Space Shuttle Endeavour delivered the third connecting module, the Tranquility node, to the ISS and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics.

This is also the first of four supermoons for 2020. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.

Japan becomes the fourth space power after it launches the satellite Ohsumi into orbit from Uchinoura Space Center, Japan. Ohsumi was launched on a Japanese Lambda 4-S booster at 04:25:00 UTC.

Image courtesy of JAXA

Leap years are needed to keep our modern day calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.

It takes the Earth approximately 365.242189 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds – to circle once around the Sun. However, the modern calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if there wasn’t a leap day on February 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After 100 years, our calendar would be off by about 24 days!

This is the second of four supermoons for 2020. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.

Explorer 1 reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, having travelled 2.67 billion kilometers (1.66 billion miles) and made 58,408 revolutions of the Earth during its 13-year lifetime.

This is the third of four supermoons for 2020. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.

Apollo 13 launched on its ill-fated flight to the moon. James A. Lovell Jr, John L. Swigert Jr. and Fred W. Haise Jr. aborted the mission after the service module oxygen tank ruptured on April 13.

Hubble Space Telescope launched from shuttle Discovery, weighing approximately 11,355 kg. The first image taken by Wide Field/Planetary Camera was released 20 May 1990. A spherical aberration in the optical system, which severely reduced the quality of the images produced was announced publicly June 27.

May 6th and 7th.
The Eta Aquarids is an above average meteor shower, with up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak. Most of the activity is seen in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rate can reach about 30 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust particles left behind by comet Halley, which has known and observed since ancient times. The shower runs annually from April 19 to May 28. It peaks this year on the night of May 6 and the morning of the May 7. The Moon will be almost full at the peak which may block out all but the brightest meteors. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

This is the last of the four supermoons for 2020. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.