Weekly Links
Down to Earth
SpaceX’s CEO Elon Must tweeted this fun video compilation of the companies many rocket failures over the past few years. You can tell they are learning a lot of lessons that have led to their recent successes.
Meanwhile, their Dragon capsule which has been docked to the International Space Station for about a month will be returning to Earth Sunday.
.@NASA TV covers departure of @SpaceX #Dragon from station Sunday morning, Sept. 17 at 4:30am ET. https://t.co/TXJ6jCkLzf pic.twitter.com/Ye6jilWQ7N
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) September 16, 2017
In Orbit
Two rocket launches since my last post, both from Baikonaur Kazakhstan:
First, a Russian Proton rocket launched a Latin American communications satellite.
Then a Soyuz rocket carried three crew members to the International Space Station: Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei, and Joe Acaba. They joined their Expedition 53 crewmates early last week to make a full crew of 6 onboard.
Around the Solar System
The incomparable Cassini probe ended its mission this past Friday with a planned suicide dive into the clouds of Saturn. The probe was launched in 1997 and was one of the most successful planetary missions of all time, but it had finally run out of fuel. This Ars Technica article has a brief photo gallery of Cassini’s greatest hits.
One of Cassini’s last acts was a flyby of the moon Titan. Here are some pictures.
And here’s a gallery of photos from mission control at JPL during Cassini’s last day.
Or if you prefer silly things, here is actor Robert Picardo singing an opera parody about Cassini:
A farewell to @CassiniSaturn, in the style @RobertPicardo sings best: opera! #GrandFinale pic.twitter.com/7bbTTdqW3G
— Planetary Society (@exploreplanets) September 12, 2017