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Astra and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are readying for the first launch in a dual-mission “launch challenge”. Astra, the launch contractor, is currently conducting final preparations ahead of the launch of their Rocket 3.0 vehicle, nicknamed “1 of 3”. Both missions will launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) in Kodiak, Alaska. The first launch attempt is scheduled for 3:30 PM ET on February 27. The window stretches until March 1.

Astra and the DARPA launch challenge

Thursday’s launch will be the third for Astra, coming after two launches in July and November 2018. Both launched from the PSCA in Alaska. These were originally believed to be failures. However, Astra stated that the first was successful, and the second was only “shorter than planned”. Neither were designed to reach orbit, as they didn’t have functioning second stages.

Rice University students are developing a research satellite to help alleviate the space junk orbiting our planet.

The OwlSat CubeSat will collect data over the course of one year to see how extreme ultraviolet radiation, which is always emitted from the sun but becomes more intense during events such as solar flares, can alter a satellite’s path in low-Earth orbit, the area where the International Space Station resides. Better understanding a satellite’s orbit can help prevent collisions that can create space junk, said Ryan Udell, president of Rice University’s chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

“We don’t have a fool-proof way of mapping orbits,” Udell said. “There are very good predictors out there, but we can’t fully predict it.”

“I, personally, have pareidolia with respect to insects, beetles in particular,” Maddison told Space.com. “I’ve worked on beetles for decades; I have collected many thousands of beetles around the world. Through the years I have built into my brain a pattern-recognition system for picking out beetles.”

In other words, Rosomer is probably wrong, even though he probably thinks he’s right.

“I do not think there are insects on Mars,” Maddison added. “The photographs that are in that press release you sent are entirely unconvincing, as they fall within the range expected in zillions of non-insect objects photographed in lowish resolution on a Marscape.”

a large body of water in front of a building: Light wave readings taken at the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Granada, Spain (pictured above)  helped scientists detect signatures of molecular oxygen in the Markarian 231 galaxy, the first time the compound has been detected outside the Milky Way © Provided by Daily Mail Light wave readings taken at the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Granada, Spain (pictured above) helped scientists detect signatures of molecular oxygen in the Markarian 231 galaxy, the first time the compound has been… For the first time ever, astronomers have identified molecular oxygen in a galaxy outside the Milky Way.

The discovery was made by a team of astronomers at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, led by Junzhi Wang.

The team identified the presence of molecular oxygen by analyzing light waves that had reached Earth from Markarian 231, a galaxy around 581 million light years away.