Tag: NASA
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NASA funds small-business ideas ranging from AI medicine to plumbing for the moon
Astronauts can perform basic medical checks on the International Space Station, but crews heading to Mars may need to do more complicated medical procedures without the ability to communicate in real time with Mission Control back on Earth. A system being developed by Redmond, Wash.-based Retrocausal could serve as an AI-generated medical assistant. (NASA Photo)…
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Boeing powers up first SLS Core Stage for Green Run system checkouts
Boeing powered up the Core Stage for the first Space Launch System on the B-2 Test Stand at the NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi last week following a long stand down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first Core Stage is at the outdoor facility for a Green Run test campaign that culminates in…
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Canadarm3 to support Lunar Gateway space station
Canada is marching forward with its international partners to establish a permanent research installation near the Moon, the Lunar Gateway. As it did for the Shuttle and Station programs before, the Canadian Space Agency, via a partnership with MacDonald, Dettwiler, and Associates, Inc., will build the next-generation robotic system: Canadarm3. This smart robotic system will…
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Dream Chaser receives thermal protection system, on track for 2021 debut
The Sierra Nevada Corporation has announced its Louisville, Colorado production center has received the Thermal Protection System tiles for Tenacity, the first space-worthy Dream Chaser, and has started bonding them to the vehicle. This is another major milestone Tenacity has reached as she walks down the path to her first launch to the International Space…
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NASA developing plans to fly astronauts on suborbital rockets
File photo of a New Shepard launch. Credit: Blue Origin NASA says it is interested in flying astronauts and scientists on commercial suborbital vehicles, like those being tested by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, to provide additional training and research opportunities augmenting missions to the orbiting International Space Station. The space agency announced this week…
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NASA studying practice rendezvous options for Artemis 2 Orion
NASA is studying the addition of an Orion rendezvous demonstration to the Artemis 2 test flight to reduce overall mission risks to the subsequent Artemis 3 lunar landing from first-time operations. The Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) is working with its Artemis Programs to evaluate some of the trade-offs from a range of…
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NASA lays out a plan to qualify suborbital spacecraft for its astronauts and scientists
Blue Origin employees test procedures for getting spacefliers into the New Shepard suborbital spaceship at the company’s launch facility in West Texas. (Blue Origin via YouTube) NASA says it’ll formulate a plan to assess the safety of suborbital spacecraft — such as Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship or Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane —…
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SLS booster segments arrive in Florida, but stacking on hold until core stage test
The 10 booster segments for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System travel across a bridge between Titusville, Florida, and the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, June 15. Credit: Northrop Grumman Fueled segments of the solid rocket boosters that will lift off on the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System have arrived at…
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Station marks milestone with creation of fifth state of matter in space
Aboard the International Space Station, Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken are preparing for two spacewalks that will finish a multi-year battery replacement operation outside the ISS. The new batteries will increase the outpost’s overall electrical efficiency and aid Station science utilization, which recently allowed scientists to create the fifth element of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate,…
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Virgin Galactic and NASA make a deal on services for private orbital astronauts
Seattle software billionaire Charles Simonyi took two privately funded trips to the International Space Station, in 2007 and 2009, with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft serving as his transport. (NASA photo) Virgin Galactic says it has signed an agreement with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas to develop a new readiness program for private-sector astronauts heading…