Carnival of Space #206

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This week, we’re proud to host the 206th edition of Carnival of Space, a weekly round-up that features important news and events related to space and astronomy. For more, check out the Carnival’s homepage over at Universe Today.

• TheSpacewriter muses on the last shuttle launch in the first of a two-part series.
• A Time-lapsed View of Astronomy Night on the National Mal
• Nancy Atkinson and Steve Nerlich reminisce about some favorite Space Shuttle missions from the last 30 years. [PODCAST]
• In a dark July night sky you can hardly miss Vega, Altair, and Deneb, the three bright stars of the Summer Triangle – fully up and dominating the northeast and east. What else is there to see on a summer night?
• Zubrin trashes the VASIMR. Indicates no power sources with the energy density for fast trips to Mars. We look at where solar lens arrays and nuclear power sources for space
• A look at high energy density nuclear power sources for space
• Fiction comes to life, as Dawn approaches orbit around Vesta
• A binary system on the edge of mearsure
• Russian work on MHD superconducting generators for nuclear reactors for space and the state of ground based MHD generator work
• Measuring Mercury’s craters
• Florida wins NASA contract for station research
• The latest summary of defending the planet earth from asteroids
• James Webb space telescope closer to the axe
• Neptune  was discovered 165 years ago. In that time it has made one complete orbit of the Sun and is now in exactly the same place as when it was discovered all those years ago. The Hubble space telescope has taken anniversary pictures to celebrate this event.