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Stories about: nasa


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NASA Develops iPhone-Mounted Chemical Sensors

Smartphones are already an indispensable commodity to a lot of people, and have become an integrated part of their daily lives. Some use them to surf the Web and post updates on Facebook and Twitter, while others use facilities such as document viewers and editor, and slideshow presentations. But now, researchers at ...

28 November 2009
03:58 GMT

Atlantis Scheduled to Land Today

After separating from the International Space Station (ISS) early Wednesday, and spending Thanksgiving in space on Thursday, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis are currently getting ready to return home. They are scheduled to touch down on Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Cape Canaveral, Flor...

27 November 2009
05:04 GMT

Prometheus Wreaks Havoc in Saturn's F Ring

A recently released picture of the F Ring around Saturn shows it being obliterated on a certain portion by the passing of the tiny moon Prometheus through it. The image was snapped by the NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft on August 21. The probe, which has been orbiting the gas giant for many years, took advantage of its d...

26 November 2009
21:01 GMT

Future Purposes for Ailing QuikSCAT Satellite Under Assessment

The ten-year-old QuikSCAT (Quick Scatterometer) NASA mission is considered by many at the American space agency and elsewhere as one of the most valuable national resources in orbit today. The satellite, whose goal was to provide up-to-date data on the direction and speed of winds over the planet's oceans, was o...

26 November 2009
18:31 GMT

Diagnostics Tests Find No Wheel Stall on Spirit

During the last set of drive commands uploaded to the Martian rover Spirit, engineers have encountered a problem in one of the rover's wheels, which jammed when the time came to spin. The entire drive attempt was therefore stopped by the robot's onboard computer, so as not to make its situation even worse t...

26 November 2009
14:01 GMT

NASA Finds Definite Proof of Solar 'Tsunamis'

For many years, scientists have observed elusive formations on the surface of the Sun, but have attributed them to being mere optical illusions, caused by the constant motion of the star's atmosphere. Just recently, the twin STEREO spacecraft managed to demonstrate that this was, in fact, not the case, and that ...

26 November 2009
03:01 GMT

MRO Glitch Will Be Addressed with New Instructions

In a new set of actions destined to return the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to its full capabilities, experts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are planning to upload a new set of commands to the ailing Martian probe. They argue that the glitch that prompted the orbiter's computer to reboot on August 2...

25 November 2009
17:01 GMT

Cassini Images Saturn's Auroras

Until not many years ago, astronomers believed that auroras only form on our planet, from the interaction of solar winds with Earth's magnetic lines. With the advent of modern telescope technology, it became possible to construct devices that proved this to be false. It was shown that most planets which have mag...

25 November 2009
02:32 GMT

Wheel Stall Stopped Spirit's Second Drive

On Sol 2092 (Saturday, November 21), the Spirit rover received a new set of commands to drive, as experts were trying to move ahead with the plan of extricating it from its trap. The robot drove into a patch of loose soil called Troy in late April, and the powder-like dust did not allow for it to move since. Only rec...

24 November 2009
09:08 GMT

Last Day on the ISS for the Atlantis Crew

Throughout today, the 12 astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), featuring both members of the orbital outpost and the docked space shuttle Atlantis, will conduct the last maintenance work on the facility. This is the last day the two crews will spend together, as Atlantis is scheduled to undock tomo...

24 November 2009
08:25 GMT

Astronauts Successfully Complete Third Spacewalk

Two astronauts from the crew of space shuttle Atlantis managed to successfully complete all of the tasks allotted to them in the third spacewalk of the STS-129 assembly mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The third and last extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Atlantis flight took place yesterday, but ...

24 November 2009
03:00 GMT

NEO Mission Gains Increasing Support

For a long time, policymakers have dreamed about going to the Moon, or Mars, but also to near-Earth Objects, a class of celestial bodies including asteroids and meteorites, that are large enough to handle a spacecraft landing on them. Over recent months, this plan has been getting increased support from the American ...

24 November 2009
02:42 GMT

NASA Innovations Come to the General Public

NASA has always been, to some extent, one of the US agencies that has shared the fruits of its labor. The complex technologies its engineers have developed over the years, to tackle various aspects related to space exploration, have, in many cases, made their way into the general market. Taking into account the diffi...

23 November 2009
10:36 GMT

Node 3 Officially Delivered to NASA

On November 20, representatives from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) finally signed the Transfer of Ownership document, which solidifies the delivery to the American space agency of Node 3, the next European module to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). The ceremony, which was held at the Space Sta...

23 November 2009
09:25 GMT

New Cassini Images of Enceladus Showcased

The Cassini spacecraft has just sent back the latest pictures that it made of Saturn's moon Enceladus, during the last planned flyby it made of the celestial body as part of its mission. For the next eight years, the moon will enter the “shadows” of winter, as the planet begins its long, cold season....

23 November 2009
04:31 GMT

Astronauts Complete Second Spacewalk, Take Break

On Saturday, astronauts aboard the NASA space shuttle Atlantis, and the International Space Station (ISS) raced through the second spacewalk planned for the STS-129 assembly flight. In fact, they went about their businesses so well, that they managed to even squeeze in a few jobs that were originally scheduled to be ...

23 November 2009
02:24 GMT

Smithsonian Museum Receives Former Hubble Components

This May, the space shuttle Atlantis flew the fifth and final repair flight to the venerable Hubble Space Telescope. The changes weren't purely aesthetic. A number of instruments, including the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, or WFPC-2, were replaced with better ones. The observatory also received new spectr...

20 November 2009
20:41 GMT

Moon Water May Have Come from Comets

Last month, a NASA spacecraft and its accompanying spent rocket stage slammed into the surface of the Moon's south pole, in the Cabeus crater. A few weeks later, as everyone was teeming with anticipation, the much-awaited announcement finally came – water existed on the Earth's satellite. Spectrograph...

20 November 2009
05:27 GMT

New Contest to Build Best Astronaut Glove Launched

As part of NASA's Centennial Challenges Competition, the American space agency is offering more than $400,000 to the team that can design the most dexterous, strongest and most durable astronaut glove, in the Astronaut Glove Challenge. This is the second edition of the competition, through which the agency is se...

20 November 2009
02:13 GMT

PETA to Protest Against NASA Irradiating Monkeys

For the first time since the early days of the space program, in the early 1950s, the American space agency, NASA, will be conducting a series of tests on monkeys. The goal of the experiments will be to test and see whether their complex physiology, which is very similar to our own, could endure the rigors of a long-...

20 November 2009
01:46 GMT

Space Studies of Clouds Reveal Continental Outlines

Scientists controlling space-based analysis instruments aimed at the Earth have known for a long time that the outlines of the Earth's continents can easily be distinguished from orbit from the outlines that they project onto clouds. This may be owed to the significant differences that appear between cloud cover...

18 November 2009
10:52 GMT

WISE Infrared Observatory Set to Launch

NASA officials announce that the space agency's latest telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explore (WISE) instrument, has finished undergoing preparations, and is currently set for a Friday, November 20, roll-out date. The observatory has been chilled to its operating temperature, and has already been outf...

18 November 2009
04:12 GMT

First 'Drive' Commands See Spirit Hit an Obstacle

As most of you know, the rover Spirit has been stuck on the surface of Mars since May 6, when it drove straight into a patch of loose soil known as Troy. All efforts to free the robot resulted at the time in failure, so the scientists took to the lab, in an attempt to discover what the best course of action might be....

18 November 2009
02:58 GMT

Atlantis on Its Way to the ISS

Officials at the American space agency NASA praise their own achievement, of launching the fifth shuttle flight for this year, a launch rate that has not been achieved since 2002, before Columbia's disaster. In the STS-129 mission, the shuttle Atlantis blasted off from the Launch Pad 39A facility at the Kennedy ...

17 November 2009
01:51 GMT

Atlantis Cleared for Tomorrow's Launch

NASA mission controllers and planners have decided that the space shuttle Atlantis is in excellent shape to fly tomorrow, on the STS-129 assembly mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft will take off from the Launch Pad 39A complex at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It w...

15 November 2009
06:04 GMT

Saturn Rings Reveal Clouds of Ice Particles

On September 22, 2009, around the time Saturn experienced its once-in-15-years equinox, the Cassini spacecraft imaged peculiar, cloud-like formations hovering above the gas giant's famous rings. The bright clouds contained luminous ice particles, a detailed analysis of the photographs revealed. During the equino...

14 November 2009
06:35 GMT

LCROSS Finds Water on the Moon

On October 9, NASA slammed its $79-million LCROSS space probe into the surface of the Moon, in a quest for discovering water-ice in the Cabeus Crater at the south pole. At the time, as the world watched this endeavor live, the impact crater and the ejection plume that the spent Centaurus rocket stage created as it im...

14 November 2009
03:14 GMT

NASA to Study the Effects of Radiation on Monkeys

Scientists at the American space agency are currently getting ready to perform a new series of radiation tests on a group of squirrel monkeys. The study will attempt to determine the possible effects that prolonged radiation exposure may have on astronauts during long-duration spaceflight to other planets, such as to...

12 November 2009
19:01 GMT

How a Lake Helps Space Exploration

The Pavilion Lake, in British Columbia, Canada, is arguably one of the most peculiar ones in the world. It features bacterium-built, coral-shape structures that are not similar to any others in the world, and that have not been subjected to attacks by snails, worms and other grazing animals. Because of these peculiar...

12 November 2009
10:36 GMT

NASA and ESA Sign Mars Agreement

A new “letter of intent” was recently signed in Washington DC, for the first time ever binding the Mars programs of the American space agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) together. With this step completed, engineers can move to creating joint missions that could bring about a new understand...

9 November 2009
03:42 GMT

LCROSS Impact Made People Stand Out for the Moon

In October, NASA deliberately crashed its Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) experiment on the south pole of the Moon, creating two impact craters. One of them was caused by the spent Centaurus rocket stage that the LCROSS instrument was carrying, while the second was made by the $79 million spacec...

7 November 2009
04:47 GMT

Teams Challenge NASA's Space Elevator Games

The idea of a space elevator started being popularized in the 1970s, although, at the time, it was looked at as being something next to impossible. Since then, advancements in modern technologies have brought this goal within reach. Of the hypothetical elements that would go into such a device, only the actual cable ...

6 November 2009
04:00 GMT

Russia to Dominate Nuclear Space Race

Top officials in the Russian Federation announced on Thursday that they gave their acceptance to a proposal stating that the country should pursue the development of a nuclear-powered spacecraft, which is currently set to fly as early as 2012. This would essentially leave the former Communist nation in charge of the ...

5 November 2009
10:52 GMT

Seasons Change on Mercury, MESSENGER Discovers

The American space agency's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) space probe is currently orbiting around in the inner solar system, on a course that will set it into Mercury's orbit in early 2011. The probe has just recently completed its third and final flyby of the inn...

4 November 2009
03:05 GMT

Lunar Lander Challenge Comes to an End

The 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize Challenge (LLC) has finally come to an end last week, as the final two teams tried their best to complete the first and second stages of the match-up. Already in the cards was Rockwall, Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace, a company that managed to complete both stages of th...

3 November 2009
11:02 GMT

Falcon 9 to Launch February 2

The private space company Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) has officially requested a February 2, 2010, launch window for its new Falcon 9 delivery system. The announcement has been made by the US Air Force's 45th Space Wing, which has recently released a launch-range forecast for the Cape Can...

3 November 2009
02:09 GMT

HTV Destroyed over the Pacific Ocean

The first of a new series of Japanese unmanned cargo spacecraft has recently concluded its first test flight to the International Space Station in total success. The H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV) undocked from the orbital lab on Friday, and began its atmospheric reentry on Sunday, when it burnt up high above the Pacific...

3 November 2009
01:28 GMT

Divers Find Large Dent in ARES I-X First Stage

The divers that were sent out to prepare the spent first stage of NASA's new ARES I-X test rocket for extraction from the Atlantic Ocean revealed that the base of the massive rocket had a huge dent in it. At this point, experts at the space agency haven't got a clue as to what may have caused the damage. Th...

30 October 2009
02:59 GMT

LRO Images Apollo Landing Site

Having recently maneuvered into its 50-kilometer mapping orbit around the Moon, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is now able to snap amazing, high-detail photos of features that have only been hinted at by other orbiters around the satellites until now. The switch from one orbit to the other took place ...

29 October 2009
11:10 GMT

Massive Haze Cloud Imaged over China

A recently-released image, captured by the American space agency's Aqua satellite, reveals a massive cloud of pollution and haze spreading over China, one of the fastest-developing countries in the world at this time. The massive amount of chemicals that are released in the air by its massive number of fossil fu...

29 October 2009
05:33 GMT

ARES I-X Test Flight Successfully Completed

Though some experts argued yesterday that the new suborbital test flight for the American space agency's ARES I-X rocket was not a complete success, the reality couldn't be farther from the truth, NASA says in a press release on its official website. According to the notice, the two-minute powered flight we...

29 October 2009
04:32 GMT

Beautiful Launch for NASA's ARES I-X

After yesterday's weather around the Kennedy Space Center did not allow for the prototype ARES I-X rocket to lift off, mission managers finally got a break in the weather today. Originally planned for 8 am EDT (1200GMT), the first launch of a new NASA rocket in more than 25 years took place at 1130 EDT (1530GMT)...

28 October 2009
12:06 GMT

EVE to Investigate the Sun's Subtle Variations

At first glance, it may be hard to believe that our Sun goes through a cycle of minimum and maximums every 11 years. In any day of the year, looking at the star in the skies reveals the same ball of light, with no discernible variations in its brightness. However, astrophysicists know that we are not able to observe ...

28 October 2009
06:42 GMT

Dark Energy Mission in Danger of Scrubbing

The Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) is a collaborative effort among a number of agencies in the United States and Europe, and was originally scheduled to scout for signs of dark energy, the force believed to be behind the ever-accelerating expansion of the Universe. NASA and the US Department of Energy (DOE) fail to...

28 October 2009
03:01 GMT

ARES I-X Test Flight Delayed by Bad Weather

Mission managers at the American space agency have just announced that they scrubbed the ARES I-X launch attempt that was scheduled for earlier today, on account of cloudy weather and powerful winds around the rocket. There were numerous attempts as the team tried to set the countdown clock rolling again, but there w...

27 October 2009
11:39 GMT

JPL Houses NASA 'Green' Building

In the presence of lawmakers and local dignitaries, officials at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, cut the ribbon on a new, environmentally friendly Flight Projects Center building at the lab today. The new structure is the American space agency's g...

27 October 2009
08:54 GMT

Weather May Delay ARES I-X Launch

According to a statement released by NASA officials yesterday, the new prototype ARES I-X rocket may not fly on Tuesday after all, if the weather over the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, does not clear up. After a number of delays and aborted test flights, the spacecraft, the first new delivery syst...

26 October 2009
02:52 GMT

ARES I-X to Launch Next Week

With the prototype ARES I-X rocket poised to launch next week, NASA is entering a crucial step in its test phase of the new ARES I delivery system, which is scheduled to lift the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle – the shuttle replacement – into the low-Earth orbit in 2015. A successful test on October 27 wo...

24 October 2009
02:41 GMT

Panel Report: NASA Should Team with the Private Sector

Yesterday, the review panel that US President Barack Obama appointed earlier this year to analyze the activity at the American space agency NASA at last released the final version of its report, a 156-page document. The main conclusions of the analysis are that the space agency is severely underfunded for Project Con...

23 October 2009
03:00 GMT

Saturn's Moons Reveal Strange Color Patches

Recent images of some of Saturn's moons have revealed strange patches of color on the surface of the five innermost natural satellites, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. Some of the unusual patterns have been seen before during previous flights, but others are totally new, the investigators for the miss...

20 October 2009
16:31 GMT


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