Update: According to Emily, Kaguya has launched!
The Japanese lunar probe Kaguya (nee SELENE) is scheduled to launch on September 14 at 01:31 Universal (Greenwich) time — 21:01 Eastern US time on Thursday September 13, which is tonight! Kaguya is a cool mission designed to look at the origin of the Moon (still somewhat of a mystery) and look into ways we can use the Moon in the future.
Via Emily also comes news that Cherilynn Morrow will be live blogging the launch, too. I’ve worked with Cheri in the past and she is a delight, so the blog will be fun! The Planetary Society has more info as well.
I cannot help but note that, as far as the US is concerned, they have chosen an especially auspicious date for launch.
September 13th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
<nitpick>
It’s né - or née, if she’s female.
</nitpick>
September 13th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
“It’s né - or née, if she’s female.”
Does that mean Phil has to bring us a shrubbery?
September 13th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
That is great news. I hope to watch on line when it gets closer to Launch.
September 13th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Well, I hope they find some evidence that we’ve [the US] have been there and put all the naysayers to rest…thought that could limit Phil’s speaking engagements.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Ha ha… they’ll just say that the new photos were photoshopped, and it’s a world wide conspiricy. The orbitor isn’t really going around the moon… it just went up, and then splashed down in the sea of Japan two days later in the dead of night.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Wikipedia has the story behind the name Kaguya and why it’s appropriate for this mission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter
September 13th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Don’t know why it’s an auspicious day from the US perspective. Space: 1999 was a British show!!!
September 13th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
[…] Original post by The Bad Astronomer […]
September 13th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Selina - I’m glad someone else remembers. I had three of my Eagles circling above my desk at work (well, hanging by fine threads, as on the show itself).
September 13th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Sorry… next time I’ll read the other posts further down the order before I jot off a few lines to someone.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
As far as nee goes, I was too lazy to look up the ASCII code for the accent acute.
Selina: it’s auspicious for the US because in the UK, the launch happens on the 14th.
September 13th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I thought astronomers worked on UT…. well, well, well…..
September 14th, 2007 at 1:27 am
# The Bad Astronomeron 13 Sep 2007 at 6:56 pm:
> As far as nee goes, I was too lazy to look up the ASCII code for the accent acute.
Sir, you have a MacIntosh and your blog is Unicode-compliant. Under the menu “Editâ€, is “Special Charactersâ€. All of Unicode can be found there. If you really want to get as much information about every Unicode-code-point, download Unicode-Checker:
http://earthlingsoft.net/UnicodeChecker/
Unicode-Checker is for those curious about code-points. It is not necessary for merely inserting characters. Your MacIntosh, out of the box, allows your instant access to every Unicode-character from the menu “Editâ€.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:53 am
I’ve looked everywhere for a vid of the launch. Does anyone know where to find it?
Cheers
Bob
September 14th, 2007 at 4:54 am
I’d love to see a video. from what I see in the pictures it would be worth the look. What a beautiful launch.
September 14th, 2007 at 4:55 am
http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f13/live/index_e.html
Waiiit I think I found the video of the launch! Click on “repeat video” there.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Just watched the video. What was the “swelling”
on the ship near the nose? It formed about 3/4 of
the way of the video.
September 14th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Rock on, Kaguya!
September 14th, 2007 at 9:43 am
===
What was the “swelling†on the ship near the nose?
===
A vapor cone. Read more abou it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prandtl-Glauert_singularity