Agamemnon

on the youtube stream, there is some english commentary... not everything is translated, but at least some part is... btw - 6 min

the first launch today - soyuz-u with a russian govt sat - was successful... the next in the line is the japanese launcher h-2a

soyuz has successfully docked to the station

and the launch is successful... both sats separated and on their ways...

and lift-off...

ariane v launch in 2 hrs... live stream will be on http://www.arianespace.tv/

btw: if anyone is interested, we have actually a very busy week: the next launches are: today (15): - european ariane v with two commercial comm sats, the launch window starts at 2201utc may of 17: - japanese h-2a with 2 earth observation sats (1639utc) - russian proton with a comm sat for canada (1912utc) - russian soyuz with a recon sat for russian govt (time not known) may 19: - spacex falcon 9 with a dragon spacecraft - c2+ mission (0855utc)

the launch has been successful...

iirc, redshift/doppler effect

no, just the raising mechanism is a train wagon - it will be moved away... you can see the actual launch tower on the second to last photo - it is the green thing, for now in a lower position it looks like this, with the tower in the position: http://www.technovelgy.com/graphics/content05/soyuz.jpg

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp31/rollout/ rollout photos for the next launch - soyuz fg with the new crew for the iss... the launch is tomorrow

btw... the next launch is a soyuz launch with 3 new crewmembers for the iss... on may 15th 0301utc...

the polling is go... we will get a launch today

and today the countdown page works: http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv

as it is summer time... it actually means that you and i both have CEST - meaning central european summer time... and that time is gmt+2

repeating today... in 30 minutes or so... 1842gmt, iirc

i use this one usually: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

1846gmt today is the next launch - atlas v 531 will launch a comm sat for usaf

no, not by nasa... by a private company... nasa worked on it some years ago, but then this private company has been created and it continues with the development (the company has signed an saa with nasa)

new launch date not announced yet... acc. to nsf, the reservation for the launch range for the 7th of may was canceled

and it seems the spacex launch will be moved to the right http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/003/120501delay/

i am not sure what you mean by 'more mass efficient'... this engine (and every other electric propulsion, eg. hall thrusters) are more fuel efficient (much more)... but these engines have really tiny thrust comparing to chemical engines (kerolox, hydrolox, hypergolics) and thus can not be used to launch a rocket, just to propel one already in space...

yes, i guess, it will work for the iss, as it would be an experiment... i just think it has its share of problems, starting with power supply in space... hence i can see a few problems with it being used as a propulsion system for mars mission - but then, by the time a mars mission will be performed, everything can be changed... we should wait and we will see, i guess :-)

- afaik, already moved to the right... no launch date specified... not in 2013 - it needs power source... we have no power source (light enough) which is able to produce 200kW in space (the iss solar arrays - they are big and heavy - give about 200kW, iirc)... it is hard to imagine, we will develop a power source strong enough to use with this (or 10MW) - if we develop a power source strong enough, there are electric engines more efficient than vasimr (vasimr is unique because it can change its mode of operation between higher thrust or higher efficiency)

the best sources of info about skylon i know of, are the two links i posted before... the discussion thread in the nsf forum is a little bit more technical, i guess - but, if you are interested in the technical side of the project, i think that is a good place to start... quite a lot of information over there...