Etiket: NASA

Rocket and space shuttle contractors are orbiting U.S. space agency NASA, searching for the future of space flight through contracts that would privatize key missions. After the Space Shuttle Program completes its final flight this year, United Space Alliance (USA) — the Boeing-Lockheed-Martin joint venture presently charged with shuttle operations — hopes to keep the…

Faulty seals are NASA nemeses, bringing down the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, delaying the Shuttle Discovery’s launch late last year, and now hampering the space walking abilities of Shuttle Discovery astronaut Steve Bowen, whose space suit experienced a minor leak just before he set out to circumnavigate the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday. Mission…

A second high-profile failure in two days has helped make a bona-fide rough week for NASA. Workers enclose the spacecraft’s fairing in a non-flight environmental shield that will be removed before launch. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB The U.S. space agency’s Glory atmospheric research mission satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean Friday, one day after…

The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) is recommending planetary science missions for the decade 2013-2022 that could provide important new clues about our solar system. After sorting out budget issues, five expert panels selected research priorities through a rigorous review that included input from planetary sciences experts, town hall meetings, and a contractor who provided…

In a first-time ever maneuver, NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging space probe — aka “Messenger” — entered Mercury’s orbit Thursday. The sun’s closest planetary neighbor, Mercury is hot and harsh, presenting conditions no human astronaut could endure. The graphic shown here outlines in yellow the planned footprint for the first image to…

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft on Tuesday and Wednesday captured and delivered to Earth the first photographs of Mercury ever taken from within the planet’s orbit. The crater near the bottom of this image is a beautiful example of a relatively small, simple, fresh impact feature on Mercury. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of…