Tag: Astrophysics
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Live coverage: NASA planet-hunting satellite launched by SpaceX
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”NASA TV”] [tabby title=”SpaceX Webcast”] [tabby title=”SFN Clean Feed”] [tabbyending]
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SpaceX rocket test-fired at Cape Canaveral for NASA telescope launch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, without its payload fairing or the satellite passenger, fired its nine Merlin 1D booster engines for several seconds Wednesday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now SpaceX’s launch team loaded super-chilled liquid propellants into a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday and fired the booster’s nine first stage…
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Webb telescope’s launch delayed until 2020
The James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror and instrument section, known as the Optical Telescope element and Integrated Science (OTIS) module, is unpacked from its shipping container after arriving at Northrop Grumman’s satellite factory in Redondo Beach, California, earlier this year. JWST’s sunshield is visible at left. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn Blaming a slew of technical snags…
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NASA delays Webb Space Telescope’s liftoff to 2020, says it may bust $8B budget
An artist’s conception shows the James Webb Space Telescope with its five-layered, foldable sunshield. Issues with the sunshield have contributed to launch delays. (NASA Illustration) NASA is delaying the scheduled launch of its next flagship observatory, the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, by a year — which may hike its cost so high that Congress…
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Space Launch System, planetary exploration get big boosts in NASA budget
Artist’s illustration of the Space Launch System. Credit: NASA NASA’s planned rocket to send humans back to the moon and the agency’s solar system exploration program were big winners in a $20.7 billion budget passed by Congress and signed by President Trump on Friday. The NASA funding was part of a $1.3 trillion federal spending…
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Exoplanet telescope selected as ESA’s next space science mission
Artist’s concept of the ARIEL space telescope. Credit: UCL A mission to investigate the atmospheres of planets around other stars has been selected by the European Space Agency for launch in the late 2020s, officials announced this week. The space telescope will observe 1,000 exoplanets, using a spectrometer to measure the chemical make-up of their…
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Exoplanet-hunting satellite arrives in Florida for April launch
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is pictured inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after arriving Feb. 12. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final testing, fueling and attachment to a Falcon 9 launcher for liftoff in…
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Trump budget aims to kick-start lunar exploration, cancels space telescope
Artist’s concept of NASA’s proposed deep space station near the moon. Credit: NASA The White House’s $19.9 billion NASA budget outline released Monday would continue development of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule and begin the deployment of a mini-space station around the moon as soon as 2022, but the proposal…
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James Webb Space Telescope completes critical end-to-end test
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The James Webb Space Telescope emerged from Chamber A at Johnson Space Center on Dec. 1. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn NASA’s $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope has completed critical end-to-end testing in a giant vacuum chamber at the Johnson Space Center, proving the telescope will work properly in…
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Gravitational waves get to play a starring role in ‘Black Hole Apocalypse’ on TV
A disk of superheated debris blazes around a black hole. The bright circular pattern is caused by the gravitational lensing of light from the part of the disk that’s behind the black hole. (NOVA via YouTube) Black holes are the collapsed stars of the show on “Black Hole Apocalypse,” a two-hour “NOVA” presentation that’s premiering…