Category: space.com

A tiny life-seeking instrument could be packed on a future mission to Mars or the icy moons of Enceladus or Europa. Its aim: to find microbes through a detective search of DNA and RNA and help us understand how life evolves on other worlds.

The researchers recently tried out their techniques at a site on Axel Heiberg Island, a large Arctic island about 560 miles from the North Pole. Like Mars, Axel Heiberg is under a deep freeze most of the time. But it also hosts unique formations called cold perennial springs, which have roots in permafrost as deep as 1,970 feet. At sites measured by the researchers, the springs materialized in salty areas where microbes thrive.

The new study showed that a portable DNA sequencing device called MiniON, manufactured by the United Kingdom’s Oxford Nanopore Technologies, works well in the field. It detected microbes and also sequenced DNA from active microbes. While more tests need to be done, this first step shows that searching for life on other worlds is definitely possible.

Now we just need a mission on which to put this instrument.

A DNA sequencing run being carried out with the Oxford Nanopore MinION (on right) at the McGill Arctic Research Station in the Canadian Arctic.

Credit: Dr. Jackie Goordial/McGill University/Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Cold, liquid, and salty sounds a lot like how conditions could be on Mars — particularly on features called recurring slope lineae. These are dark streaks that appear on the slopes of craters, particularly when the surrounding area is warm. Back in 2015, NASA announced that hydrated salts are present within RSLs, which is strong evidence of liquid, briny water flowing on the surface. (And water, of course, could mean life.) But later research has cast some doubt on that conclusion, with some researchers suggesting RSLs are piles of dirt tumbling down the slope, while others say atmospheric water is the source of the salts.

“It’s something we just don’t know about, and can’t know until we can drive up to an RSL and sample it,” said Lyle Whyte, a McGill University professor who participated in the new study and who studies microbes in polar environments.

Whyte points out there are potentially life-friendly sites all over the solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope spotted multiple water eruptions on Jupiter’s the icy moon Europa. The Cassini mission — which ended as planned last year — extensively mapped more than 100 geysers spouting from icy Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons.

RELATED: Ice From Underground Lava Tubes Offers Possible Water Supply for Moon Missions

So Whyte’s team, which was led by Jacqueline Goordial, a postdoctoral fellow at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, wants an instrument small enough to fly to any destination — Europa, Enceladus, or Mars.

“The smaller, the better,” advises Whyte, who is also on the landing team selection committee for the forthcoming ExoMars 2020 rover. “Because you might only have 600 pounds to play with, and 150 of that is rover hardware.”

An article based on the research was published in the journal Frontiers of Microbiology. The research was funded by the Canadian Space Agency and included participation from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. Whyte said near-term experiments will see the researchers working to expand the DNA sequencer’s library, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies researchers will make technical changes to the sequencer itself — both to improve the sequencer’s ability to hunt microbes.

While the DNA analyzer may not fly for years, Ames is working on another life experiment that may break free of a NASA spacecraft and sail past the moon as early as 2019, on a heliocentric (sun-centered) orbit. Called BioSentinel, the experiment will study the impact of interplanetary space radiation on ordinary yeast. BioSentinel will launch on NASA’s first Space Launch System mission, called Exploration Mission-1, that will launch in 2019 for a moon-orbiting mission, before returning to Earth.

Originally published on Seeker.

NASA officials on Saturday (Jan. 27) postponed a planned spacewalk at the International Space Station this week after developing a software patch for a glitch that two astronauts had expected to fix during the spacewalk.

Astronauts Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency were scheduled to spend more than six hours working outside the space station on Monday (Jan. 29). Their goal, NASA officials said, was to replace a latching end effector (LEE) that serves as the grappling end of the station’s robotic arm.

The LEE in question was installed on the robotic arm during a spacewalk Tuesday (Jan. 23)by Vande Hei and NASA astronaut Scott Tingle. But when powered up, the LEE did not respond as expected on its main communications channel, but did respond on its backup. [Space Station Photos: Expedition 54 Crew in Orbit]

To address the LEE glitch, NASA replanned Monday’s spacewalk Vande Hei and Kanai (which was already scheduled) to replace the new LEE with the older one removed on Tuesday. But engineers with the Canadian Space Agency — which provided the station’s robotic arm system — found a software patch to fix the LEE communications glitch.

That means Vande Hei and Kanai won’t have to go outside and replace the LEE on the robotic arm, NASA officials said. Instead, the astronauts will venture outside in mid-February to perform the tasks that were originally scheduled for their spacewalk. They include installing LEE removed from the station’s arm Tuesday to a new location on the outpost’s railcar-like Mobile Transporter, and bringing a still-older LEE removed from the station’s arm in October inside the station.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Constellations have long been used to organize the night sky and capture our imaginations with their myths and legends. But only a limited number of constellations resemble their name, and the stars making up their dimmer elements are increasingly hard to see under light-polluted skies. Asterisms, on the other hand, are easy-to-see star patterns that add an element of fun to skywatching because they are so accessible to beginners. And you’re free to imagine your own!

Just in time for next week’s big game, one of the largest asterisms in the night sky, called the Winter Football, is perfectly positioned for viewing by just stepping outside and looking up.

In this edition of Mobile Stargazing, we’ll tell you how to see the Winter Football and highlight a few other asterisms that are visible with unaided eyes, in binoculars and in small telescopes with the help of mobile astronomy apps. [Best Binoculars for Earth and Sky]

Asterisms versus constellations

For millennia, skywatchers have visualized patterns in the stars, connecting the dots to form stick figures. They shared their impressions with members of their communities, passed them down through the generations, and created myths and legends to accompany the figures in the sky. Some star patterns were so obvious that cultures around the world independently saw the same thing. Leo the lion, Orion the hunter and Scorpius the scorpion are prime examples of this. Other societies saw arrangements of stars forming objects, birds or animals familiar only to them. Some astronomy apps, including SkySafari 6 and Stellarium Mobile, can display the constellations of different cultures.

The roots of our modern constellations began in ancient Greece during the second century B.C., when the astronomer Hipparchus created a list of 48 classical constellations in common use, many of which originated with the ancient Babylonians. Ptolemy, another Greek astronomer, included them in his Almagest, a star catalog that he published a few decades later. The Almagest constellations were widely adopted by Europeans, who expanded the set with additional minor constellations over the next 1,800 years. In the 16th century A.D., seafaring explorers encountered parts of the southern sky never before seen and added 14 new constellations to the list.

In the 1930s, in an effort to standardize astronomy worldwide, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally recognized 88 constellations, each with a defined boundary that left no gaps in the sky coverage. Thus, every object in the sky was located within a home constellation. 

At left, the constellation of Pegasus is traditionally depicted upside down, using the Great Square asterism as its wings, the chain of stars ending at Enif as its neck and head, and its two forelegs extending from the star Scheat — with the rest of Pegasus absent. In his book “Find the Constellations” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1954) author and illustrator H.A. Rey connected the stars for all the constellations in more relatable ways, bringing the rest of Pegasus’ body into the constellation (right panel). The Rey depictions are available in the SkySafari 6 app by selecting Modern Constellations under the Settings menu.

Credit: SkySafari App

The constellation labels and boundaries in mobile astronomy apps follow the IAU system. Interestingly, the way the “stick figures” are created by joining the stars is not standardized, and many astronomy apps offer multiple options to portray the constellations. In 1954, H.A. Rey, author of the “Curious George” books, wrote a charming illustrated-children’s book called “Find the Constellations,” and a more advanced book called “The Stars: A New Way to See Them.” (Updated versions are still in print.) Rey drew the constellations in new and whimsical ways, often making them much more obvious. The SkySafari6 app shows Rey’s portrayals in the Modern Constellations Settings option. Stellarium desktop software includes them, too, under the Starlore settings.

Asterisms are informal star patterns not governed by the IAU. They are usually composed of brighter stars taken from a larger constellation or assembled from multiple adjacent constellations. Their names are informal, too — so some are known by more than one name. Large asterisms tend to be easier to see than constellations because of their brighter stars. Learning to identify asterisms is fun and makes a terrific starting point for learning the night sky in more detail. 

Below, we’ll highlight a few of the best asterisms visible during winter from the Northern Hemisphere. I’ll highlight some for unaided eyes, some for binoculars, and a few of the multitude of small ones only visible in a telescope. You can use the constellations and star names that I mention to find them with your astronomy app. In the Asterisms Display section of the Constellations Settings menu in SkySafari 6, you can switch on the asterisms and their names. They’ll be plotted with a different color on top of the regular constellations. You can also turn off the constellations and leave only the asterisms. [Winter Skywatching: Spot Some Overlooked Constellations]

Two good web resources for lists of asterisms are the Astronomical League’s Asterism Observing List and Demelza Ramakers’ Asterisms page. Small asterisms are ideal targets for telescope owners during bright moonlit nights when other objects are washed out.

One last point to ponder. The bright planets move among the stars and can “invade” or confuse an asterism from time to time. Since there are no naked-eye planets in the evening sky this winter, they won’t bother us. Let’s start with the big one!

The Winter Football, also known as the Winter Hexagon and Winter Circle, uses the brightest stars in the constellations of Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini and Canis Minor. It covers a swath of sky from 20 degrees above the southern horizon to nearly overhead, and the Milky Way runs through it. The football is visible during evenings from mid-November to spring of every year. The moon will pass through it this weekend, as shown here at 8 p.m. local time on Sunday (Jan. 28). By linking Rigel to Betelgeuse instead of Aldebaran, a large capital “G” asterism can be formed.

Credit: SkySafari App

The Winter Football

If you’ve been out under clear skies lately, you can’t have missed the sprinkling of incredibly bright and colorful stars in the southern evening sky. Some of the brightest stars form a huge six-sided asterism called the Winter Hexagon or Winter Circle. But — in time for next week’s big game — I prefer to think of it as the Winter Football! 

In early evening the football is standing upright with the lower point just above the southeastern horizon. The asterism is 65 degrees high (or 6.5 fist diameters held at arm’s length) and 45 degrees wide. Let’s trace it out.

Starting at the bottom tip of the football, the very bright, white star that is fairly low in the sky is Sirius, nicknamed the Dog Star, in the constellation of Canis Major (the Big Dog). Moving counter-clockwise (westward), the next star is bright, blue-white Rigel. It sits 23 degrees above and to the right of Sirius and marks the western foot of Orion. 

Almost three fist diameters above Rigel is the bright orange star Aldebaran, which marks the angry eye of Taurus the Bull. Aldebaran is an old red giant star more that 40 times the diameter of our sun. Located between Rigel and Aldebaran, but offset to the left (east), is the bright reddish star Betelgeuse, which sits at Orion’s eastern shoulder. This star is a true giant — believed to be more than 600 times the size of the sun! If you like, you can turn the Winter Football into a capital “G” by using Betelgeuse to form the horizontal line in the letter.

At the upper tip of the football is bright yellow Capella, the Goat Star. It sits nearly overhead in the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer. Auriga is more or less a ring of medium-bright stars with Capella at the top as the “diamond.” Next, moving three fist diameters down and to the left of Capella we encounter a pair of nearly identical bright stars separated by only a few finger widths: the twins Castor (upper) and Pollux (lower) in the zodiac constellation of Gemini. The bodies of the twins extend toward Orion. Finally, look midway between Castor and Pollux and Sirius for the final star in the asterism, bright blue-white star Procyon in Canis Minor (the Little Dog). Sirius and Procyon are both located less than 12 light-years from Earth — practically in our backyard. That’s one reason why they shine so brightly! 

Like all asterisms, the Winter Football is visible on the same dates and times every year. It will be visible from now until midspring. This weekend, the moon will cross through the hexagon from Friday to Monday.

The Big Dipper, shown as it appears at 7 p.m. every September, is one of the most well-known asterisms visible from mid-northern latitudes. It is formed by taking the seven brightest stars from the much larger constellation Ursa Major (Big Bear). The pairs of close-together stars marking the bear’s front and two rear paws form another asterism called the Three Leaps of the Gazelle.

Credit: SkySafari App

The Big Dipper and other large northern asterisms

Contrary to popular belief, the Big Dipper is not a constellation. It’s an asterism made from part of the larger constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear. The Big Dipper’s seven bright stars — a flat-bottomed basin attached to a bent three-starred handle — are circumpolar, making it visible year-round from mid- northern latitudes. The handle is also the crooked tail of the bear. The basin is its rear torso. The front half of the bear extends 18 degrees beyond Dubhe, the star at the Big Dipper’s outer rim. The bear’s legs and feet are below and in front of the Big Dipper. All of the non-Dipper stars in the constellation are dimmer, making the Big Dipper stand out. The Little Dipper, which sits above the Big Dipper, is considered both an asterism and a constellation. [Big Dipper Stars Shine Over Stargazer in Amazing Photo]

Another fine winter naked-eye asterism is the Great Square of Pegasus. It reminds me of a baseball diamond because one corner is usually pointed downward. The asterism is about 15 degrees across and can be seen over the western horizon until midevening. 

The three stars in Orion’s belt count as an asterism, too. When viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, Orion is upside down. His sword, which then appears just above his belt, combines with the three belt stars to form an asterism called the Frying Pan. To see it, try looking at Orion upside down!

Finally, about 8 p.m. in your local time, the distinctive constellation of Leo the Lion rises in the east. While the entire constellation might be considered an asterism, his head and neck stars form a backward question mark, called the Sickle asterism.

Kemble’s Cascade, shown at left, is in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis. More than two finger widths in length, it fits comfortably within the field of view of binoculars. The Owl Cluster, also known as the ET Cluster, the Dragonfly Cluster and NGC 457, is smaller and is best seen in a backyard telescope. Its two upswept wings span about 20 minutes of arc, or two-thirds of the full moon’s diameter.

Credit: Digital Sky Survey via Stellarium

Telescope and binocular asterisms 

Some asterisms are smaller, forming whimsical shapes best seen in binoculars and telescopes. Here are a few winter asterisms to hunt for using your astronomy app. I’ve included some formal designations that you can use when searching in your app.

The Trapezium is a small quartet of stars buried in the heart of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42). Using you telescope, enlarge the nebula until you can see the small trapezoid-shaped asterism inside. These young stars are helping to make the nebula glow.

Use binoculars to see a large “S”-shape asterism between Alnilam and Mintaka, two westernmost stars in Orion’s belt. It’s about 2 degrees, or two finger widths, tall.

The Pleiades (Messier 45) is a naked-eye asterism located above the triangular face of Taurus in the evening southeastern sky (just outside of the Winter Football). This small bright cluster of bluish stars often reminds skywatchers of the Little Dipper because of its similar shape. It is associated with the Daughters of Atlas from Greek mythology, and is used as the logo for Subaru. Because it is too large for most telescopes, use binoculars for the best view.

The ET Cluster (NGC 457), also known as the Owl Cluster or Dragonfly Cluster, is one of my favorite asterisms. It is located high in the northwestern evening sky in Cassiopeia. It features two bright yellow “star-eyes” above a sprinkling of stars making a stubby body, and chains of stars forming two curved upswept wings. The shape is too small to make out in binoculars, but viewing it in a backyard telescope at low power will delight you.

Kemble’s Cascade is a 2.5-degree long line of faint stars within the constellation of Camelopardalis. It terminates near a star cluster designated NGC 1502. In winter evenings, the chain is located nearly overhead in the northern sky. The line is oriented horizontally at 7 p.m. local time and rotates more vertically every hour. Use binoculars to find it, and then sweep along the chain using your telescope.

Summertime stars bring new asterisms, including the very clear Teapot in Sagittarius, the Summer Triangle and Northern Cross asterisms (which share Deneb), and the Keystone in Hercules. As a bonus, the summer night skies of 2018 will be populated with the naked-eye planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, as shown here on July 15, 2018, at 11 p.m. in your local time zone.

Credit: SkySafari App

Going beyond: More asterisms to hunt for

Other asterisms, such as the Southern Cross, are only visible from the Southern Hemisphere. When traveling, it’s fun to ask local skywatchers to point out the asterisms they know. From home, different asterisms appear at different times of the year. Here are some asterisms you can seek out, with their main constellations abbreviated in parentheses: Coathangar (Vul), Teapot (Sag), Summer Triangle (Lyr, Cyg, Alt), Northern Cross (Cyg), Fish Hook (Sco), Kite (Boo), Keystone (Her) and Job’s Coffin (Del). Use your app to find out whether they are available in your sky and when to see them.

We’ve just scratched the surface. Enjoy the Winter Football and remember that asterisms are unofficial — so you are free to imagine your own. But don’t be surprised if someone hasn’t already had the same idea. In future editions of Mobile Stargazing, we’ll look at measuring distances to stars, seeing stars mentioned in science fiction and more. In the meantime, keep looking up!

Editor’s note: Chris Vaughan is an astronomy public outreach and education specialist at AstroGeo, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and an operator of the historic 74-inch (1.88-meter) David Dunlap Observatory telescope. You can reach him via email, and follow him on Twitter @astrogeoguy, as well as on Facebook and Tumblr.

This article was provided by Simulation Curriculum, the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of the SkySafari app for Android and iOS. Follow SkySafari on Twitter @SkySafariAstro. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

The satellite company SES confirmed that its SES-14 communications satellite, which hosts an upper-atmosphere-observation mission from NASA, will be able to reach its final orbit just four weeks late after a launch anomaly saw the rocket lose contact with Earth last night (Jan. 26).

Although Arianespace was unable to communicate with the Ariane 5 second stage carrying SES-14 and another satellite, Al Yah 3, into orbit, the satellites were still successfully released — and each got in contact with its respective control center, Arianespace representatives said. The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) instrument was NASA’s first-ever science mission to fly as a hosted payload on a commercial satellite, NASA researchers have said.

SES representatives said in a statement today that the company is now setting up a new orbit-raising plan, which will take SES-14 and GOLD to their final orbit four weeks after this was scheduled to happen; the satellite was slated to take four and a half weeks to maneuver into its high orbit using electric propulsion.

Once they reach its final geostationary orbit, SES-14 and GOLD will remain in position above one spot on Earth as they circle and the planet turns. This will let SES-14 support communications for Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and the North Atlantic region, SES said, and it will give GOLD an ideal vantage point to monitor the rapid flux of the upper atmosphere at the border between Earth and space.

“SES confirms that the spacecraft is in good health, all subsystems on board are nominal and the satellite is expected to meet the designed lifetime,” SES representatives said.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. 

HOUSTON — The historic consoles used by NASA flight controllers to manage the first missions to land astronauts on the moon are on the move.

Workers on Thursday (Jan. 25) were busy labeling and removing the iconic rows of consoles that comprised NASA’s historic mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The green metal cabinets, with their cathode-ray tube displays, rotary dials and backlit push button panels, are being temporarily relocated to the Cosmosphere museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, where they will be restored to their Apollo-era condition and appearance.

“All of these historical consoles have been catalogued and we are removing them from the room and sending them to our restoration contractor,” said Jim Thornton, NASA’s project manager for the restoration, during a media tour Thursday. “This is [the first] stepping stone in the overall project to restore the original Apollo flight control room, visitor viewing room and the simulation control room back to the way they appeared in July of 1969.” [Gallery: Historic Apollo Mission Control Consoles Removed for Restoration]

The $5 million restoration will return Mission Operations Control Room-2 (MOCR-2) inside the Mission Control Center to how it looked at the time of Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the moon.

“This will be a complete and accurate historical restoration,” said Sandra Tetley, the historic preservation officer and real property officer at Johnson Space Center. “It will not be a fix-it-up. Everything will be preserved and accurate, from buttons, button labels, lighting — everything will be completely accurate.”

“It’s going to look as if the flight controllers just walked out of the room,” she said.

Space Center Houston, the visitor center for Johnson Space Center, together with NASA, Texas Historical Commission and the National Park Service are overseeing the project, with the goal of it having ready in time for the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing next year. The Park Service gave its approval for the restoration in 2017 given the room’s status as a National Historic Landmark since 1985.

Before removing the consoles, each component needed to be tagged and entered into a database.

Inside Mission Operations Control Room-2 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Apollo-era consoles have been prepared for their move to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. Every component was inventoried and tagged by serial number and console position.

Credit: collectSPACE.com

“Every piece that goes out has to be documented,” Tetley told collectSPACE. “We went through and documented every part and serial number, manufacturer’s part number and which console and which position it is in.”

Though the overall control room is being returned to its Apollo 11 appearance, the consoles will be configured to how they looked during the fourth moon landing in July 1971. The Apollo 15 mission included the first use of the lunar roving vehicle (lunar rover) and began the extended exploration of the moon.

“The flight controllers said Apollo 15 was the height of the technological changes in the Apollo program. After that mission, the console configuration did not change very much,” Tetley said.

At the Cosmosphere’s SpaceWorks restoration facility, conservators will carefully take apart the more than half-century old consoles in order to bring them back to life.

First used for NASA’s Gemini 4 mission in 1965 and retired after STS-53, the 52nd space shuttle mission in December 1992, the consoles’ electronics are largely no longer serviceable. As such, the displays and some of the other visible elements will be augmented with modern components in order to create the appearance that the consoles are operational.

The Cosmosphere’s conservators will preserve the original electronics inside NASA’s Apollo-era mission control consoles, but will also install modern technology to give the appearance that the consoles are again active, monitoring the first landing on the moon.

Credit: collectSPACE.com

“We’re not re-energizing the consoles, but they will animated to appear as if they are,” said Thornton.

“They will be representative working,” added Tetley. “They will be backlit with LED lighting so the visitor’s experience is such that when you are in the viewing room looking in, all of the lights and monitors will be the same as when we were landing on the moon.”

First to depart by truck for the Cosmosphere are the consoles from the simulation control room and the first two rows of the main room —Â including the stations for the retrofire officer (RETRO), flight dynamics officer (FDO), capsule communicator (CAPCOM) and electrical, environmental and communications officer (EECOM). They are slated to return to Houston in October, when the second and last set of consoles, including the flight director (FLIGHT) station, is expected to leave.

In the meantime, work to restore the rooms themselves is beginning, with details like the carpet, ceiling tiles, wallpaper and upholstery being cleaned or replaced to match their 1969 appearance.

See more photos from the removal of the mission control consoles at collectSPACE.

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

Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan has been the launch site for Soviet and Russian space missions since the beginning of space exploration in 1957. The first satellite and the first human flew into space from there. Today, the site is heavily used for Soyuz astronaut launches to the International Space Station.

The site has mostly been used to launch Soviet Union and Russian cosmonauts, but after the Cold War cooled, some American and European astronauts started to launch there as well. After the space shuttle program retired in 2011, NASA shifted to having all of its astronauts fly from Baikonur until the new Commercial Crew Program is ready to launch astronauts. Test flights for the program are currently expected in 2018 or 2019, so around the 2020s fewer American launches are expected from Baikonur. Russia has also built a new launch site, Vostochny, which is eventually expected to take over many of the launches of Baikonur.

Location and early history

To this day, Baikonur remains somewhat remote. It is 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) from Moscow. The launch complex is on a desert steppe east of the Aral Sea. The region is known for its harsh climate. While its average temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius), NASA says its temperatures can range from minus 40 F (minus 40 C) in winter to 113 F (45 C) in summer.

“The name Baikonur is misleading,” NASA wrote of the complex. “The former Soviet Union used the name and coordinates of a small mining town, Baikonur, to describe the location of its rocket complex. In fact, the launch complex is about 322 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of the mining town near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan. This misrepresentation was done intentionally to hide the actual location of the launch complex. Although the true location is now known, the launch complex is still referred to as Baikonur.”

Baikonur’s origins came with the Soviet desire to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles; the extended range and tracking system required did not fit existing Soviet facilities at the time. A site search was conducted in high secrecy and has only been revealed in recent decades to people such as Russian space historian Anatoly Zak, who pieced together the area’s early history through reading documents and doing interviews.

The reasons for choosing what is now known as Baikonur are complex, but one major factor (according to Zak) appears to be the existence of a rail spur connected with what was then called the Kazakhstanskaya Railroad. This allowed for building materials, and later the rockets themselves, to be transported to the site. Construction started in 1955 in high secrecy; by 1957, the United States was aware of an ICBM site in the area and had U-2 aircraft scanning the zone, Zak says.

A Soyuz rocket and spacecraft are seen at the launchpad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 16, 2016, ahead of a planned March 18 launch that will send three spaceflyers toward the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Space-age pad

The first successful space launch from Baikonur is also the first successful space launch of a satellite —Sputnik-1, which left Earth on Oct. 4, 1957. The cosmodrome only officially received the name “Baikonur,” however, after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin went into space on April 12, 1961 — also a world first. Rather than reveal the location of the facility, the Soviet Union achieved its world record by telling the International Aviation Federation that it had launched from the town of Baikonur, Zak says.

Prior to Gagarin’s flight, Baikonur was host to the worst launch pad failure in history, known informally as the Nedelin Catastrophe after a high-ranking Soviet official who was killed in the disaster. It happened when an R-16 missile detonated on the pad due to various factors (including skipped safety checks and a rushed launch schedule) and killed an estimated 150 people on Oct. 24, 1960. The incident was kept secret for decades, even from the families of disaster victims.

Baikonur was the site for all major Soviet launches, and remains so for most Russian launches today. Some of its notable early missions include the first spacecraft to go close to the moon (Luna 1, 1959); the first flight of a female in space (Valentina Tereshkova, 1963); the first flight to carry two people (Voskhod 1, 1964) and the first crewed launch to a space station (Soyuz 11, 1971). Baikonur also was the launch site for two fatal missions; Soyuz 11’s three cosmonauts died during re-entry, and the parachute failed to deploy during the Soyuz 1 spacecraft re-entry in 1967, killing the single cosmonaut on board.

On July 3, 1969, the Soviets made a test attempt to launch a heavy rocket — capable of sending humans to the moon — known as the N-1. At the time, NASA was only three weeks away from making the first moon landing. A rocket failure caused part of the N-1’s fuel to detonate, heavily damaging the launch pad and surrounding area. No fatalities were reported in the incident, Zak says, which was kept secret for some time. The N-1 program underwent four test launches between 1969 and 1972, all of which ended in failure.

The Soviets have launched missions to many space stations over the decades, starting with the fatal Soyuz 11 flight to Salyut 1 (the first space station) in 1967. Notably, the Soviet Union began opening its flights to other nations in 1978 under the Interkosmos program, which saw participating Soyuz astronauts from more than a dozen other nations through the late 1980s.

Americans launch from Baikonur

After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, NASA and Russia began joint missions to the Mir space station (including launching American astronauts from Baikonur) so that NASA could start learning from the Russians’ long-duration stays in space on their various space stations. NASA docked at Mir using the space shuttle, a vehicle it used for spaceflight between 1981 and 2011. 

Shuttle-Mir (as the joint program was called) was a precursor to learning to work together for the International Space Station program, which began construction in 1998. Some observers say the Shuttle-Mir program also allowed the U.S. government to financially stabilize the Russian space program during a difficult time, ensuring the two sides would stay allies. The first American to fly into space on a Soyuz spacecraft was Norman Thagard, in 1995.

The United States retired its aging space shuttle program in 2011, by which time several Americans had flown into space on Soyuz. To fill the gap until commercial flights began, the United States paid for seats on the Soyuz for all astronauts going to the International Space Station for the U.S. segment. The Commercial Crew Program is expected to run test flights in 2018 and 2019 and as it moves into operations, this will greatly reduce U.S. demand for Soyuz seats. 

The date for commercial crew operations has been pushed back several years; when the space shuttle first retired in 2011, NASA expected that SpaceX and Boeing could start launching astronauts from U.S. soil again in 2015. Now it likely won’t be until 2019, at the earliest. NASA’s Office of the Inspector General issued a 2016 report noting the additional costs the commercial crew delays incurred. 

Business Insider reported in an article about the OIG’s work that Roscosmos used to charge NASA as little as $21.8 million per seat in 2008. In 2018, that price was expected to go up 372 percent to $81 million per astronaut. “Had the agency met its original goal of securing commercial crew transportation by calendar year 2015, NASA could have avoided paying Russia close to $1 billion for Soyuz seats in 2017 and 2018, even factoring in the purchase of some seats in 2016 to cover the expected transition period,” the OIG report stated.

Russia builds a new launch complex

While Baikonur used to be on Soviet soil, this changed with the breakup of the Soviet Union. After Kazakhstan declared independence, Russia began leasing Baikonur from Kazakhstan. As of 2013, the agreement extends until 2050 for an annual lease price of $115 million, plus $50 million in yearly maintenance for the facility.

In 2011, Russia began construction on a new launch complex in eastern Russia, called Vostochny. It is located in eastern Siberia near the Chinese border. Observers said that the Russians wanted a launch pad on its own soil for both financial and political reasons (because the Russians wanted to have more autonomy over launch decisions.) The complex was expected to cost $7.5 billion when construction started in 2011, according to NBC News. That’s four times higher than the original projected cost of $1.9 billion.

In 2013, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged Vostochny would host crewed launches within five years, but there have been difficulties with meeting that deadline. The first launch at Vostochny took place in April 2016, when three satellites were launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. The second launch only occurred in November 2017 and saw a $45 million weather satellite lost due to human error; the mission was accidentally programmed as though it was launching from Baikonur. 

In late 2017, an article in Ars Technica pointed out that Russia’s dominating position in space is changing and companies may soon go elsewhere for launches. Commercial competitor SpaceX had 16 launches in 2017, including 11 for customers. Russia had more launches than SpaceX (17) but only one-third of them for customers outside of the Russian government. Russia is hard at work at developing a Soyuz-5 booster that would be ready in 2021. SpaceX, however, will also evolve in the coming years, providing stiff competition.

Triton is the largest of Neptune’s moons. Discovered in 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell — just weeks after Neptune itself was found — the moon showed some strange characteristics as astronomers learned more about it.

To NASA’s knowledge, Triton is the only moon in the solar system that orbits in a direction opposite to the rotation of its planet. Additionally, its surface is a study of contrasts, with smooth plains appearing to be right next to cratered surfaces.

No spacecraft has gone to Neptune since the 1980s, but telescopes are capturing new data on Triton from the ground. A notable recent find was discovering seasons on the moon, using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Renewed interest in Triton began shortly after the New Horizons mission flew past Pluto in 2015. NASA released the best high-resolution map of Triton to date in 2014 in anticipation of the flyby, because it is believed that Triton and Pluto could share a similar history. They are of similar size, have nitrogen in their atmospheres and also icy surfaces.

Discovery and flyby

Triton was found on Oct. 10, 1846, just 17 days after French astronomer Alexis Bouvard discovered Neptune. According to NASA, Triton was known simply as “the satellite of Neptune” until 1949, when a second moon (Nereid) was found. All of Neptune’s moons, according to International Astronomical Union guidelines, are named after Roman or Greek mythological characters associated with Neptune, Poseidon or oceans.

Astronomers had to wait well over a century to see Triton as more than a dot, however. In 1977, NASA sent two Voyager probes on a one-way trip through the outer solar system, taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment that allowed them to move from one location to the next without using a lot of fuel. Voyager 2 flew by Neptune and its system on Aug. 25, 1989.

Among the spacecraft’s most stunning finds: icy volcanism is likely taking place on Triton’s surface. Voyager 2 took pictures of “several geyser-like volcanic vents that were apparently spewing nitrogen gas laced with extremely fine, dark particles,” according to NASA. The agency estimates the particles go as high as 5 miles (8 kilometers) before flowing downwind and striking the surface.

It also appears that a large portion of the surface has melted. NASA said the melting was probably due to tidal heating that began when Neptune captured Triton, which could have left the satellite liquid for at least 1 billion years.

Discoveries after Voyager 2

Although no spacecraft will go by Neptune’s system in the near future, computer models and higher-resolution telescopes on Earth are providing new information about Triton’s history and environment. (NASA has also released new pictures of Triton from Voyager 2 at least as late as 2009.)

In 2010, long-range infrared observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope revealed that the thin atmosphere of Triton changes with the seasons. At the time the VLT looked at the planet, it was summer in the southern hemisphere, where the sun’s warmth thickened the atmosphere.

This color photo of Neptune’s largest moon Triton was obtained by NASA’s Voyager 2 probe on Aug. 24, 1989, from 330,000 miles away. The resolution is about 6.2 miles, sufficient to begin to show topographic detail.

Credit: NASA/JPL

New models of Neptune could also provide insights on Triton, such as one released in 2015 that looks at the gas giant’s magnetosphere. The magnetic field appears to be particularly pronounced on one side, according to Voyager 2 data and the model, and scientists next want to figure out how this field could interact with Triton.

Other information about Triton’s history could come from studying small bodies in the solar system, such as Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The Rosetta spacecraft gathered data that showed molecular nitrogen on the comet’s surface in 2015. From that information, scientists are trying to figure out where the nitrogen came from and how it compares to other bodies with nitrogen in the solar system, such as Triton and Pluto.

Astrobiologists are also considering that Triton could have water under its icy surface. “I think it is extremely likely that a subsurface ammonia-rich ocean exists in Triton,” said the University of Maryland’s Saswata Hier-Majumder in a 2012 Astrobiology Magazine article republished on Space.com. “[But] there are a number of uncertainties in our knowledge of Triton’s interior and past, which makes it difficult to predict with absolute certainty.”

One example: because no one is quite sure of the size of Triton’s rocky core, that creates difficulty with calculating the amount of heating produced by the decay of radioactive isotopes, also known as radiogenic heating. More heating would increase the size of the ocean.

Flinging aside moons

In 2006, a model published in Nature suggested Triton was originally a member of a binary system that orbited the sun. During a close encounter with the planet, Neptune pulled Triton away from its companion. Researchers in 2017 also postulated that Triton was likely a double-object system, similar to dwarf planet Pluto and its large moon, Charon. In the Astronomical Journal, the authors also noted that when Neptune’s gravity captured Triton, the secondary body escaped. Triton survived only because Neptune’s system was bereft of a large moon. If there had been a moon moving in a normal (forward) orbit around Neptune, its gravitational influence meant Triton instead would have fallen into Neptune.

The authors also said their research showed that Triton played an important role in the formation of Neptune’s system. Some models suggest that Neptune used to have other moons orbiting it. Then, when Triton was captured long ago, some of these moons were propelled into the planet and others were thrown out of orbit.

There are some other indications of chaos in Neptune’s system, including the outlying moon Nereid. The moon has an extremely stretched-out orbit around Neptune and takes 360 Earth-days to make a single orbit. In addition, some of these smaller moons around Neptune may have been absorbed into Triton itself. “If we want to look for the primordial Neptunian satellites, my best guess would be to look inside Triton,” lead author Raluca Rufu, a doctoral student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, told Space.com by email in December 2017.