Tag: Ames Research Center

  • SpaceX cargo launch slips a day after rodent experiment snag

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    File photo of a SpaceX Dragon capsule in orbit. Credit: NASA NASA has announced a one-day delay in SpaceX’s next cargo launch until Wednesday to allow time for ground teams to replace moldy food bars meant for 40 mice heading for the International Space Station as part of a biological research experiment, denying the launch…

  • NASA says goodbye to Kepler planet-hunter

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    Artist’s concept of the Kepler observatory. Credit: NASA Ground controllers have beamed the final commands to NASA’s Kepler telescope, turning off the spacecraft’s transmitters and disabling the craft’s automatic recovery software after the planet-hunting observatory ran out of fuel last month. The last signals to Kepler were broadcast from a control center at the Laboratory for…

  • NASA’s trailblazing Kepler telescope ends planet hunt

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    This illustration depicts NASA’s exoplanet hunter, the Kepler space telescope. Credits: NASA/Wendy Stenzel/Daniel Rutter NASA’s Kepler telescope has run out of fuel and ended science operations, closing out a pioneering decade-long mission that showed planets are commonplace across our galaxy, agency officials said Tuesday. The observatory’s supply of hydrazine has run low for months, but…

  • Dwindling fuel levels and a balky thruster can’t keep Kepler down

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    Artist’s concept of the Kepler spacecraft. Credit: NASA After downloading science data and bypassing a balky thruster, NASA’s Kepler mission has resumed its search for planets around other stars after a two-month pause in observations, but engineers expect the spacecraft to soon run out of fuel. NASA said in a statement Wednesday that the Kepler…

  • Kepler adds 1,284 exoplanets to its total

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This artist’s concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Credits: NASA/W. Stenzel A statistical analysis of data collected by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope during its initial mission shows a better than 99 percent chance that 1,284 worlds previously classified as “candidates”…

  • Kepler telescope recovered from spacecraft emergency

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    Artist’s concept of the Kepler observatory with survey regions highlighted in the sky. Credit: NASA NASA’s Kepler planet-searching spacecraft is stable and out of emergency mode, officials said Monday, and the observatory is downlinking data to help engineers determine what caused it to suspend science operations last week. “On Sunday morning, the spacecraft reached a…

  • Kepler space telescope in emergency mode

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    Artist’s concept of the Kepler observatory. Credit: NASA Mission controllers are trying to diagnose a problem that put NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting observatory in emergency mode nearly 75 million miles from Earth this week. Circling the sun in an orbit just outside Earth’s, Kepler is in an extended mission searching for worlds around other stars. Engineers…

  • Airborne researchers catch up with falling space debris

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    Stationed aboard a Gulfstream business jet over the Indian Ocean, an international team of scientists observed a mysterious fragment of space junk falling through Earth’s atmosphere Friday years after it was discarded on a deep space mission. Astronomers saw the re-entry, which was predicted after the object’s rediscovery in early October, as a prime research…

  • Roving chunk of space junk plunging back to Earth

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    WT1190F on Nov. 3. Credit: Bill Ryan at Magdalena Ridge Observatory. A long-lost fragment of space debris is falling toward Earth for a searing re-entry over the Indian Ocean on Friday, but the widely-watched event poses no risk to people. Nevertheless, aviation and maritime authorities have cautioned pilots and sailors to steer clear of the…

  • Hawaii’s first satellite launch set for Tuesday

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    The Super Strypi launch vehicle is fastened to a rail launch system at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Credit: U.S. Air Force U.S. military authorities have granted approval for liftoff Tuesday of a simplified satellite launcher from Hawaii on a test flight officials say will help drive down the costs of sending…