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@lonestarflight
2026 July 23
The Large Magellanic Cloud Image Credit & Copyright: Monica Mesa Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
Explanation: Have you ever seen another galaxy with your own eyes? The featured image shows the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the closest neighbors of our Milky Way. If you are anywhere south of latitude 20° N (but the further south, the better), you can see it with the unaided eye if you go to a dark sky location, away from big cities and light polution. It is a dwarf irregular galaxy about 163,000 light-years away, and a member of our Local Group of galaxies. Despite being small, with a total mass approximately equivalent to 10% - 20% of the mass of the Milky Way, the LMC is very actively forming stars. This is likely due in part to the gravitational push and pull of tides caused by the Milky Way on the LMC. Some astronomers have predicted that it will collide with the Milky Way in in about 2 billion years.
∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260723.html
On this, the anniversary of the lunar landing, let us also celebrate the greatest post-mission achievement by a crewman.
I refer, of course, to the time Buzz Aldrin (age 72 at the time) cold-cocked a moon landing conspiracy theorist straight in his smug face after being accused of being a coward, liar, and thief.
Yes, someone was indeed dumb enough to tell a man so unafraid of death that he was willing to go into the void on a fragile explosive rocket, a coward.
Said dumbass was filming this confrontation as some sort of proof of moon fraud, but has instead captured this glorious moment of near-cosmic justice for us to loop for all time.
Aldrin was not charged with any crime. He should have been given another medal for public service.
yeahhh I lied.
one more time, HAPPY MOON LANDING DAY!
aaand gooodnight.
Apollo 11 lifting off, with the American flag in the foreground, from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A at 9:32 am EDT.
Date: July 16, 1969
NASA ID: GPN-2000-000627
Leftover Apollo Hardware
After the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, NASA completely shifted all of its resources to the Space Shuttle program. However, NASA still had a large inventory of the Apollo hardware and much of it was given to museums and/or put on display at NASA space centers.
Much of the leftover hardware would have been used to support Skylab B missions.
At one point, the Skylab B was going to be used for the Apollo-Soyuz mission. This was scaled back to just the command module with a special docking port due shifting focus to the Space Shuttle.
The breakdown of the hardware and their current location:
Saturn V (SA-500 series)
SA-513: only third stage left after the first and second stages were used to launch Skylab. This stage is displayed at Space Center Houston. Originally slated to launch Apollo 18.
SA-514: first, second and third stages with the IU (ie the rocket's computer). The first stage displayed at Space Center Houston, the second and third stages are at Kennedy Space Center. Originally slated for Apollo 19, briefly considered for Apollo 18.
SA-515: first, second and third stages with the IU (ie the rocket's computer). The first stage is displayed at the Infinity Science Center in Mississippi, the second stage is displayed at Space Center Houston, and it's third stage was converted to the second Skylab. Originally slated for Apollo 20, later would have launched Skylab B. The backup Skylab is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
Saturn IB (SA-100 series)
SA-109: on standby for a Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz rescue. Late, the cancelled Skylab 5 mission to lift Skylab workshop's orbit to endure until Space Shuttle was ready to fly. (In hindsight, this mission should have been flown considering since it took the shuttle longer than anticipated to fly. But it was not known at the time Earth's atmosphere would expand like it did in the late 1970s, causing drag on the station and reentering the atmosphere in 1979.)
SA-110: was used for the Apollo-Soyuz mission.
SA-111: Unused, possibly slated for a Skylab mission. The first stage is displayed at Alabama Welcome Center on I-65 in Ardmore, Alabama. The second stage is displayed outdoors with Skylab underwater training simulator hardware attached at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
SA-112: Unused, possibly slated for a Skylab mission. The first stage was scrapped and the second stage converted to Skylab.
SA-113: Unused, possibly slated for a Skylab mission. Only the first stage was completed when the Apollo Applications Program was curtailed in 1969. This stage was later scrapped.
SA-114: Unused, possibly slated for a Skylab mission. Only the first stage was completed when the Apollo Applications Program was curtailed in 1969. This stage was later scrapped.
Command/Service Module (block II CSM-100 series)
CSM-111: originally slated for Apollo 15 when it was a H-type mission, this mission was swapped for a J-type when the lunar missions would be cancelled after Apollo 17. Later, it was used for the Apollo-Soyuz mission.
CSM-115: Incomplete, systems were installed and all hardware was available for it to be completed but was placed into storage. Currently it lacks the SPS nozzle. It was originally slated for Apollo 19, later Apollo 18. Note: there are some discrepancies in the documents between 115 and 115A. Some list two different CSM and some list 115A as a modification of 115. My research has yet to determine which is the case. On displayed at Space Center Houston.
CSM-115A: Incomplete, 70% of hardware was completed but interior structures were never installed. It was originally slated for Apollo 20, later Apollo 19. On display at Space LABO in Kitakyushi, Japan.
CSM-119: on standby for Rescue mission for Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz. Later, the cancelled Skylab 5 mission. On display at Kennedy Space Center.
Lunar Excursion Module (LEM or LM)
LM-9: originally slated for Apollo 15 when it was a H-mission, this mission was swapped for a J mission when the lunar missions would be cancelled after Apollo 17. The J-mission LMs differed from earlier LMs with the inclusion of the lunar Rover. It is displayed at the Kennedy Space Center
LM-13: originally slated for Apollo 19, later Apollo 18. Partially completed, it was later restored by Grumman workers. It is on display at Cradle of Aviation Museum in Long Island, New York.
LM-14: originally slated for Apollo 20, later Apollo 19. It was about 15% complete when it's construction was cancelled, later scrapped.
LM-15: unknown which mission this LM was original for, possibly Apollo 20. It was later intended for modification into Apollo Telescope Mount. It was about 5% completed when it's construction was cancelled and later scrapped.
The ATM was later incorporated into Skylab sans the Ascent Stage.
source, source, source, source
2026 July 15
Red Sprites in the Tatacoa Desert Image Credit & Copyright: Mario Vargas Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)
Explanation: Is there an angry Sith using force lightning in the Tatacoa Desert? This is not science fiction, but a red sprite with multiple streamers! Ordinary lightning occurs when thundercloud particles collide, lose their electrons, and build up negative charge at the cloud bottom. The cloud’s negative charge repels negative charge deeper into the Earth, leaving Earth’s surface positively charged. The opposite charges attract, reaching towards each other and superheating the air into a white strike of plasma. Red sprites are millisecond events triggered by positive cloud-to-ground lightning. They extend up into the mesosphere where the air is too thin for thunder. Their red glow comes from heated molecular nitrogen. There are several potential causes for red sprites, including that the preceding positive lightning exposes the negatively charged cloud core to the positively charged upper atmosphere, allowing those charges to connect. NASA’s Juno has observed sprites on Jupiter, indicating that sprites occur on other planets!
∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260715.html
2026 July 14
Double Lobed Asteroid Torifune Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA, U. of Tokyo, Chiba Tech, Tokyo U. of Science, AIST, Paris Obs., IAC
Explanation: Why is this asteroid a double? Earlier this month the Japanese robotic spacecraft Hayabusa2 shot past asteroid 98943 Torifune and captured pictures. Although previous observations from distant Earth indicated that Torifune was oblong, Hayabusa2 found that Torifune actually has two joined lobes. With a length of about four soccer fields, this space rock frequently comes near the Earth as it orbits the Sun, although it is not a threat. Besides the two lobes, Torifune shows many large boulders, but, surprisingly, no obvious craters, likely because its surface is a pile of rubble. Like asteroid Arrokoth, it appears that each lobe formed separately before colliding and becoming stuck together. Hayabusa2 famously encountered asteroid Ryugu in 2018, and now heads for an encounter in 2031 with 1998 KY26, a smaller asteroid that rotates unusually fast and might have reservoirs of ice.
∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260714.html
A Coast Guard OS2U prepares to drop a bomb loaded with emergency supplies on a life raft during training, 13 July 1943
Those are some funny looking lightsabers. Must be from the old Republic era or something.
Shoutout to my favorite genre of TOS episode:
…I can’t think how it took me so long to run across this. I feel privileged to have been found by it. 😄
2026 July 6
Dueling Bands over the Atacama Desert Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten
Explanation: What are these two bands in the sky? The more commonly seen band is on the left and is the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun orbits in the disk of this spiral galaxy so that from inside, it appears as a band of comparable brightness all the way around the sky. The less commonly seen band, on the right, is zodiacal light – sunlight reflected from dust orbiting the Sun in our Solar System. Zodiacal light is brightest near the Sun and so is best seen just before sunrise or just after sunset. On some evenings, this ribbon of zodiacal light can appear quite prominent. It was discovered only in this century that zodiacal dust was mostly expelled by comets that have passed near Jupiter. The featured image was captured about a year ago from the Atacama Desert in Chile.
∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260706.html
Posting this gif twice because I finally figured out how to make GIFs properly and it makes me laugh
i love shipping magazines and i especially love them when they sound like they were written by a mildly aggravated cargo ship
ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY July 3, 2026 at 05:00PM On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station. Image: https://ift.tt/YIwu6k9 via NASA https://ift.tt/JyfrpaE APOD --> https://ift.tt/KBr7Vpn
"Workers prepare the Apollo 1 spacecraft for shipment to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for long-term storage."
Date: July 6, 1967
NASA ID: AS1-0361-67h-1017651