Tag: NASA
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‘A Beautiful Planet’: Astronauts and space moviemakers reflect on film’s final frontier
NASA astronaut Terry Virts aims his camera through the Cupola, the best window on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA) “A Beautiful Planet” is a 3-D visual feast for the eyes, but the astronauts who filmed the IMAX space extravaganza made sure that’s not all it is. For example, NASA astronaut Terry Virts said he recalled…
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More frontiers lie ahead as International Space Station makes its 100,000th orbit
The International Space Station has circled Earth more than 100,000 times. (NASA photo) The International Space Station registered its 100,000th orbit around the planet today, providing NASA with a news hook for looking at what humanity’s farthest-out outpost has done over the past 17 years. “During that time, over 1,922 research investigations have been performed,” NASA said in…
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MSNW’s magnetoshell aerobraking system gets in on NASA’s way-out research fund
MSNW’s magnetoshell aerocapture concept could help ease spaceships into orbit. (Credit: MSNW) A system that would use magnetic fields to ease a spacecraft into orbit after an interplanetary journey has won a $500,000 grant from NASA’s advanced research program for MSNW, a company based in Redmond. Wash. The money for MSNW is one of eight…
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SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule splashes down, returning Scott Kelly’s samples
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule descends toward the Pacific at the end of its parachutes. (Credit: SpaceX) A month after delivering an expandable prototype habitat and other goodies to the International Space Station, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today with tons of equipment and scientific samples. Among the roughly 3,700 pounds of cargo are freezers…
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1,284 new worlds! Kepler mission doubles its tally of planets in one fell swoop
A graphic shows the diversity of planets. (Credit: NASA) The scientists behind NASA’s Kepler mission are using statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software that automates the process has verified 1,284 candidates as genuine planets rather than celestial “impostors,” more than doubling its database of confirmed worlds. “This is the…
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NASA keeps its eye on a trio of potentially habitable planets just 40 light-years away
An artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. (Credit: ESO) Three potentially habitable and definitely weird planets have been detected orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that’s 40 light-years away from Earth. They’re too far to visit anytime soon,…
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Environmental testing underway for JPSS 1 launching in January
The next American polar-orbiting weather satellite that will feed long-range forecasts and track environmental trends has slipped into space-like testing ahead of launch. The Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft No. 1 will be launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Jan. 20 at 1:47 a.m.…
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Job One for Aerojet’s future ion drive: Go out and get a piece of an asteroid
An artist’s concept shows a space probe powered by ion thrusters. (Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne) Aerojet Rocketdyne’s next-generation ion thrusters could well make their debut in space during NASA’s robotic mission to grab a piece of an asteroid and bring it back to lunar orbit in the 2020s. Earlier this week, NASA announced that Aerojet’s operation in Redmond, Wash., would be…
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An engine for Mars: Aerojet wins $67M NASA contract for solar electric propulsion
A prototype 13-kilowatt Hall thruster fires during testing at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The prototype demonstrated the technology readiness needed for industry to continue the development of high-power solar electric propulsion into a flight-ready system. (Credit: NASA) Aerojet Rocketdyne’s operation in Redmond, Wash., has won a $67 million contract from NASA to design and develop…
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Moon Village vs. Journey to Mars: Which space vision will the next president pick?
An artist’s conception shows a permanent lunar base that’s part of the European Space Agency’s “Moon Village” vision. (Credit: ESA) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Over the past eight years, the focus of NASA’s space vision has shifted from the moon, to a near-Earth asteroid, to the journey to Mars. The European Space Agency’s director-general, meanwhile,…