Astronomical Event Near Earth (Launchspace Staff Writers) Bethesda, MD - Last Saturday, an astronomical event took place in Earth's vicinity and almost no one saw it. A potentially dangerous asteroid passed by our blue planet. Fortunately, no one was hurt. This rock is actually two rocks traveling in a binary arrangement. It has been named 1999 KW4 and consists of a small rock (about 1/3 mile across) that orbits about a big rock (about 1 mile across). As it passed Earth its speed was 48,000 MPH, but at a safe distance of 3.2 million miles. A NASA rendering of the  binary asteroid shows its odd shape. The large rock appears to have an oblate shape with an equatorial ridge. You might think of it as a cosmic cupcake. The small rock apparently orbits the big rock about every 16 hours at a distance of about 1.6 miles. While one needed a powerful telescope to see the event, in astronomical terms, the distance was very close. We were lucky once again.
This asteroid is referred to as an Aten type (Earth-crossing) space rock. Such asteroids are found in orbits that bring them into proximity with Earth. The group was named after 2062 Aten, the first of its kind, discovered in January 1976 by American astronomer Eleanor Helin. As of 2019, a total of 1,490 Atens have been discovered. Of these, only 12 have been named. As one might expect, many Atens have been classified as potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs). __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Launchspace Training Courses Here is a partial list of courses that we offer: For more courses see the Launchspace Catalog on our website: http://www.launchspace.com/New%20Site/Course%20Catalog.html
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Alert! Instructors Wanted! LAUNCHSPACE TRAINING WANTS YOU - Short course instructors are wanted to train Space Workforce professionals who need real-world, up-to-date training on engineering and management topics that increase productivity and on-the-job effectiveness.
Launchspace has almost a half-century of experience in presenting these high-intensity short courses to government agencies and industry. Join our team of subject matter experts and gain the satisfaction of educating the Space Workforce. You can expect generous fees and travel expenses.
Just let us know your area of space expertise and we will take it from there.
________________________________________________________________________________ Got One of These? Launchspace Training personnel have been providing special short courses to the space  community since 1970. Early in his career, Dr. Marshall H. Kaplan realized that space professionals had limited resources in advancing their own space-related knowledge base and on-the-job training options. Over the last few decades this company has created and delivered hundreds of focused courses to thousands of engineers, managers and support personnel in the space community. All training subject matter and supporting materials are designed to increase knowledge and improve productivity associated with space technologies, systems and operations. These topics are not offered in a university setting. Over the past 20 years, Launchspace has been offering company-specific courses that are tailored to the requirements of any given company to train its own personnel. These courses are presented on-site by experts in the particular subject areas. Such offerings have proven to be very cost-effective and efficient. Every major space organization in North America and Europe has taken advantage of Launchspace's Training programs. This includes government agencies such as NASA, USAF and several other offices of the Department of Defense. Course topics cover almost every aspect of space flight from launch vehicle technologies to orbital mechanics to spacecraft design. Our customized courses are offered at client locations in support of mission requirements and to expand the expertise of professional staff members. In addition, a few high-demand public classes are presented for open registration at selected conference locations. Contact us to discuss a customized training program for your professionals: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
LAUNCHSPACE is an educational organization dedicated to training and continuing education for space professionals and to supporting the space community. We offer the largest array of customized client-site courses to government agencies and industry, and a full spectrum of technical and management expertise in support of space programs. Click on www.Launchspace.com to see our extensive catalog of course offerings. Any of these can be customized for your needs, or we can create a new course for you. Through our training programs we have helped thousands of engineers and managers become more productive in their careers. Our courses and programs are unique and customized for our clients. We focus on critical skills in all areas of spaceflight, spacecraft and launch systems. Our instructors are all experts in their fields and present highly interactive classes in-person and at your facilities. Please contact us for more information about our services at info@launchspace.com or +1.202.258.6133. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
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