Entries for Tag: 'space'
Made of special paper, they actually expect the planes to make it all the way to the surface of the earth. This should be pretty cool. Lets just hope they hit populated land and not open ocean...
From the site:
A tiny asteroid discovered just hours ago at an Arizona observatory will enter Earth's atmosphere harmlessly at approximately 10:46 p.m. Eastern time tonight (2:46 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time). There is no danger to people or property since the asteroid will not reach the ground. It is between 3 and 15 feet (1-5 m) in diameter and will burn up in the upper atmosphere, well above aircraft heights. A brilliant fireball will be visible as a result.
Apparently, it did happen last night. This marks the first time that we have recognized that an asteroid this small was going to hit the earth before it did, which is quite an achievement. Although it was only about 12 hours notice, its something to build on.
UPDATE: Looks like its been picked up by a few other places: Slashdot, CNN and NASA
It took four tries but eight minutes after leaving the ground, Falcon 1 reached a speed of 5200 meters per second and passed above the International Space Station. This is cool stuff.