SpaceX launches 4 astronauts to space station, beginning new era for NASA

 The Dragon will ferry the astronauts to the space station on SpaceX’s first operational trip following a test flight with a two-person crew that returned from the orbiting lab three months ago.

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SciTech News: Four astronauts reached orbit on a SpaceX rocket after lifting off at 7:27 p.m. from Florida, within the company’s first regular NASA mission to the International space station. The Sunday launch seemed to go as planned as the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The rocket’s first stage successfully landed on a drone ship about nine minutes after take off .

The Dragon will ferry the astronauts to the space station on SpaceX’s first operational trip following a test flight with a two-person crew that returned from the orbiting lab three months ago.

The latest launch, referred to as the Crew-1 mission, comes 18 years after Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. with the ultimate goal of populating other planets. The Crew-1 mission marks an important milestone within the development of a space industry during which private-sector companies provide business and tourism services in low-earth orbit. Following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co. nearly $7 billion in contracts to create new transport systems to the space station as a part of the agency’s Commercial Crew program.The launch was originally slated for Saturday, but was scrubbed due to bad weather condition.

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In the Crew-1 mission, Commander Michael Hopkins, 51, an Air Force colonel and test pilot, will make his second trip to the space station, seven years after his first. He’ll be joined by three others on the mission:

Shannon Walker, 55, a physicist and Houston native, will serve her second stint on the orbiting lab.

Victor Glover, 44, a Navy pilot from California, are going to be taking his first flight to space. He’ll be the first Black astronaut to stay on the space station for a full six-month rotation, according to NASA.

Soichi Noguchi, 55, a Japanese astronaut and aeronautical engineer, has the most space experience among the crew and can become one among the only a few people to go away the world on three vehicles: Russia’s Soyuz, the space shuttle, and therefore the SpaceX Dragon.

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Massive Asteroid 'Apophis',May Hit Earth in 2068,We have no solution,says Elon Musk

 Astronomers have revealed that a large asteroid named 'Apophis' is predicted to pass extremely close or may hit the earth in 2068

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 SciTech News: If you thought 2020 is bad, watch for the year 2068 when a large asteroid could potentially wipe all of humanity! Yes, astronomers have revealed that an asteroid named 'Apophis' is predicted to pass extremely close or may hit the earth in 2068 because of a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect. Interestingly, the asteroid is known as after The Egyptian god of Chaos and Evil. 

Researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have announced the detection of Yarkovsky acceleration on the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. This acceleration arises from a very weak force on an object due to non-uniform thermal radiation.

Discovered in 2004, asteroid Apophis could be a 1,120-foot-wide (340-meter-wide) asteroid, about the dimensions of three-and-a-half football fields, NASA said. 

Earlier, it had been believed that the asteroid would pass by leaving the earth unscathed, but astronomers are no longer certain now. The detection of the Yarkovsky effect acting on Apophis means the 2068 impact scenario is still a possibility.

This force is especially important for the asteroid Apophis, because it affects the probability of an Earth impact in 2068, the astronomers said."

"All asteroids need to reradiate as heat the energy they absorb from sunlight in order to maintain thermal equilibrium, a process that slightly changes the orbit of the asteroid," they wrote.

Apophis is noteworthy due to its extremely close approach to the world on April 13, 2029, when the 300 metre-sized asteroid will come into sight to the unaided eye because it passes within the belt of communications satellites orbiting the world .

Earlier, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had also predicted that massive asteroid Apophis will eventually hit humanity and there'll be no solution.

Great name! Wouldn’t worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense. https://t.co/XhY8uoNNax

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2019

"Great name! Wouldn't worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defence," he wrote on the social media platform.

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