Everyone,

New Tenative launch date has been moved back to April 19, 2004 at 10:01:20am PDT.

No reason given for the delay.

J____

Everyone,

Gravity Probe B is in the countdown phase as I write this ... Liftoff scheduled for Monday, April 19, 2004 at 10:01:20am PDT.

J____

Dear J___,

This is a monumental moment, when we will test frame dragging in gravitational field as per Einstein's prediction.

Gravity Probe B

I know from Humancafe's site statistics there are readers from all over the world visiting, including China, Japan, Brazil, East and West Europe, Russia, Israel, Iran, Malta, so good to put out the word on the Gravity Probe B launch. Keep us updated friend.

Ivan

Everyone, Ivan,

The launch was scrubbed at T-4 minutes ... reason for scrub ... Correct Wind Profile Data not loaded in the flight computer.

All other systems were go, including launch vehicle, and spacecraft...!

Rescheduled launch -

4-20-2004 at 9:57:24am PDT.

J____

Thanks J___,

Gravity Probe B's project founder, Prof. Francis Everitt, explains in layman's terms how Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, is being tested. BBC Science News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3640901.stm

"If Einstein's theory turned out to be incorrect, many things would have to be rethought... What Gravity Probe B is doing is pushing it into new areas... Going back before Einstein, we had Newton's theory of gravity and for many purposes we still use that. Einstein took a step beyond Newton - a very fundamental step."

This is why the Gravity Probe B results will be so important, because if we push past Einstein's General Relativity, we may be forced to rethink gravity in its entirety, for example, where G is no longer a universal constant.

Ivan, Everyone,

Gravity Probe B ... is flying.

It will be a few days before data begins to flow as systems are brought online.

Will try to keep everyone up to date as information begins to flow.

J____

Neutron stars steal space probe's glory."

This NewScientist.com article, 11 Sept. 2004, features two neutron stars rotating each other every 2.4 hours, in which the precessional 'geodetic' effect had been observed. Gravity Probe-B is searching for the same effect, as well as 'frame dragging' of space-time. This latter effect had not yet been seen in the binary neutron stars, as of yet.

Ivan

here was another link which gives more Profiles information

"Artistic impression of the two pulsars orbiting around the common centre of mass in 2.4 hours. The faster rotating pulsar spins 45 times per second or almost 3000 times per minute. In the same time, the slower rotating pulsar spins only 22 times or every 2.8 seconds. Credit: Michael Kramer (Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester)"-http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/doublepulsar/

or futher info at-
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/neutron_stars_031203.html

Thanks Michael!

On the second link, Space.com, it says:

"Already dead

A neutron star is already stellar corpse. It is formed when an aged star explodes and as much material as what's in our Sun collapses into a region the size of a city. A teaspoonful, brought to Earth, would weigh a billion tons or so. Neutron stars are stuffed almost entirely with neutrons, subatomic particles that can huddle extremely close together."

These two neutron stars are very close together. How did this happen, that both 'died' at the same time in close proximity? I think very powerful gravity may bring them closer together until they end up in orbits around each other. Will they merge into one giant 'blackhole? Stay tuned... we'll know in another 85 million years. Their spin is immense!

Ivan

Space.com's Touchdown on Titan: Huygens Probe Hits its Mark

This represents a major feet of science and engineering, very exciting to see data streaming from this 750 kg probe, as relayed from Titan's entry via Cassini Saturn orbiter. Kudos to Science for the most distant spaceprobe landing to date. All systems were "Go".

Gravity Probe-B is next big one! Or, is Einstein's universe really what we believed it is?

Picking on Einstein

Nasa News: "One hundred years down, six months to go. Stay tuned, to see what is the real gamma.

!