1. Space News Update - June 24, 2016 - In the News Departments Story 1:
NASA Scientists Discover Unexpected Mineral on Mars
Story 2:
First Wind Nebula Discovered Around A Magnetar
Story 3: NASA’s Restore-L Mission to Refuel Landsat 7, Demonstrate Crosscutting Technologies
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week

2. NASA Scientists Discover Unexpected Mineral on Mars
In this computer graphic, NASA's Voyager 1 probe, moving toward upper left, nears the edge of the sun's influence, flying through a region of space dominated by a "magnetic highway" that helps mediate the flow of particles into and out of the solar system. The region includes particles from the sun's southern hemisphere that have been forced northward by the pressure of the interstellar wind. Voyager 1 is expected to cross the boundary into interstellar space sometime within the next few years if not sooner. (Credit: NASA)

3. First Wind Nebula Discovered Around A Magnetar

4. NASA’s Restore-L Mission to Refuel Landsat 7, Demonstrate Crosscutting Technologies

5. The Night Sky Sky & Telescope
Friday, June 24 • This is the time of year when the two brightest stars of summer, Arcturus and Vega, are about equally high overhead shortly after dark: Arcturus is toward the southwest, Vega is toward the east.
Arcturus and Vega are 37 and 25 light-years away, respectively. They're examples of the two commonest types of naked-eye stars: a yellow-orange K giant and a white A main-sequence star. They're 150 and 50 times brighter than the Sun — which, combined with their nearness, is why they dominate the evening sky.
Saturday, June 25
• At nightfall, look for the Big Dipper hanging straight down in the northwest. Its bottom two stars, the Pointers, point to the right toward modest Polaris, the handle-end of the Little Dipper.
The rest of the Little Dipper floats straight upward from Polaris — like a helium balloon escaped from some June evening party. Most of it is quite dim; through light pollution, you may only see Polaris and Kochab, the lip of the Little Dipper's bowl, 16° above it.
Sunday, June 26
• Three doubles at the top Scorpius. Mars and Saturn aren't the only telescopic attractions in the south these evenings, even you have heavy light pollution! The head of Scorpius — the near-vertical row of three stars upper right of Antares — stands to Saturn's right by about a fist at arm's length. The top star of the row is Beta (ß) Scorpii or Graffias, a fine double star for telescopes.
Just 1° below it (and a little too faint for the chart here) is the very wide naked-eye pair Omega1 and Omega2 Scorpii, not quite vertical. Binoculars show their slight color difference. Left or lower left of Beta by 1.6° is Nu Scorpii, another fine telescopic double. High power in good seeing reveals Nu's brighter component itself to be a close binary, separation 2 arcseconds.
Monday, June 27
• The last-quarter Moon (exact at 2:19 p.m. EDT) rises around 1 a.m. below the Great Square of Pegasus.
Sky & Telescope

6. ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
No Sighting Opportunities for Denver through Sunday Jul 3, 2016
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

7. NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Time Zone)
8 p.m., Friday, June 24 - Video File of the ISS Expedition Crew’s Departure from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (Ivanishin, Rubins, Onishi) (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))
10 p.m., Friday, June 24 - Video File of the ISS Expedition Crew’s Departure from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (Ivanishin, Rubins, Onishi) (all channels)
3:30 p.m., Monday, June 27 - Live Coverage of NASA Social for the Orbital ATK’s SLS Booster Qualification Motor Test (QM-2) from Promontory, Utah (NTV-1 (Public))
9:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 28 - Live Coverage of the Orbital ATK’s SLS Booster Qualification Motor Test (QM-2) from Promontory, Utah (all channels)
1 p.m., Tuesday, June 28  NASA Honor Awards Ceremony (NTV-1 (Public))
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

8. Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar
Jun 24 -[Jun 24] MUOS 5 Atlas 5 Launch, Successful
Jun 24 -[Jun 21] Comet P/2016 J1-A (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (2.448 AU)
Jun 24 - Aten Asteroid (2010 NY65) Near-Earth Flyby (0.028 AU)
Jun 24 - Aten Asteroid 2014 OL339 Closest Approach To Earth (0.277 AU)
Jun 24 - Apollo Asteroid 5731 Zeus Closest Approach To Earth (1.273 AU)
Jun 24 - Asteroid 4037 Ikeya Closest Approach To Earth (2.213 AU)
Jun 24 - Centaur Object Hylonome At Opposition ( AU)
Jun 24 - Ellison Onizuka's 70th Birthday (1946)
Jun 24 - Robert Sharp's 105th Birthday (1911)
Jun th Anniversary (1881), William Huggins Makes 1st Photographic Spectrum of a Comet (1881 III)
Jun 25 - Comet P/1999 J6 (SOHO) At Opposition (2.824 AU)
Jun 25 - Asteroid 2296 Kugultinov Occults HIP 84626 (5.1 Magnitude Star)
Jun 25 - Apollo Asteroid Mjolnir Closest Approach To Earth (0.747 AU)
Jun 26 - Moon Occults Neptune
Jun 26 - Comet C/2013 X1 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (0.659 AU)
Jun 26 - Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova At Opposition (1.665 AU)
Jun 26 - Comet C/2014 W5 (Lemmon-PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (2.066 AU)
Jun 26 - Comet 293P/LINEAR At Opposition (3.828 AU)
Jun 26 - Comet C/2015 H2 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (4.196 AU)
Jun 26 - Asteroid Steward Closest Approach To Earth (1.681 AU)
Jun 26 - Centaur Object Amycus At Opposition ( AU)
Jun th Anniversary (2006), Scott Sheppard et al's Discovery of Saturn Moons Surtur, Jarnsaxa, Greip & Loge
Jun 27 - Centaur Object Chariklo At Opposition ( AU)
Jun th Anniversary (2011), Artemis P1, Moon Orbit Insertion
Jun th Anniversary (2001), Discovery of SAU 060 Meteorite (Mars Meteorite)
Jun th Anniversary (1996), Galileo, Ganymede 1 Flyby
Jun th Anniversary (1931), Tatahouine Meteorite Shower in Tunisia
Jun 27 - Merle Tuve's 115th Birthday (1901)
Jun 28 - Comet 54P/de Vico-Swift-NEAT At Opposition (1.979 AU)
Jun 28 - Asteroid Auckland Closest Approach To Earth (2.081 AU)
Jun 28 - Neptune Trojan 2008 LC18 At Opposition ( AU)
Jun th Anniversary (2011), Mark Showalter's et al's Discovery of Pluto Moon Kerberos
Jun 28 - Elon Musk's 45th Birthday (1971)
Jun th Anniversary (1911), Nakhla Meteorite Fall in Egypt (Mars Meteorite, Hit Dog)
JPL Space Calendar

9. NASA Launches 5-Year Tech Demo to Improve Air Traffic Flow at Airports
Food for Thought
NASA Launches 5-Year Tech Demo to Improve Air Traffic Flow at Airports

10. Solstice Dawn and Full Moonset Image Credit & Copyright: Laurie Hatch
Space Image of the Week
Solstice Dawn and Full Moonset
Image Credit & Copyright: Laurie Hatch