TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will watch almost the complete sky over the course of 2 years. Finding exoplanets of bright nearby stars using the transit method (also used by Keplar). The tiny satellite (350kg) will be launched by a Falcon 9 on April 16 if everything goes to plan.

TESS:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4KjvPIbgMI[/URL]

SpaceX has scheduled a launch tomorrow morning at 14:13 UTC.

10# (ten) Iridium Next kit is to be deployed. No attempt to recover the first stage is planned (it's already flown before).

Edit: Burn baby, burn. (Sorry; some might not get that joke.)

[QUOTE=chalsall;483789]SpaceX has scheduled a launch tomorrow morning at 14:13 UTC.

10# (ten) Iridium Next kit is to be deployed. No attempt to recover the first stage is planned (it's already flown before).[/QUOTE]:anurag::yawn:

[QUOTE=chalsall;483789]Edit: Burn baby, burn. (Sorry; some might not get that joke.)[/QUOTE]But some of us might.

I liked it anyway.

Update on Tiangong-1:
[QUOTE]
The estimated window of re-entry for the defunct Chinese space lab Tiangong-1 has narrowed sharply.
The timeframe for the fall to Earth is centred on 01:07 Monday GMT (02:07 BST), plus or minus two hours.[/QUOTE]
Press article: [URL]http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43557446[/URL]

[QUOTE=VictordeHolland;483788]TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will watch almost the complete sky over the course of 2 years. Finding exoplanets of bright nearby stars using the transit method (also used by Keplar). The tiny satellite (350kg) will be launched by a Falcon 9 on April 16 if everything goes to plan.

TESS:
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4KjvPIbgMI[/URL][/QUOTE]
(5 minutes till liftoff)
SpaceX Live webcast: [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY-0uBIYYKk[/URL]

[Edit 01:02 UTC+2]
So far so good, hope the relight of stage 2 in +-30 minutes goes ok, but I'm off to bed.

For those who may have missed:

NASA's Insight probe to Mars was launched ~4:05 am Saturday. It was the first every interplanetary probe launched first into a polar orbit, It was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base out in California. NASA held launch view parties along the flight path. Those closest to the launch were covered in fog and did not see anything.

Parker Solar Probe is on its way to the sun.

Hopefully when getting close to the Sun the Parker mission doesn't burn. I still find it difficult to believe it will be able to complete its mission. But you never know if you do not try... ..it's about such fundamental science which it might benefit in the long run, that it's more than worth the risk of looking like a clumsy beginner.

Flying at highspeed through a million degrees or so, for me incomprehensable how it can survive that, knowing the space craft travels at half a million miles an hour by then. Such "particles", provided they have any mass, i would expect to go right through the spacecraft and create a hole through whatever path they travelled.

But well so far the layman vision - let's see how it does do :)

[QUOTE=diep;493708]Hopefully when getting close to the Sun the Parker mission doesn't burn. I still find it difficult to believe it will be able to complete its mission. But you never know if you do not try... ..it's about such fundamental science which it might benefit in the long run, that it's more than worth the risk of looking like a clumsy beginner.

Flying at highspeed through a million degrees or so, for me incomprehensable how it can survive that, knowing the space craft travels at half a million miles an hour by then. Such "particles", provided they have any mass, i would expect to go right through the spacecraft and create a hole through whatever path they travelled.

But well so far the layman vision - let's see how it does do :)[/QUOTE]

[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKinVmBoIrE"]Have you seen this?[/URL] I suspect there are still many things that could go wrong in that environment.

That's not relevant experiments.

It's travelling in reality at half a million miles an hour. It's not difficult to estimate what happens to a spacecraft when it gets hit at that speed by mass.

Question therefore is: will it get hit by mass?