This is cool.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

I never got to meet her. I've heard and seen interviews, and of course, there's that movie that I'm glad I got to see a couple of years ago. She remains as important in her work as anyone else in space exploration, and her work helped make John Glenn's work in particular survivable.

Respect to her and to her colleagues, living and dead.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/24/517784975/katherine-johnson-nasa-mathematician-and-an-inspiration-for-hidden-figures-dies

And a request to my American friends: don't let anyone erase her name. Especially in this instance in Langley, VA.

Thanks to beamjockey for this info.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/pluto/2016/07/01/from-canada-to-pluto-and-beyond/

I wanted to stay awake for it, but I ran out of stamina about midnight local time. Ninety minutes...

Congratulations to the JPL team anyway!

Kepler-22b, to be precise! Right in the "Goldilocks zone" of its parent star.

Thanks to james_nicoll for the heads-up on this one!


Source: NASA/JPL.

...coming on February 2nd.

Details - what there are of them so far - here: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/jan/HQ_M11-020_Kepler.html

Spotted this IEEE Spectrum opinion piece on the state and possible future of Kennedy Space Centre today, as a result of looking for more recent news on the Cape Breton Spaceport project.

I think, based on some of the speculations in that opinion piece, that we have a fairer business rationale for anyone looking to build a spaceport in Nova Scotia now. NASA's going to want a fallback position. Probably more than one for the decades to come.

Am I wrong?