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‘NASA Images Depict Rapid Loss of Thick Arctic Sea Ice’, 1980 - 2012

From Yale e360:

A new comparison of satellite images from 1980 and 2012 vividly depicts the rapid disappearance of thick, multi-year Arctic Ocean ice in winter. Over the past three decades, the extent of the Arctic’s thickest ice has declined by 15 to 17 percent per decade, according to NASA climate scientist Joey Comiso.

Details over at Yale e360 and NASA’s Earth Observatory.

X-37B spaceplane ‘spying on China’

The Pentagon has steadfastly refused to discuss its mission but amateur space trackers have noted how its path around the globe is nearly identical to China’s spacelab, Tiangong-1

…The spacelab, which China expects to man with astronauts in 2012, was launched in September with an inclination of 42.78 degrees, and to a very similar altitude…  >continue<

Spacecraft Sees Solar Storm Engulf Earth

“The movie sent chills down my spine…It shows a CME swelling into an enormous wall of plasma and then washing over the tiny blue speck of Earth”

[Coronal Mass Ejections] are billion-ton clouds of solar plasma launched by the same explosions that spark solar flares.   When they sweep past our planet, they can cause auroras, radiation storms, and in extreme cases power outages.  >continue<

Surviving NASA rover nears rim of Martian crater

Driving commands sent up to Opportunity directed the six-wheel rover to make the final push toward Endeavour crater, a 14-mile-wide depression near the Martian equator that likely could be its final destination.

At its current pace and barring any hiccups, Opportunity should roll up to the crater’s edge on Tuesday…

The milestone injects a sense of adventure back into a mission that wowed the public with color portraits of the landscape and the unmistakable geologic discoveries of a warm and wetter past.

Boeing pilots to make space trip

The US company has confirmed it will use the Atlas 5 rocket to test its CST-100 ship on three flights in 2015.

In the wake of the final Shuttle mission, a new kind of space race is brewing. Four companies won NASA contracts this April. Boeing and the United Lauch Alliance will test systems in orbit and practice a capsule abort procedure before launching a manned orbital mission.

Another of several companies vying to provide crew transfer services to the International Space Station, SpaceX, has already put its unmanned Dragon capsule in orbit and returned it to earth - a first for private industry. Currently Boeing’s announcement has them behind SpaceX, which aims to put a crew into space in 2014. Both designs allow a crew of 7, however the Dragon capsule has an integrated abort rocket system that observers believe makes for a techincal advantage.  SpaceX also aims to deliver cargo to the ISS late in November.

U.S. must rely upon the Russians for access to space

But reliance on NASA’s former Cold War rival has been a particularly bitter pill to swallow for many at NASA, forced to retire the most sophisticated manned spacecraft ever built before a U.S. replacement is available. Equally devastating, in the eyes of many, is the loss of manned spaceflight experience as thousands of highly skilled aerospace jobs are eliminated.  >continue<

We’re a long way from Borman, Lovell and Anders reading from Genesis on New Year’s Eve ‘68 from lunar orbit. Perhaps it would be fitting if somebody reads from Revelations during the re-entry of STS 135.