An artist’s rendition of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its upcoming encounter with Jupiter. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

New Horizons has been back in the news again over the last week in advance of its February rendezvous with Jupiter. As noted in their press release:

The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons will make its closest pass to Jupiter on Feb. 28, threading its path through an “aim point” 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from the center of Jupiter. Jupiter’s gravity will accelerate New Horizons away from the Sun by an additional 9,000 miles per hour — half the speed of a space shuttle in orbit — pushing it past 52,000 mph and hurling it toward a pass through the Pluto system in July 2015.

New Horizons has been billed as the fastest spacecraft ever launched – and that much is indeed accurate. The spacecraft achieved an escape velocity relative to Earth of roughly 36,000 miles per hour (nearly 58,000 kilometers per hour), fast enough that it zipped past the Moon’s orbit in a mere 9 hours. As such, New Horizons bested the previous record-holder, Ulysses, which had launched in 1990 at 34,450 mph (55,400 km/h), earning first place for the fastest departure from our planet.

It’s always nice to see space exploration receiving attention in the press, but all too often the media manages to screw up pertinent details. Reuters ran a story detailing this significant mission event which was picked up by a number of other outlets: Probe nears close encounter with Jupiter. The article states:

NASA’s New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever built by humans, is due to reach Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet and fifth from the sun, after a 13-month journey from Earth, flying almost half a billion miles.

Sorry to nitpick, but that’s just plain wrong. I realize this is rocket science, but there’s a big difference between the the fastest launch and the fastest spacecraft ever built; the first does not imply the latter.

The fine folks at Aerospaceweb have tried dispelling such inaccuracies dating back to early 2006:

As the New Horizons launch approached, many news reports hailed the new probe as the fastest spacecraft ever. However, that is not quite correct. We have previously written about two vehicles called Helios launched to study the Sun during the 1970s. Both of these probes attained maximum speeds of around 150,000 mph (250,000 km/h) at closest approach to the Sun in their highly elliptical orbits. Helios 2 was slightly faster than its twin craft, and this probe still holds the speed record as not only the fastest spacecraft but also the fastest manmade object in history.

I really wish the press would invest more effort in their fact-checking to avoid misleading instances like these. A bit of Googling yielded that the Reuters article had been published and copied in more places than I could bother to count, misinforming however many readers in the process. That pains me.

On a more positive related note, you may now view some of the latest imagery from New Horizons in their online gallery. It’ll be exciting watching Jupiter become larger in the field of view as the spacecraft speeds along on its journey. If you’d like to brush up on what’s in store for New Horizons’ February date with The Bringer of Jollity, check out the flyby press kit (1.84 MB .pdf).

Larger resolution versions and many more are available in NASA’s gallery of human spaceflight.

(12 Dec. 2006) — Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., STS-116 mission specialist, participates in the mission’s first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction resumes on the International Space Station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang (out of frame), mission specialist, also participated in the 6-hour, 36-minute spacewalk.

(12 Dec. 2006) — Backdropped by New Zealand and Cook Strait in the Pacific Ocean, astronaut Robert L. Curbeam Jr. (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, both STS-116 mission specialists, participate in the mission’s first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction continues on the International Space Station. Cook Strait divides New Zealand’s North and South Islands.

What phenomenal perspective. Given the chance, I’d probably be the worst mission specialist in history; instead of focusing on what’s in front of me I’d be completely hypnotized by the beauty of the Earth as seen from 220 miles into space. While watching a subsequent EVA live on NASA TV, I remember Christer Fuglesang describing (with great pleasure) simultaneously being able to see lovely auroral displays and meteor activity (presumably from the Geminid meteor shower). Some guys have all the luck.

These stunning views of Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) were captured by its discoverer, Rob McNaught, from the Sliding Spring Observatory in Australia (roughly 400 km Northwest of Sydney). The images were taken on January 20th after sunset. The 90-second (top) and 50-second (bottom) exposures beautifully highlight the wispy remnants of the comet’s dust tail.

Observers in the Northern hemisphere weren’t treated to this intense a display, but those who were graced with fair weather still raved about it, regardless. I wasn’t as fortunate, sadly, never receiving a suitable viewing opportunity due to cloud cover, rain, ice, and snow.

Observers down under still have a chance or two remaining to catch the comet before it disappears below the horizon. McNaught’s dust tail stretches far enough, though, that it’s still visible from dark sky locations in North America an hour or two after sunset (and SkyTonight reports that such a thing hasn’t occurred since the mid-18th century!). Contributors to Spaceweather’s image gallery have succeeded in capturing some lovely parting glimpses.

Yesterday evening I was treated to the first clear skies at sunset in roughly two weeks, and while I don’t live far enough away from city lights to view the tail’s remnants with the naked eye, I was able to capture a couple of its streaks (poorly) with camera exposures of 20 seconds or greater.

The next great comet will simply have to be courteous enough to appear during a long stretch of stable, cloudless evenings.

The ISS in its present configuration, photographed from Shuttle Discovery on December 19th, 2006 during the STS-116 mission. An incredible view from some 220 statute miles above our big blue marble.

Since construction of the ISS has resumed in full after the setbacks suffered by the Shuttle program (e.g. Columbia accident, previous issues with foam shedding from the external tank), I’d wanted to beef up on my knowledge of the Station and what’s in store between now and 2010 when the existing orbiters are scheduled to be retired. As a result, I’d planned over the weekend to pick up a new book in the Apogee series on space in order to brush up on all the the pertinent details. While the folks at NASA probably weren’t reading my mind, it’s a neat coincidence that yesterday they published a comprehensive online reference manual detailing all things ISS, which appears identical to the book linked above. It’s available in a sequence of .pdf files linked below (Adobe Reader is required for viewing) — and, please note that these files are pretty sizable, so dial-up users should avoid them and opt for the hard copy.

· Introduction / Table of Contents
· Assembly Stages
· Elements
· Transportation / Logistics
· Systems
· International Facilities and Operations
· Missions
· Interesting Facts
· Appendix
· Partners / Contacts

It should also be noted that with upcoming additions to the Station including new solar arrays, the ISS should become brighter and brighter in the night sky, making for a particularly appealing target for we amateur astronomers. Apparently nobody’s yet sure of what visual magnitude the platform will reach, but rest assured it will become increasingly prominent toward its completion. You won’t require any serious optical equipment in order to view the International Space Station; all you need are your eyes and suitably dark observing conditions. In order to see when ISS will pass overhead in your area, surf over to Heavens Above and check out the pass predictions listed.

Anyway, since we had to endure several days of freezing rain, snow, and ice, I decided to take advantage of being trapped inside and have finished doing the modifications I had in mind for the site (which I warned about previously).

What’s new, you ask?

· There’s now a handy sitemap page (XML included), and another for archives. These facilitate navigation and remove unwanted sidebar clutter.

· Social bookmarking capabilities have been added to individual posts. If you see a post you like, please don’t hesitate to pass it along.

· More efficient comment quicktags have been added for easier text formatting.

· The live preview feature for commenting has returned, so you can see what your contributions look like in advance, underneath the comment form.

· Post categories have been restructured.

· Navigation through search results and archives has been made much easier.

· I’ve also made numerous visual enhancements to the layout here. Some you’ll surely notice, but the minor formatting adjustments are pretty subtle (things I had to fix that were bothering me). If you navigate through the menu up top, you’ll see some of the more obvious changes.

· The site is more accessible now for users with disabilities; my goal is to have the site WAI/WCAG 1.0 compliant eventually (on at least Level A if not Double-A) and it’s most of the way there, but I need to double-check a few things before proclaiming that’s finished.

While I checked all these tweaks in Firefox and Internet explorer, I can’t guarantee everything displays precisely as intended (browsers that stubbornly deviate from W3C standards *cough, IE* make achieving uniformity a bit of a pain). If you’d like to offer praise or criticism, please feel free — and, do add a comment below if you come across a feature that isn’t working properly. Just let me know what you’re using to view the site so I can squash any gremlins.

Hope you enjoy.

This phenomenal shot of Saturn was released by the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) back on October 11th, 2006. The mosaic consists of 165 images from Cassini’s Wide Angle Camera, assembled from a three-hour observing stint on September 15th when Saturn shielded the spacecraft from the Sun’s brilliance. Visit this page to view larger resolution versions and a pair of enhanced photos which really show off the ring plane in all its glory; they’re truly magnificent.

If you haven’t stopped by the CICLOPS page lately, you might want to surf over and enjoy some of the site’s new features. They’ve of course maintained a comprehensive imaging diary for the last few years, which is already great for killing many hours feasting upon absolutely stunning photos. Just recently, they’ve expanded the page to include a nifty Saturnian art gallery as well as a theatre section showcasing movies and animations constructed from the spacecraft’s imaging equipment. The new expansion also includes digital and cartographic maps of Saturn’s moons.

Via Sector 6, you can now earn your status as a full-fledged Saturn groupie by registering with the site and joining the CICLOPS Alliance. Becoming a member will enable you to post comments on all the visual treasures hosted by the team and participate in future activities including volunteer opportunities (and I’m eager to see what they have in mind).

The Cassini spacecraft has already kicked off a fortuitous itinerary for 2007, which includes 17 close encounters with Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. If you’d like to stroll through highlights of its 2006 travels, take a few minutes to watch this interactive feature. Fifty bonus points if you do so while listening to Gustav Holst.

A large pillar of gas and dust atop NGC 2264 (the Cone Nebula), imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002. Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA.

I’ve been in the process of performing some long-overdue upgrades and making improvements to the site. This will continue for the next several days as I keep hammering out my desired visual changes and tidying up several loose ends. In the meantime, should you load the page to discover something looks out of place or stumble across an error message, rest assured it’s temporary and likely means I’m in the control panel doing some modifications.

Back to work I go…