Polaris Dawn delayed to Aug. 28 due to helium leak | Polaris will be farthest human spaceflight since Apollo | Night sky for tonight: Visible planets, stars and more
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We'll have to wait at least another day to see SpaceX's historic Polaris Dawn astronaut mission lift off. Polaris Dawn, which will conduct the first-ever private spacewalk, had been scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning (Aug. 27) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But a helium leak has forced a delay of at least 24 hours.
Polaris Dawn, will liftoff early Wenesday (Aug. 28), from SpaceX's Launch Complex-39A, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center -- the same pad that supported all the crewed Apollo missions to the moon. Though it's true each of SpaceX's astronaut launches to date has flown out of LC-39A, it's particularly fitting that the members of Polaris Dawn will also launch from there, as this mission will take them further than any crewed flight has gone since Apollo 17, in 1972.
From the wee hours until dawn on Tuesday morning, Aug. 27, the pretty, waning crescent moon will shine above the planets Jupiter and Mars in the eastern sky, setting up a nice widefield photo opportunity. Brilliant Jupiter will be unmistakable - almost close enough to the moon for them to share the view in binoculars.
Blue Origin will launch its eighth human spaceflight this week, if all goes according to plan. Jeff Bezos' company is targeting Thursday (Aug. 29) for NS-26, its latest suborbital space tourism mission. The reusable New Shepard rocket-capsule combo is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin's West Texas site at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT; 8 a.m. local Texas time).
The high-resolution science camera on the JUICE probe, which is ultimately headed to Jupiter, was busy snapping images of craters on the moon and clouds in Earth's atmosphere as the spacecraft flew past our planet to use our world's gravity and re-route itself toward the next stop on its eight-year voyage to the Jovian system.
Polaris Dawn also plans to conduct 40 science experiments, in partnership with 30 institutions worldwide, Menon told reporters. She said there are three categories: human health in areas such as bone density, vision and motion sickness; research about pressure changes to understand how the body reacts to higher-than-usual altitudes; and research undertaken on Earth to see how the astronauts readapt after a few days in space.
Scientists have found a key process required for superconductivity occurring at higher temperatures than previously thought. It could be a small but significant step in the search for one of the "holy grails" of physics, a superconductor that operates at room temperature.
The best telescopes for deep space are more specialised than other telescopes on the market. They feature large apertures which allow them to gather more light, letting you gaze further into the night sky than more generalist telescopes. They tend to appeal to more expert astronomers, and because of this, deep space telescopes often have high price tags - but there are some on the market that will appeal to beginner stargazers, too.
