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Proton lofts Amazonas
A Russian Proton M rocket launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying the Amazonas communications satellite that will serve the Americas and Europe. (2min 25sec file)
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Proton preview
This narrated animation profiles the mission of a Proton rocket launching the Amazonas communications satellite. (2min 27sec file)
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Rocket rollout
The fully assembled Proton rocket is rolled to launch pad for its flight to place the Amazonas spacecraft into orbit. (41sec file)
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MESSENGER lifts off
The Boeing Delta 2-Heavy rocket launches at 2:16 a.m. EDT carrying the NASA's MESSENGER space probe from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (5min 23sec file)
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Cocoa Beach view
The Cocoa Beach tracking camera site captured this beautiful view of the launch and separation of the ground-ignited solid rocket boosters. (1min 31sec file)
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Next station crew
Expedition 10 Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov discuss their planned six-month mission on the space station. (11min 23sec file)
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Hubble images majestic cousin of the Milky Way
SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE Posted: August 6, 2004

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) Download a larger version of image here
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Our Sun and solar system are embedded in a broad pancake of stars
deep within the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Even from a distance, it
is impossible to see our galaxy's large-scale features other than the
disk.
The next best thing is to look farther out into the universe at galaxies
that are similar in shape and structure to our home galaxy. Other spiral
galaxies like NGC 3949, pictured in the Hubble image, fit the bill. Like
our Milky Way, this galaxy has a blue disk of young stars peppered with
bright pink star-birth regions. In contrast to the blue disk, the bright
central bulge is made up of mostly older, redder stars.
NGC 3949 lies about 50 million light-years from Earth. It is a member
of a loose cluster of some six or seven dozens of galaxies located in
the direction of the Big Dipper, in the constellation Ursa Major (the
Great Bear). It is one of the larger galaxies of this cluster.
This image was created from Hubble data taken with the Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2 in October 2001. Separate exposures through
blue, visible, and near-infrared filters have been combined to make the
natural color picture. This image was produced by the Hubble Heritage
Team (STScI).
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.
(AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project
of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space
Agency (ESA).
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