NASA announced an $18.7 billion budget request for fiscal year 2012 that supports a reinvigorated path of innovation, technological development and scientific discovery. The budget supports all elements of NASA’s 2010 Authorization Act, which was passed by a strong bipartisan majority of Congress and signed into law by President Obama. “This budget requires us to [...]
NASA’s Stardust-NExT spacecraft is nearing a celestial date with comet Tempel 1 at approximately 11:37 p.m. EST, on Feb. 14. The mission will allow scientists for the first time to look for changes on a comet’s surface that occurred following an orbit around the sun. The Stardust-NExT, or New Exploration of Tempel, spacecraft will take [...]
NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter has worked longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history. Odyssey entered orbit around Mars on Oct. 24, 2001 and today, the 3,340th day since that arrival, it passed the Martian career longevity record set by its predecessor, Mars Global Surveyor. Lockheed Martin also built and flew the Mars Global [...]
NASA researchers determined Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change. Researchers Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide. They reported an average warming rate of 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit [...]
Scientists revealed that a massive solar flare could paralyze Earth in 2013, causin blackouts and wreck satellite communications. It could mirror the Great Solar Flare of 1859. The announcement was made public during a conference by Dr Liam Fox, the Defense Secretary of England. This would be a once-in-a-century disaster that could cause global chaos, [...]
Would you like to see your house from up above? How about your continent? Well, if the answer is yes, Boeing is your partner in this – or better said will be, because the company plans to start its space tourism service by the year 2015. Boeing is planning to offer trips to low Earth [...]
NASA scientists say that the Moon may be shrinking – but it’s not disappearing, don’t be afraid! The scientists reached this conclusion after studying a series of pictures taken by a spacecraft orbiting our home planet’s closest neighbor. The pictures show a series of small cliffs that were risen while the Moon’s surface cooled over [...]
Gulf of Mexico oil spill: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is helping with the unprecedented effort to save wildlife from the effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The first group of hatchlings from endangered sea turtle eggs brought from beaches along the northern U.S. Gulf Coast was released into [...]
On Sunday, June 27, NASA will shut down the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 1 that launched into orbit during space shuttle Challenger’s maiden voyage (STS-6) in April 1983. From 1983 to 1998, TDRS-1 provided NASA with the ability to communicate with other satellites in orbit. NASA reassigned TDRS-1 in 1998 to support the [...]
Phoenix Mars Lander has ended operations after repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft were unsuccessful. A new image transmitted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows signs of severe ice damage to the lander’s solar panels. “The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime,” said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars [...]