AeroSpace | Range Tracking

Starlink 1

2019/11/15 by terranovabay

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on 11 November 2019 at 9:56 a.m. from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SpaceX is developing a low latency, global broadband internet system enabled by a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites called Starlink. Click to view the launch gallery including an experimental launch video.

Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Falcon 9, Space Launch Complex 40, SpaceX, Starlink

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Mercury Transit – 11 November 2019

2019/11/14 by terranovabay

The planet Mercury transited across the face of the Sun over a 5.5 hour period as seen from Earth on 11 November 2019. According to NASA, transits of Mercury occur only about 13 times per century. The views below were taken during the first half of the transit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Cloudy skies interfered with the first half of the transit, then rain obscured the last half. The smoky appearance of the Sun in some of the images is […]

Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: Mercury, Sun, transit

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Retired but not forgotten

2019/11/04 by terranovabay

A view from inside Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building looking out the open doors of High Bay #4. Discovery sits in silhouette while beyond, under Discovery’s wing at right, can be seen Atlantis waiting to enter the Orbiter Processing Facility in March 2012. Click to relive the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program.

Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavour, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Space Shuttle

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Imperial Atlantis

2019/10/16 by terranovabay

One of my favorite photos of the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has Star Wars Imperial officers, a Scout Trooper sans speeder bike, and a stormtrooper posing with the orbiter. They were there as part of a symphonic concert a few years ago but it makes for a nice Halloween remembrance. Click to see more images from that night.

Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Atlantis, Galactic Empire, Halloween, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Space Shuttle, Star Wars, Stormtrooper

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ICON

2019/10/14 by terranovabay

Photographing the launch of the Pegasus XL rocket carrying the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) from its Stargazer L-1011 aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean offshore of Cape Canaveral was always going to be challenging but the partly-cloudy skies really did it in. Click to view what was expected and what happened.

Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, ICON, Ionospheric Connection Explorer, L-1011, NASA, Northrop Grumman, Pegasus, Stargazer

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Earthshine

2019/08/29 by terranovabay

No, this is not an eclipse. Earthshine is a fun phenomena that mimics the bright light from the full Moon illuminated the Earth but in reverse. In this case, a crescent Moon waxing or waning near the time of a new Moon has the shadowed part of the Moon lit up by the reflected light from the Earth, which in the lunar sky is bright and almost full. An extraterrestrial interchange from what Earthbound observers are used to seeing with […]

Categories: Astrophotography • Tags: Crescent Moon, Earthshine, Full Moon, Moon, New Moon

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History on view from a distance

2019/08/27 by terranovabay

A high elevation reveals a few historic structures rising above the trees out on the expanse of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. At left is Launch Complex 5/6 where a Mercury-Redstone rocket stands on the old launch pad commemorating the first Mercury flights carrying American astronauts into space. Rising in the center is Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. The original Cape Canaveral Lighthouse was an iron tower built in 1868 that operated until shoreline erosion in the mid 1890s forced it to […]

Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, Hanger C, Launch Complex 5/6, Mercury-Redstone, Wernher Von Braun

GPS III SV02

2019/08/25 by terranovabay

The Solid Rocket Motors separate at 1 minute 40 seconds into the flight of the last single-core Delta IV rocket on 22 August 2019 delivering the second Global Positioning System (GPS) III spacecraft, “Magellan,” into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Click to view the gallery of launch images.

Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Delta IV, Global Positioning System, GPS III SV02, Kennedy Space Center, Magellan, SLC 37, ULA, United Launch Alliance

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Launching the Artemis Generation

2019/08/23 by terranovabay

The second phase, or extension, if you will, of the Apollo Program is coming to light 50 years after it should have been initiated. Better late than never, I guess. Plans to return astronauts to the Moon, this time to build a small space station called Gateway in lunar orbit, with astronauts visiting the surface for longer periods of exploration, are starting to come together under the name of Artemis. According to NASA, “Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and […]

Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Artemis, Kennedy Space Center, Mobile Launch Tower, Mobile Launcher, Moon, SLS, Space Launch System

GPS III SV02 Magellan Preview

2019/08/22 by terranovabay

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket launches GPS III SV02 “Magellan” from SLC-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as seen from the LC-39 Observation Gantry at Kennedy Space Center at 9:06AM on 22 August 2019. More images of the launch to follow. Probably this weekend when I can find the time to work them.

Categories: Rocket Launch • Tags: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Delta IV, Global Positioning System, GPS III SV02, Kennedy Space Center, Magellan, SLC 37, ULA, United Launch Alliance

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Range Tracking

Photography by Bob Montanaro

Category Archives: AeroSpace

Starlink 1

Mercury Transit – 11 November 2019

Retired but not forgotten

Imperial Atlantis

ICON

Earthshine

History on view from a distance

GPS III SV02

Launching the Artemis Generation

GPS III SV02 Magellan Preview

November 2019
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