By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
In the night sky, Friday, December 22, anyone who happened to be outside witnessed the SpaceX’s launch of a rocket carrying satellites into a “low-earth orbit” capping their record this year. The launch came from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This was their eighteenth launch for 2017. Many people paniced when they saw the fascinating show. The news media was inundated with calls, people were wondering what the phenomenon was, and there was a concern about whether or not we were in danger right before the Christmas Holiday.
SpaceX has had quite the year, but they are expecting 2018 to be even bigger. They have three launch pads available to them and they are expecting to fly approximately 30 missions in the coming year.
The schedule for launches and night sky events for January 2018, that one may witness in Alpine is as follows:
January (2018)
Jan. 2: Supermoon! The Full Wolf Moon of January coincides with the moon’s closest appreach to Earth. The moon will appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual.
Jan. 3/4: The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak overnight on Wednesday, Jan. 3 into the early morning hours of Wednesday, Jan. 4.
Jan. 10: A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket will launch a classified spacecraft payload (NROL-47) for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Jan. 31: A blue blood moon…or a bloody blue moon? The blue moon will coincide with a total lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon. It will be visible from Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean and western North America.
