Today, November 17, 2014, in Space! - Updates from the Philae mission        - Correction from the last show: How many times Philae "bounced" vs. "touched down" - Overview of the Orion Launch System        - 1st Test flight (12.4.14), overview of what to expect, etc - A few facts on why we use cones to exit atmospheres, and large wide surfaces to re-enter QUESTION OF THE WEEK: "How can we know what the Milky Way Galaxy looks like, if we are inside and have never sent anything outside the galaxy?"  

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The first independent segment of "Today in Space" with Alex. Alex explains some new things for the podcast, including the intent of the new 20 min episodes and what's to come. SPACE Topics: The Antares incident for Orbcomm3 The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Incident Test Pilots 3-Stage Rockets

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Today, 11/13/2014, in Space! Alex covers the Rosetta mission and the landing of the Philae robot lander on comet 67P. He covers the mission, the after-math issues with the Philae lander. Later, he talks about the general use of the term "scientist", the difficulty of space travel, and his opinion on allowing robots to go first - then humans. Links: content via ESA http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Touchdown!_Rosetta_s_Philae_probe_lands_on_comet content via The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2014/nov/13/philae-lander-sends-picture-from-comet-video1 content via Universe Today http://www.universetoday.com/116135/get-a-look-at-philaes-first-photos/

© ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

© ESA/Rosetta/ NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

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©ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

©ESA/Rosetta/MPS forOSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

©ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR