Tag: NASA
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Video: When Juno launched to begin 5-year trek to Jupiter
Juno left the Earth atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Aug. 5, 2011, beginning its journey to Jupiter atop the most powerful Atlas variant with five side-mounted boosters. Liftoff occurred at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT) from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After traveling more than 1.7 billion miles, Juno arrives…
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NASA extends New Horizons mission to Kuiper Belt, tells Dawn to stay at Ceres
Artwork shows the New Horizons probe flying by a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69. (Credit: NASA) Almost a year after New Horizons’ unprecedented flyby of Pluto, NASA has given the official go-ahead for the probe to fly past another icy object in the Kuiper Belt in 2019. At the same time, the space agency…
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Juno meets Jupiter: NASA’s giant mission to the giant planet hits its climax on video
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. (Credit: NASA / SwRI) Everything about NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter is big: the destination (giant planet, duh!), the cost ($1.1 billion), the travel time (five years to cruise 1.8 million miles), even the solar panels (totaling 635 square feet in area, about the size…
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It’s a blast! NASA’s booster for heavy-lift SLS rocket gets final pre-launch test firing
Orbital ATK’s solid-rocket booster is in the midst of a test firing in Utah. (Credit: NASA) The solid-rocket booster that’s destined to help send future NASA missions into deep space has blasted through its last full-scale test firing in advance of 2018’s maiden launch of the heavy-lift SLS rocket. Today’s two-minute, six-second firing at Orbital ATK’s test…
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NASA considers turning Curiosity rover into a scout for water on Mars mountain
This selfie of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at a drilled sample site called “Okoruso,” on the Naukluft Plateau of lower Mount Sharp. The scene combines several images taken with the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager on May 11. NASA says one of the Curiosity rover’s future tasks could be to check out sites…
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NASA picks Firmamentum to build a 3-D printer/recycler for use in space
TUI/Firmamentum’s Positrusion device turns 3-D-printed items back into plastic filament. The recycler would be paired with a 3-D printer in Firmamentum’s Refabricator. (Credit: Tethers Unlimited) Firmamentum, a division of Tethers Unlimited Inc. in Bothell, Wash., says it has won $750,000 in NASA funding to build a combination 3-D printer and plastic recycler for the International…
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Former NASA space station manager makes plans for commercial outpost
An artist’s conception shows the potential configuration for a commercial space station. (Credit: Axiom Space via YouTube) Former space station manager Mike Suffredini says he’s working on a plan to send up a commercial space module that could be attached to the International Space Station – and then disattached to become the foundation for a private-sector outpost…
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What a view! Space station trio sails home through picture-perfect clouds
A Russian Soyuz craft descends through the clouds toward its landing in Kazakhstan, bringing a U.S.-Russian-British crew back down to Earth. (Credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA) Three spacefliers from the International Space Station made a photogenic return to Earth today, touching down in the steppes of Kazakhstan. The landing marked the end of a 186-day…
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Jeff Bezos says a big government ‘prize’ could generate more public interest in space exploration
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, right, shares the stage with former astronaut Maj. Gen. Michael Collins. (Via NASA / YouTube) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos thinks the government could offer “a very large prize” as an incentive to parties involved in the modern space race as a way to generate competition and spur public interest. Bezos’…
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Videos: Delta 4-Heavy launch flashback
Get a preview of Thursday’s United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket flight in these video highlights packages from previous missions by the big booster for NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA’s Exploration Flight Test — Cape Canaveral (2014) NROL-15 — Cape Canaveral…