Chinese recognize that it’s important to play there.”

The exploitation of data from space will be a booming business for China, he said. “The Chinese are almost certainly going to be offering data as they deploy constellations,” Cheng added. “We should expect to see them offering data at very competitive rates, potential undercutting prices to a variety of users.”

William Carter, a fellow at the technology policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the United States’ best hope to stay ahead of China in space lies in the commercial sector. “There’s actually a huge amount of innovation happening in the United States in the private sector,” he said. The free market is “driving them to innovate and find ways to cut cost and deliver better capabilities,” Carter said. “So I think there may be room to do more to combat China … but I would also say that there’s probably more reason for optimism about the U.S. commercial space sector today than there has been in a while.”

Whereas in the past China has put more emphasis on legal and illegal acquisition of technology, it is now developing technology on its own, Cheng said, “which means both a reduced time lag and a greater ability of China to set the very terms of the technology debate.”

When the Chinese talk about improving information gathering, he said, “We’re not talking about just cyber, we are talking about space capabilities including countering potential adversaries through things like anti-satellite weapons as well as jamming.”

Unlike the United States, China’s centralized government can more easily spin in private sector innovations into the military, noted Paul Scharre, senior fellow with the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security. China has set a goal to be the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 and will have major advantages in translating these private sector gains into national security applications.

Stefanik said these development should be a wakeup call for the U.S. government. For years partisan divisions have stalled federal funding for key technology programs and the appropriations process is essentially broken. “China’s leadership appears to recognize the connection between the development of many of these advanced technologies and economic growth. This is something we should remind ourselves,”she said. “Perhaps it is a lesson we need to relearn amidst our debates on sequestration and continuing resolutions.”

There is hope on Capitol Hill that the re-establishment of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering will move the Pentagon’s technology efforts in a different direction. “I firmly believe that the undersecretary for R&E needs to be the prime mover to drive change and foster innovation within the department,” said Stefanik.

The undersecretary for R&E will be in a “unique position to drive a national-level dialogue for science and technology policy,” she noted. “So therefore we have significant expectations of Dr. Mike Griffin, the nominee to be undersecretary for research and engineering.”

Stefanik insisted that the “threats we face from China and others demand that we energize and organize our government to ensure that policy keeps pace with technology.”

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

Miguel Claro is a Lisbon, Portugal-based professional photographer, author and science communicator who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador, a member of the international astrophotography project The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “skyscapes” that connect Earth and the night sky. Join him here as he takes us through his photograph “The Trifid Nebula Between a Colorful Ocean of Stars.” 

The magnificent Trifid Nebula, also known NGC 6514, is a bright cloud of cosmic dust and gas that serves as a stellar nursery for newborn stars. 

It lies about 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the nebula-rich constellation of Sagittarius the Archer. It was discovered in 1764 by the French astronomer Charles Messier, who originally cataloged it as Messier 20, or M20. Its nickname comes from the Latin word “trifid,” meaning “divided into three lobes,” as dark, obscuring dust lanes appear to carve out three sections, just like a “peace” sign. 

This colorful nebula shares a crowded star field with the open star cluster Messier 21, which can be seen at the top right of this beautiful deep-sky scene immersed in a colorful ocean of stars. Estimates of the distances to both objects are about the same, but besides the gorgeous skyscape scene that these two entities share, there is no apparent connection between them. [50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos]

Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulas: a red emission nebula dominated by light from hydrogen atoms (the lower, red-violet portion), a blue nebulaproduced by dust reflecting starlight (the upper, blue portion), and dark nebulas that form the three prominent dust lanes, which are collectively known as Barnard 85. 

The entire Trifid Nebula spans about 40 light-years across and is a mere 300,000 years old. It is a star-forming region in the Scutum spiral arm of the Milky Way, and is one of the youngest star-forming regions in our sky with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. A hot young star in the center illuminates the surrounding clouds.

To capture this image of the Trifid Nebula, I used a Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor telescope with an Extender-Q 1.6x and an EM-200 auto-guided mount with a Nikon D810a DSLR astrophotography camera, set to DX format (1.5x). The camera was programmed to shoot with an ISO setting of 2500 and an exposure time of 240 seconds. The final composite combines 13 frames with a combined exposure time of 52 minutes. Image processing was completed with PixInsight 1.8 and Adobe Photoshop CS6. 

The image was taken from Noudar Park, Barrancos, in the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, Portugal.

To see more of Claro’s amazing astrophotography, visit his website: miguelclaro.com. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Two educators turned astronauts will film science lessons while aboard the International Space Station that were originally planned to be performed by the late Christa McAuliffe, the first “teacher in space” who died on the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Joe Acaba, who taught high school science before joining NASA, announced the plan from aboard the space station during a live video downlink with McAuliffe’s alma mater on Friday (Jan. 19).

“It’s been 32 years since we lost the Challenger crew. One of them, of course, was Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, so I can’t think of a better time or a better place to make this announcement,” said Acaba, who then joined two of his Expedition 54 crewmates fielding questions from students at Framingham State University. [The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: What Happened? (Infographic)]

“I would like to announce that Ricky Arnold and I, over the next several months, will be working with the Challenger Center to record several of Christa’s original lesson plans that she was to do in space,” said Acaba. “We are looking forward to sharing that with educators and students around the world.”

Arnold, who as a middle school mathematics and science teacher taught in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Romania, is scheduled to launch to the space station in March, about two weeks after Acaba departs the outpost for Earth. The McAuliffe lessons are part of NASA’s Year of Education on Station effort, spanning both astronauts’ time in orbit.

“Filming Christa McAuliffe’s lessons in orbit this year is an incredible way to honor and remember her,” Mike Kincaid, the associate administrator for NASA’s Office of Education said in a statement released Friday. “Developed with such care and expertise by Christa, the value these lessons will have as new tools available for educators to engage and inspire students in STEM is what will continue to advance a true legacy of Challenger’s mission.”

McAuliffe was teaching high school social studies classes when she was selected through a nationwide search to be the first teacher to launch to space. She and her six STS-51L crewmates were lost when a faulty rocket booster led to space shuttle Challenger breaking apart 73 seconds into flight on Jan. 28, 1986.

Had she reached Earth orbit, McAuliffe planned to conduct six science lessons in subjects ranging from magnetism to simple machines. Acaba and Arnold will complete four of McAuliffe’s demonstrations, including lessons in liquids in microgravity, Newton’s laws of physics, effervescence and chromatography.

Some of the lessons will be performed as they would have originally been done by McAuliffe. A few will be reimagined based on materials available on the space station. Acaba’s and Arnold’s resulting videos, as well as the corresponding classroom lessons, will be made available to educators on the Challenger Center’s website beginning this spring.

Educator-astronaut Joe Acaba, joined by Expedition 54 crewmates Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai (on screen), take part in a video downlink with Framingham State University in Massachusetts on Jan. 19.

Credit: FSU

“We are thrilled to work with NASA’s educator astronauts to bring Christa’s lessons to life,” said Challenger Center’s president and CEO Lance Bush in a statement Friday. “For more than 30 years, we have continued the mission of the Challenger crew, reaching more than five million students with our hands-on programs. We are honored to have the opportunity to complete Christa’s lessons and share them with students and teachers around the world.”

In addition to Acaba and Arnold, two other teachers have followed in McAuliffe’s path and flown into space. Barbara Morgan served as McAuliffe’s backup before launching on the space shuttle Endeavour in 2007. And Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, who was selected as an astronaut alongside Acaba and Arnold, flew aboard shuttle Discovery in 2010.

Watch NASA educator-astronaut Joe Acaba’s announcement from the space station on collectSPACE. 

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2017 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Miguel Claro is a Lisbon, Portugal-based professional photographer, author and science communicator who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador, a member of the international astrophotography project The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “skyscapes” that connect Earth and the night sky. Join him here as he takes us through his photograph “Super Full Cold Moon Rising Above Lake Alqueva in Monsaraz.” 

A nearly full “supermoon” rises above a pink band in the sky known as the “Belt of Venus” in this photo captured above Lake Alqueva in the Portuguese village of Monsaraz.

A flock of birds flies in front of the “Belt of Venus” over the village of Monsaraz in Portual’s Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve in this photo captured by astrophotographer Miguel Claro.

Credit: Miguel Claro

Also known as the anti-twilight arch, this phenomenon is visible shortly after sunset above the eastern horizon. It is caused by reddened sunlight scattering off of particles in the upper atmosphere, a process known as Rayleigh scattering. The reddened rays combine with blue and violet light to give the rosy pink band. 

This image was captured on Dec. 2, 2017, one day before the “Full Cold Supermoon” reached its peak, with its face fully illuminated by sunlight. Though it appears full in the photo, the moon’s face was only 98 percent illuminated at the time. This was the first (and last) “supermoon” of 2017. [Supermoon 2017! Amazing Full Cold Moon Photos by Stargazers]

Supermoons happen when the moon becomes full around the same time that it reaches perigee, or a point in its orbit at which it is closest to Earth. This makes the moon appear slightly larger and brighter than usual. 

To see more of Claro’s amazing astrophotography, visit his website: miguelclaro.com. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee voted on party lines Jan. 18 to advance the nominations of individuals to lead NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, although with no clear indication of when, or if, they will be confirmed by the full Senate.

The Senate Commerce Committee voted 14–13 to advance the nomination of Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) to be NASA administrator, and by an identical margin advanced the nomination of Barry Myers to be NOAA administrator. In both cases all the committee Republicans voted for the nominees, and all the committee Democrats voted against them.

It was the second time that the committee voted to advance their nominations to the full Senate. The committee voted on Bridenstine’s original nomination Nov. 8, and Myers’ nomination Dec. 13. The nominations also advanced along party lines in those earlier votes.

The committee had to vote again on the nominations because the nominations were resubmitted by the White House. Under Senate rules, nominations not voted on by the full Senate at the end of its first session are returned to the White House unless there is unanimous consent among members to hold them over. The White House resubmitted the nominations of Bridenstine and Myers Jan. 9, along with several dozen other nominations that the Senate returned when the new session began in early January.

Although the committee considered seven nominations in the same session, the vast majority of comments by members focused on Bridenstine’s nomination. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), ranking member of the committee, again expressed his opposition to the nomination, arguing that Bridenstine was unqualified to lead the space agency.

“The facts of this nomination have not changed,” he said of Bridenstine. “He has no experience managing a large organization or program, no background in science or engineering, and a history of political divisiveness.” The agency, he concluded, “needs a unifying force and a qualified space professional.”

Several Republican senators rose to Bridenstine’s defense. “He has a lot of experience,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), describing Bridenstine’s work on House committees dealing with space policy. “I think that anyone who takes this position as director of NASA is going to have to be someone who can speak the language of Congress, can walk the halls, express the needs of NASA. He certainly is qualified to do that.”

“He has many of the characteristics similar to our own astronauts,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), citing Bridenstine’s experience as a naval aviator.

Cruz also criticized the partisan divide about Bridenstine’s nomination. “We have been seeing a party-line wall of Democratic opposition to a well-qualified veteran and, indeed, a war hero who has been nominated to be administrator of NASA,” he said. “I would encourage my friends on the Democratic side of the aisle, if you want to pick a partisan fight, pick it on something other than space.”

The prospects for Bridenstine’s confirmation by the full Senate are no better now than when the committee originally advanced his nomination last November. Republicans hold a narrow 51–49 edge in the Senate, meaning they can lose only one senator’s vote and still win passage, using the tie-breaking vote that would be cast by Vice President Mike Pence.

While no Democratic senators has announced their support for Bridenstine, one Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, expressed concerns about the nomination when it was originally announced last September, statements Nelson alluded to in his remarks. A spokesperson for Rubio did not respond to a request for comment Jan. 18 about the senator’s position on the nomination.

In addition, two Republican senators, Thad Cochran of Mississippi and John McCain of Arizona, have missed time in recent months because of health issues, and McCain has yet to return to the Senate after the new session started early this month.

Nelson argued it was time for the Trump administration to withdraw Bridenstine’s nomination and offer an alternative to lead NASA, suggesting Bridenstine lacked the votes to win passage. “You can count votes, and I don’t say anything is solid and sure until it actually happens, but it’s my hope that, sooner or later, we can move on to a qualified candidate who would quickly be confirmed with broad bipartisan support,” he said.

Bridenstine retains strong support within the space industry and broader space community despite the ongoing nomination battle. In a press release shortly before the committee vote, Bridenstine announced that his guest for the Jan. 30 State of the Union address would be Bill Nye, chief executive of The Planetary Society and someone who is best known as “The Science Guy” from a long-running television series.

“I have enjoyed a productive working relationship with Congressman Bridenstine on space issues,” Nye said in a statement about being Bridenstine’s guest at the speech. “The congressman is the nominee to be the next administrator of NASA, and as I often say, NASA is the best brand the United States has.”

With the Senate unlikely to take up Bridenstine’s nomination for at least several weeks, NASA will continue to be led by Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who will mark one year as acting administrator on Jan. 20. That is far longer than any other acting administrator in the agency’s nearly 60-year history.

Lightfoot, speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies civil space forum Jan. 18, joked about setting the record for longest-serving acting administrator. “Having the record for the longest-running acting administrator, for those of you who are Bull Durham fans, that’s like having the minor league home run record,” he said. “Nobody knows or cares.”

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

The commander of the final space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope and a three-time spacewalker who helped to install the U.S. laboratory on the International Space Station, will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in April.

Former NASA astronauts Scott Altman and Thomas Jones will be honored as the Hall’s 2018 class of inductees at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. A public ceremony on April 21, followed by a gala dinner hosted by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), will welcome Altman and Jones as the 96th and 97th enshrinees in the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Altman and Jones’ induction was announced on Thursday (Jan. 18) by space shuttle-era astronaut Curt Brown, board chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which oversees the selection process. [Building the International Space Station (Photos)]

“Dr. Jones and Capt. Altman exemplify the qualities of true American heroes: courage, dedication and passion,” said Brown, who entered the Hall of Fame in 2013. “As NASA’s mission continues to evolve, with a goal to learn more and go further, we recognize that individuals like Dr. Jones and Capt. Altman play a crucial role in keeping that mission on course.”

“We are delighted to be adding them to the elite group of men and women who have been inducted,” said Brown.

Selected with NASA’s 13th and 15th classes of astronauts in 1990 and 1995, respectively, Jones and Altman flew on four space shuttle missions each. Atlman logged 51 days and 12 hours in Earth orbit, while Jones spent a day and a half more, circling the planet for 53 days.

An accomplished Navy fighter pilot, Altman’s pre-astronaut claim to fame was flying the aerobatic flight sequences for Tom Cruise’s “Marverick” in the 1986 movie “Top Gun.” As a space shuttle pilot and then commander, Altman — who goes by the call sign “Scooter” — flew missions aboard the orbiters Columbia and Atlantis.

Altman made his first spaceflight as the pilot of STS-90 in 1998, a mission dubbed “Neurolab” due to its focus on the effects of microgravity on the function of the human brain and nervous system. Two years later, he piloted STS-106, which was dedicated to preparing the International Space Station for the arrival of its first resident crew.

Altman’s third and fourth flights were as the commander of the final two missions tasked with repairing and upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope. On STS-109 in 2002 and on STS-125 in 2009, Altman flew the shuttle to a rendezvous with the orbiting observatory, where his crew spacewalked to service the Hubble. [Repairing the Hubble Space Telescope: The Tools Astronauts Used]

Following his return to Earth, Altman served as the chief of the exploration branch of NASA’s Astronaut Office during the selection of the Orion spacecraft as the agency’s next generation crew vehicle. He left NASA in 2010 and is now the senior vice president for civil programs for all of ASRC Federal’s NASA and NOAA programs, including assembly of Orion capsules for upcoming exploration missions.

Scott Altman, seen with the Hubble Space Telescope outside of the window, on space shuttle Atlantis during STS-125 in 2009.

Credit: NASA

Jones flew B-52D “Stratofortress” combat missions for the Air Force and served as a program management engineer in the CIA’s Office of Development and Engineering before becoming a NASA astronaut. His four space shuttle flights as a mission specialist were onboard the orbiters Atlantis, Columbia and Endeavour.

Jones’ first two launches were separated by less than six months. On STS-59 and STS-68 in April and September of 1994, Jones and his crewmates operated the Space Radar Laboratory, studying Earth’s environment.

Jones’ third space mission, STS-80, was the longest in the shuttle program’s 30-year history. During the 17 days and 16 hours that he was in orbit, Jones helped to deploy and recover science satellites, but his two planned spacewalks were canceled due to a jammed airlock hatch.

Jones ultimately succeeded in walking in space on a trio of extravehicular activities (EVAs) during the STS-98 mission in 2001. He helped to install the U.S. Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station, where he also overcame a critical ammonia leak. In total, Jones logged 19 hours and 48 minutes working in the vacuum of space.

Thomas Jones, STS-98 mission specialist, grabs a hand rail while on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA

Since departing NASA in 2001, Jones has authored more than 200 technical and popular articles, as well as penned five books about space and aviation. Jones is now a senior research scientist with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and the chairman of the Association of Space Explorers’ near-Earth object committee, supporting international efforts to detect and deflect rogue asteroids.

“I am gratified and thankful to be welcomed with Scooter into this elite group of pioneering astronauts, and to walk in the footsteps of my heroes,” wrote Jones on Facebook on Thursday. “This honor is beyond my wildest space dreams, I can tell you.”

Altman and Jones were selected for induction by a panel of astronauts, mission controllers and journalists overseen by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. To be eligible, they needed to have made their first spaceflight at least 17 years ago, be U.S. citizens trained by NASA, and now be retired from the astronaut corps.

The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame was founded in 1990 on the suggestion of the original Mercury astronauts. It is now a featured part of Heroes & Legends, a public attraction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Watch the announcement of the 2018 Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees at collectSPACE.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2018 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

The small-rocket startup Rocket Lab will attempt to launch its first customer payloads into orbit tonight (Jan. 19), and you can watch it live online.

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from the company’s private launch range in New Zealand on the afternoon of Jan. 20 local time, which means the evening of Jan. 19 on the U.S. East Coast. This will be the company’s second test launch of the rocket.

The four-hour launch window opens at 8:30 p.m. EST on Jan.19 (2:30 p.m. NZDT on Jan. 20). The company will provide a livestream of the launch on their website, starting about 15 minutes before the rocket’s anticipated launch time. The webcast will also be available on Rocket Lab’s You Tube channel and Facebook page. Space.com will also carry the webcast live.

If the rocket doesn’t launch today, the same daily launch window will remain open for 8 more days. The launch was originally scheduled for early December, but various issues (mainly weather) stopped the company from launching the rocket then. Prior to the December launch attempt, company representatives said they would only launch the rocket under ideal conditions, and that delays were likely.

“We’re expecting to scrub multiple times as we wait for perfect conditions and make sure everything on the vehicle is performing as it should,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO, in a statement released in early December. 

This is the second of three planned test launches of the Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. The launch vehicle being used for the test flight is titled “Still Testing,” but it is carrying three customer satellites. One is a bread loaf-size, Earth-imaging Dove satellite from the private company Planet (formerly Planet Labs). The other two are both Lemur-2 satellites for the private company Spire, which could be used for tracking ship traffic or mapping weather.

#StillTesting roll-out preparations are well underway today at Launch Complex-1. Tomorrow’s four hour launch window opens at 14:30 NZDT (17:30 PT/ 20:30 ET / 1:30 UTC). Once again, we’ll be waiting for ideal launch conditions. More updates to follow!

— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) January 18, 2018

This will be the second test flight of Electron. The first test flight took place May 25, 2017. During that flight, the third stage of the rocket didn’t attain its intended altitude of 310 miles (500 kilometers). In August, Rocket Lab issued a statement saying that a review of the May 25 attempt “found the launch had to be terminated due to an independent contractor’s ground equipment issue, rather than an issue with the rocket.”

Electron stands about 55 feet (17 meters) tall and can carry up to about 500 lbs. (225 kilograms). Unlike most traditional rockets, Electron is designed primarily to send small payloads into space, Beck told Space.com in 2016. The rocket is intended to give customers more flexibility regarding when their payloads launch and how often, instead of being subject to the scheduling demands of larger payloads.

Rocket Lab has a few competitors in the small-rocket business, including Virgin Orbit (formerly part of Virgin Galactic, but now a separate entity in the Virgin Group), which is planning test flights of its LauncherOne small-satellite launch system this year. Another potential competitor is Vector Space Systems, whose Vector-R rocket performed a low-altitude test flight earlier this year.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.