NASA

NASA NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is designed to make the first close-up study of Pluto and its moons and other icy worlds in the distant Kuiper Belt. Life is tough these days at NASA, the space agency that can’t launch anyone into space. It wrestles with basic questions: Where to go? How to get there? When? And for what purpose? It killed a plan to return to the moon and now is building a jumbo rocket to go to … well, it’s unclear. Maybe to an asteroid: a rock to be named later...Read Full Story

Okay, I’m not proud of it, and there seems to be so much of it you cant help but watch it sometimes. I’m talking about reality TV. I don’t watch anything in particular, but for some reason if its playing in the background while I’m working, I get sucked in.. I haven’t seen more than one or 2 episodes of any show, and I never tell anyone I’ve seen even a single episode, but I have… there’s almost no way around it. How how about THIS kind of reality? Two Russian cosmonauts will conduct a five...Read Full Story

NASA has a knack for making stuff that lasts a lot longer than it thinks it will . This is a good thing, of course, except that missions are often only funded for a set period of time, and NASA occasionally ends up with perfectly good spacecraft and not enough money to keep them operating. There may be one way to save them, though: giving them away. View full post on DVICERead Full Story

U.S. Space Science Confronts New Economic Reality : The Hubble space telescope floats above the Earth. Astronomers are worried. It’s not some new unexplained mystery of the universe or the upcoming launch of a space telescope that is unnerving them, though. The problems they currently face are much more down-to-Earth — and the future of space exploration hangs in the balance. The anxiety stems from the fact that astronomy, especially space-based astronomy, is just plain expensive. And with...Read Full Story

Read More:- NASA Moon Outpost NASA Moon Outpost , NASA is pushing for a plan to establish “human-tended waypoint” near the far side of the moon — one that would embrace international partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation, SPACE.com reported Friday. A team is being formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a spot in space known as the Earth-moon libration point 2 (EML-2), website reported, citing a Feb. 3 memo from William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate...Read Full Story

NASA is looking for at least two American companies to design and build a new “space taxi” to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station , the space agency announced yesterday. The effort is part of NASA’s new Integrated Design Project (IDC). The space agency plans to invest $300 million to $500 million into each of the companies chosen under new 21-month partnership agreements, said Ed Mango, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, at an industry briefing at the...Read Full Story

Moon explorations have been carried out not only by the U.S. and Russia but also countries from Asia including Japan, China and India. Even the European Space Agency has also sent robotic spacecraft to the moon. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of NASA is most likely the most productive among all moon explorations as it already gathered almost a million pictures on the surface of the moon that are so vivid, even a coffee table can be seen in the midst of boulders. Citizen science program...Read Full Story

It is easy to view and see the International Space Station (ISS), you only need to know where to look and what to look for. The near space around us is constantly active. Dozens of satellites circle the earth in different orbits. Many satellites can be viewed from Earth shortly after sunset or sunrise. Satellites do not shine their own light, but can be seen as they reflect the bright sun light. Despite the difference between a satellite and an airplane, it is possible to confuse between...Read Full Story

Findings further efforts to better predict geomagnetic storms in space UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt, using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft. In a paper published today in the journal Nature Physics, the team shows that the missing electrons are swept away from the planet by a tide of solar wind particles during periods of heightened solar activity. "This is an important milestone in...Read Full Story

A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon. MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students nationwide to select lunar images for study.  South pole of the far side of the moon as seen from the GRAIL mission’s Ebb spacecraft.  Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech    GRAIL consists of two identical spacecraft, recently named Ebb...Read Full Story