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That's the second most exciting launch I've seen, after SpaceX's first mission to the ISS. Coincidentally I've missed seeing both launches live. I can't wait until SpaceX starts launching astronauts.

Has anybody noticed any mention of aerobraking to lower Akatsuki's apoapsis? While the first two years of the mission appear to be set in stone, an extended mission might be able to lower the apoapsis to 80,000 km as originally planned. Venus Express demonstrated Venusian aerobraking just last year.

Ganymede is the primary target, which JUICE will orbit. Each Europa flyby was added later when it was found to not be too dangerous.

I launched a JIMO-esque mission. Its goal is to orbit all moons, except Vall which only needed one flyby to collect all non-polar science. The mission will end with a Laythe entry from polar orbit. The spacecraft is named JEWELS - Jool Explorer With ELectric Systems.

I think the math nerds here may appreciate this software:

I created my first shuttle that's not totally useless: It's missing RCS and a payload. The parachutes are there for insurance. Its design reminds me of von Braun's rocket. A few months earlier, I made a munar space station, a transfer vehicle, and a reusable lander: Apparently that many...

The Voyagers' cameras have been turned off due to power constraints. New Horizon's next target is located further than where the Pale Blue Dot was taken.

From the FAQ:

The mass spectrometer has already sampled the plumes from a higher altitude, and this is what it found: That's pretty much what the data looks like (the y-axis is particle count, plotted logarithmically), which is low resolution by today's standards.

My review has little to do with spoilers.

Spoilers are in red. I've seen the movie twice. While the film is good, it does omit or alter several events from the novel in order to fit into a two-hour movie. What particularly irritates me is the ending of the film, it's completely unnecessary. The novel ends perfectly, but the film has to...

Cassini is revealing Enceladus to be as fascinating as Europa, yet Enceladus has its own unique mysteries. It probably has hydrothermal vents, a huge salty ocean in contact with a porous rocky core, surprisingly high internal energy, and organic molecules. All that is needed to find...

Orbiting Europa is not necessary for most scientific measurements to assess habitability, which is why a multi-flyby mission has been selected by NASA. It also avoids much of the problem with the radiation belts and greatly increases the spacecraft's life expectancy with less radiation...

That was in regard to unmanned missions. It is possible to achieve two years to Jupiter; all that's required is a sufficiently powerful rocket. The SLS capable of launching orbiters directly to the outer planets, and maybe even the Falcon Heavy. While the Jupiter environment still presents its...

I thought the streaks on Mars have been linked to seasonal water flows a few years ago. The ExoMars rover is able to dig relatively deep and analyze samples, even with perchlorates, with its mass spectrometer just fine. But sending a spacecraft to Enceladus to fly through plumes of abundant...

There's a Kickstarter project for hardcover copies of the Manual.

That only took 2...^6 attempts.

The atmosphere was shot backlit with a long exposure time, evident by the star trails. So the atmosphere is not easily seen with the limited light collection of the naked eye. LORRI is designed to be very sensitive and really brings out its detail, making haze layers noticeable.

JPL: "Cassini Finds Global :censored:ing Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus" (emphasis mine)

Here's Nix and Hydra, respectively: From the LORRI gallery.