Hi! It’s me Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut.
2017 is over and boy was it a busy and exciting year of space discoveries and spaceflight!
So it’s officially time for the best space moments of 2017, AKA the WORLD FAMOUS
ASTRO AWARDS!!
This is nothing official, other than things I thought were awesome from 2017, but I also
took into account your opinions from polls here on YouTube AND on twitter, so make sure
you’re paying attention to those to have a voice in next year’s Astro Awards!
So, without further adieu, may I present to you the 2017 Astro Awards!
Hello!!
Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first annual Astro Awards, the night
of the biggest stars!
Yes even including UY Scuti, and Betelgeuse, and VY Canis Majoris, and yes even NML Cygni
made it!
Wow they look so beautiful don't they?
Each year we pick our favorite space moments and award the winner the much coveted LEO
trophy.
Which totally isn't an old weird Soviet lamp I got off eBay.
Now, before we start the countdown, we do have one honorable mention.
That goes to...
Falcon Heavy!
Of course!
I had to mention Falcon Heavy because of the fact that we finally saw it out on the launch
pad at the end of 2017 as it prepares for its inaugural flight in 2018!
Since it hasn’t flown yet, it didn’t get a place on our 2017 list, but I’ll bet it’s
flight will be hard to beat for 2018!
I recently did a video all about Falcon Heavy, if you haven't checked that out make sure
you do, because it gives you a good history of why it took 5 years for Falcon Heavy to
come online and all the things we hope to see on the inaugural flight!
Good luck SpaceX, we're all cheering for you for 2018!
Number 7
So starting with number 7 on my list, I’m going with the first launch from historic
launch pad 39A since 2011 after the last space shuttle took off.
SpaceX leased pad 39A on April 14th, 2014, a day i’ll always remember because I was
there!
And yes, I even got a selfie with SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.
SpaceX spent almost 3 years preparing 39A to launch both their Falcon 9 rocket, and
their upcoming Falcon Heavy rocket.
The mission that inaugurated the new launchpad was CRS-10, a commercial resupply mission
for NASA to send cargo to the International Space Station.
It took off on February 19th, 2017 at 9:39 a.m. local time.
This mission was cool for a few reasons, not only was it the first time SpaceX launched
from this hallowed ground, it was also the first time we saw a rocket land back at the
launch site in broad daylight which was just amazing.
The completely successful mission was a good sign of things to come for SpaceX as it was
the return to flight of their Falcon 9 rocket after that Amos 6 anomaly destroyed their
other launch pad, LC-40 that happened on September 1st, 2016.
SpaceX continued to have an outstanding year, launching a record breaking 18 flawless missions,
including a perfect landing record with 14 successful landings out of 14 attempts with
their Falcon 9 rocket.
So congrats on a highly successful year SpaceX!
Number 6
On February 15, 2017, India launched their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV for
mission C37 which successfully carried 104 satellites into sun-synchronous orbit.
The 714 kg (1,574 pound) primary satellite known as Cartosat-2D was successfully deployed
followed by 103 nanosatellites weighing in at around 6 KGs each.
The reason why I find this launch so significant is the fact that India was able to successfully
perform such a flawless mission and at an incredibly low cost of only 15 million USD!
That’s incredible.
So great job India and ISRO, I can't wait to see more from you.
Number 5:
Next up we have a truly exciting observation.
The first confirmed observation of a known interstellar object passing through our solar
system.
In October 2017, Robert Weryk discovered 1i/2017 u1 using the Pan-STARRS telescope at the Haleakala
Observatory in Hawaii.
At first this long cigar shaped object was thought to be a comet, and then later an asteroid.
But, after further observation it’s trajectory and speed made scientists conclude that it
originated from outside our solar system!
It’s relatively small, only about 230 x 35 meters or 800 by 100 feet in size.
After its initial discovery, scientists trained several other telescopes on it including Keck
II telescope and even Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes joined in the fun!
1i/2017 u1 was later named Oumuamua which is Hawaiian for “first scout” as a nod
to the first confirmed encounter with an object from outside of our own solar system!
Number 4
For my number 4 we have another exciting observation.
On August 17, 2017, scientists made the first ever observations of both light and gravitational
waves from a single cosmic event.
This was one of the most exciting cosmic events known as a kilonova and that only happens
when two neutron stars collide.
Neutron stars are the leftover dense cores from supernovas.
Two neutron stars colliding is thought to be super rare and despite this, it was observed
through gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory or LIGO in
the US, and the Virgo interferometer in Italy and visible light from dozens of observatories.
Unlike merging black holes which also produce detectable gravitational waves, merging neutron
stars produce visible light, xrays and gamma rays so we were able to collect a lot more
data using several different instruments.
This observation is unprecedented not only for confirming a kilonova but for having so
many solid observations of it.
Best of all, this confirmed that neutron stars collisions create the heavy elements like
gold and platinum!
It’s fantastic when direct observations confirm a hypothesis.
So congrats to those involved in this incredible observation.
Number 3:
The next three I really had a hard time deciding between, but just hear me out!
Number three goes to the total solar eclipse of 2017.
YEAH!
On August 21, 2017, millions of people across the entire continental United States had the
opportunity to see a total solar eclipse.
The path of totality, when the moon totally blocks out the sun, took a tour across the
United States.
It started at 10:19 am Pacific time in Madras Oregon and made its way east until the last
bit of totality was seen at 2:46 PM eastern in Georgetown, South Carolina.
It was truly a magical experience.
I think the only way I can describe it is it felt like it united everyone together to
all celebrate in something much bigger than all of us.
Everyone from every walk of life put aside their differences and all wound up cheering
up into the sky as it went dark.
This cosmic coincidence was incredible and I think I’m addicted to total solar eclipses…
This experience made me wonder what an eclipse would look like from space, so I found out
the answer and made this video, check it out if you’re interested.
Thanks for the fun times sun and the moon, hopefully I’ll get a chance to see you guys
dance together again in 2019 in South America!
Number 2
Now, for our semi finalists we need to take a moment and reflect on the loss of a very
dear friend of ours.
This year after 20 years in space, the Cassini spacecraft took its final breaths into the
atmosphere of Saturn.
After a successful liftoff on October 15, 1997 onboard a Titan IVB rocket, the Cassini
probe flew off with its brother Huygens to explore the Saturn system.
It took 7 years to get to Saturn, but Cassini went to work right away.
It’s prime mission lasted four years and was so successful it got extended twice.
Cassini was a flagship NASA mission that brought Saturn into much more detail than ever before.
The plucky spacecraft detailed maps of Saturn's gravity and magnetic fields, observed Saturn’s
rings up close and personal, sampled icy ring particles and collected over 635 GB’s of
valuable data.
In total Cassini executed 2.5 million commands, orbited Saturn 294 times, flew by Saturn’s
moons 162 times, and took 453,048 photos.
It even discovered two new oceans, one on Titan and the other on Enceladus.
Through its life 3,948 scientific papers were published from its findings.
Cassini represents everything we love about flagship NASA missions, plan for four years,
get back 13 jam packed years of fruitful data.
With Cassini on its last puffs of propellant, NASA didn’t want to risk having it accidentally
collide into a potentially life harboring moon.
So in April 2017, the wonder-probe performed a final flyby of Titan which placed it on
a collision course with Saturn that unfolded over the next five months of daring dives
between Saturn and its rings.
It plummeted into Saturn's thick atmosphere so it would burn up on entry.
On September 15th, 2017, at 7:55 AM eastern daylight time, we heard the last signal from
our beloved Cassini.
Cassini, you'll be forever missed and your data will be treasured for generations to
come.
Congrats to the thousands of people who were involved with making Cassini such a massively
successful mission!
Number 1
And now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for!
The best moment of space for 2017 goes to...
SPACEX and SES-10 and the first reflight of an orbital class booster!
Woah woah woah hold on you say!
STOP THE PRESSES.
Am I really suggesting that a Falcon 9 rocket delivering a pretty standard communications
satellite is really more important than a flagship 20 year long flawless NASA mission
that gave us data to comb over for decades to come?!?!
Well, before I get into a rant about it, let me catch you up to snuff on why SpaceX’s
reflight of a booster is actually a really really big deal.
On March 30th, 2017, SpaceX launched a 5,200 KG satellite for their customer, SES.
This launched from launch pad 39A in Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission was pretty run of the mill, everything went perfectly fine and SpaceX even managed
to recover the booster.
So why was this such a big deal?
For this mission, SES-10, it was the second time SpaceX used this exact first stage booster,
also known as core 21.
Previously it launched a Dragon cargo capsule containing the Bigelow BEAM module and other
supplies to the International Space Station on the CRS-8 mission for NASA on April 16th,
2016.
It reached 6,600 km/hr (3,700 mph) before it separated from the upper stage and then
proceeded to land downrange on the autonomous spaceport droneship named Of Course I still
Love You.
For the SES-10 mission, it reached an even faster 8,200 km/h or just over 5,000 mph,
before separating from the upper stage and once again landing downrange on the drone
ship.
This thing's about as tall as a 15 story building, it's going over 5,000 miles an hour, at the
edge of space, and ends up landing on something about the size of a football field in the
middle of the ocean.
It's just incredible.
Getting things into space is expensive.
Rockets are incredibly engineered, made from the most high tech and precise parts.
And yet tragically, after only 2 to 3 minutes of use, the biggest portion of the rocket
has traditionally been discarded.
It falls back to earth only to become a future coral reef.
So when SpaceX began to pursue recovering and reusing the first stage of their Falcon
9 rocket, it was simply thought to be impossible.
Most people in the industry laughed at the idea, literally.
It had been the consensus among the industry was that recovering a booster was too hard,
if not, impossible…
So you can imagine how game changing it was when SpaceX not only started to recover booster
after booster, but then when they successfully reflew one, the game had officially changed.
Not only that but SpaceX ended up reflying 5 boosters in 2017.
That was more than a quarter of their launches for the year.
You might get sick of hearing this, but it’s true.
Imagine how expensive a standard airline ticket would be if after every single flight they
had to throw away the entire jumbo jet.
SpaceX already has the cheapest launch costs in the industry by streamlining manufacturing
and by making almost every bit of the vehicle in house.
But now, by reusing these multi million dollar pieces of hardware, the cost of getting things
to space will start to plummet.
In the near future, customers launching payloads into space won’t have to buy an entire rocket,
they’ll just have to buy a ride.
They’ll essentially just be renting the booster for much cheaper than the cost of
a brand new rocket.
This will revolutionize the space industry.
The access to space is still insanely cost prohibitive, but what if the cost comes down
by 2 times, what about by 5 times, by 10 times?
What about 100 times?
Bringing the cost of space down is the first step to making space exploration more routine
and attainable.
So when the cost of putting a new satellite, a new scientific probe or even an astronaut
is almost an afterthought, imagine how much more activity will take place among the stars!
As you know from the previous segment, Cassini was phenomenal.
It was absolutely incredible and I love everything it did for us.
BUT, wouldn't it be really sad if the best space moment of 2017 was the DEATH of a beloved
space probe?
So I chose to look forward to the future.
A future where putting Cassini class probes happens often because we can more easily afford
to do it.
When more people than ever before are heading into space to work and visit.
A future where the general public is so enamored by all the brilliant scientific discoveries,
that we all want to invest as society into exploring deeper into our own solar system.
To me, bringing the cost of space down is the ultimate paradigm shift that will open
up an entirely new economies.
It will usher in the future we’ve all been dreaming about and inspire new generations
of explorers.
It will lead the way for Humankind to step beyond our blue sphere, return to the Glory
days of Apollo and go beyond to Mars, and further on to the Gas giants where the moons
hold vast resources that we can then use to venture to interstellar space and go beyond
our solar system.
For this reason, generations to come will see 2017 as another turning point in space
exploration.
Ladies and gentlemen, a new Apollo era is upon us.
Reusable rockets are here.
It’s time to go forward and explore.
So, what'd you think about the first ever Astro Awards?
What mission or event did I forget about that you can’t believe I left out?
Or what events are you looking forward to in 2018?
Let me know in the comments below.
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Thanks everybody that does it for me.
I'm Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut.
Bringing space down to Earth for everyday people.