Skynet Tonight! "Diamonds on Mercury" & Constellations Ursa Minor and Major 9 PM CT
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SKYNET!!!!? 9PM CT - 10:30 PM CT ? Saturday’s Topic: “Diamonds on Mercury” & Constellations “Ursa Major, the Big Bear and Ursa Minor, the Little Bear”? ? Net Control: Billye KF5PDS ? Afterglow Movie 10:30PM: “The Colossus of New York” (1958) 2-Meter Repeater W5FC: 146.880MHz, PL 110.9, - Echolink: W5FC-R, node 37247. ? Youtube.com Search “DARC Skynet” Facebook.com Search “DARC Skynet” ? Direct Video Link: ? IO Group:/g/DARCskynet/topics Facebook Group: Saturday’s DARC SkyNet is at 9PM CT. ? Recent Astronomical Discoveries? Innovative Approaches Advance Search for Ice on the Moon Ice Deposits on the Moon ?Discussion Topic of the Evening.“Diamonds on Mercury” NASA spacecraft finds a layer of diamonds 10-miles thick on planet Mercury “Diamonds are forever” - 10 Miles Deep Mercury Core-mantle Boundary Sturdy magnetic field BepiColombo Mission Future researchers may also revisit carbon?rich metallic asteroids. Mercury ?Waz UpSpace Exploration and Space History?Brenda WB5OZL/Tom KE5ICX (Alternates Each Week) Space Exploration News April 20 thru 26 Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have identified huge quantities of chemicals only made by living organisms on Earth. China's latest astronaut crew has reached its orbital destination. Space-Related Birthdays Don Pettit April 20, 1955 Expedition 6, STS-126, Expedition 30/31, Expedition 71/72, MS-26 ; KD5MDT? On April 20th this week on his 70th birthday, he became NASA’s oldest active-duty astronaut to return from space.? Yvonne Cagle 24-Apr-1959 No flights Ellen S. Baker ? 27-Apr-1953 STS-34, STS-50, STS-71 This Week in Space History April 23, 1962 Ranger 4 launch April 24, 1967 – Death of Vladimir Koromov April 25, 1990 - STS-31 Deploys Hubble Space Telescope Miss Carolyn’s Constellation of the WeekConstellations “Ursa Major, the Big Bear and Ursa Minor, the Little Bear”? Space Launches For This WeekSpace Flight Now Launch Schedule NET April 27 Alpha ? ‘Message in a Booster’ Launch time: Window opens at 6:37 a.m. PDT (9:37 a.m. EDT, 1337 UTC) Launch site: SLC-2, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California A Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket will launch Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 satellite bus to low Earth orbit. The sixth launch of an Alpha rocket, designated FLTA006, marks the second flight within a multi-launch agreement between Firefly Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, which may include up to 25 missions within a five-year timeframe. Delayed from March 15/16 due to range availability. Delayed from NET March. Updated: April 25 April 27 Falcon 9 ? Starlink 11-9 Launch time: Window opens at 1:55 p.m. PDT (4:55 p.m. EDT, 2055 UTC) Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will target a touchdown on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ Updated: April 25 April 27/28 Falcon 9 ? Starlink 12-23 Launch time: Window opens at 10:04 p.m. EDT (0204 UTC) Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit. A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will target a landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean Updated: April 25 NET April 28 Atlas 5 ? Kuiper 1 Launch time: 7 p.m. EDT (2300 UTC) Launch site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket will launch a batch of 27 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellites. These are the first production satellites that will make up Amazon’s satellite internet megaconstellation, which will include 3,236 satellites. ULA is flying its Atlas 5 in the 551 configuration, which features five solid rocket boosters and a medium-length payload fairing. Scrubbed April 9 due to poor weather. Updated: April 18 NET April 29 Vega-C ? Biomass Launch time: 6:15 a.m. GFT (5:15 a.m. EDT, 0915 UTC) Launch site: Europe's Spaceport, Kourou, French Guiana An Arianespace Vega-C rocket will launch the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Explorer Biomass satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 666 km (413.8 mi). Biomass features a P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and is designed “to collect information on the height and structure of different forest types and measure the amount of carbon stored in the world’s forests and how it changes over time. In addition, the Biomass mission will map subsurface geology in deserts, the ice structure of ice sheets and the topography of forest floors.” This mission, also referred to as VV26, will be the fourth launch of a Vega-C rocket. Updated: March 25 NET Spring 2025 New Glenn ? EscaPADE Launch time: TBD Launch site: Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket will launch a pair of identical spacecraft on NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission. The two satellites, named Blue and Gold, will make a roughly 11-month journey to Mars where they will then perform about an 11-month science mission while orbiting the Red Planet. Blue and Gold were manufactured by Rocket Lab over about 3.5 years and carry science experiments from the University of California, Berkeley. This launch of the New Glenn rocket will also feature a landing attempt on its landing barge in the Atlantic Ocean. Delayed from October 13. Updated: March 08 NET May Falcon 9 ? Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) Launch time: TBD Launch site: Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. Former NASA astronaut and Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight will serve as the commander of the mission. This will be her fifth trip to space and her second time commanding a private astronaut mission. Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot and astronaut with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be the pilot onboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon. S?awosz Uznański-Wi?niewski, a Polish member of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Astronaut Reserve Class of 2022, and Tibor Kapu, a Hungarian member of the Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) Astronaut Program, will serve as the Mission Specialists. These four astronauts will spend up to 14 days docked to the ISS after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket. Following stage separation, the booster will target a touchdown at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Updated: April 02 NET Late May Falcon 9 ? GPS 3 SV-08 Launch time: TBD Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the eighth Global Positioning System (GPS) 3 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin. The GPS 3 Space Vehicle 08 (SV-08) is named in honor of mathematician, Katherine Johnson, whose calculations contributed significantly to early human spaceflight. The Falcon 9 first stage booster will target a landing on a droneship positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. Updated: April 11 TBD 2025 Vulcan Centaur ? Dream Chaser 1 Launch time: TBD Launch site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch on its second demonstration flight with Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle for the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser is a lifting body resupply spacecraft that will launch on top of a rocket and land on a runway. This will be the Dream Chaser’s first flight to space. The Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly in the VC4L configuration with four GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters, a long-length payload fairing, and two RL10 engines on the Centaur upper stage. Delayed from August 2022, December 2023, January 2024,? April 2024 and September 2024. Updated: October 17 NET June Falcon 9 ? Transporter-14 Launch time: TBD Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch dozens of payloads on its latest Smallsat rideshare program, called Transporter. This mission, dubbed Transporter-14, will include a variety of customers, including the MayaSat-1 capsule from The Exploration Company and three Erminaz PocketQubes from AMSAT-DL. The Falcon 9 first stage booster will perform a return to landing site touchdown at Landing Zone 4 less than eight minutes after liftoff. Updated: April 02 NET November 2025 Falcon 9 ? Sentinel-6B Launch time: TBD Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the second of the two-satellite Sentinel-6 series. NASA awarded SpaceX a $94 million firm fixed price contract for the launch in 2022. The Sentinel-6B “will use a radar altimeter to bounce signals off the ocean surface and deliver continuity of ocean topography measurements,” according to NASA. The missions is designed through a partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the European Organization for the Exploration of Meteorological Studies. Visible satellite passages over the next couple of days.You can use the website to find out what’s in orbit and where to look during fly-overs All times are “local” (Dallas) time. ISS? No Visible Passes Tiangong No Visible Passes |
Tom General