Space

The word "planet" has meant many different things over the millennia and even still its definition is evolving.

Scientists say they've found an efficient way to make red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells, a possible step toward making transfusion supplies in the laboratory.

Researchers say children who speak those languages that don't include words for more than one or two are still able to compare quantities

Nearly a century after history's most lethal flu faded away, survivors' bloodstreams still carry super-potent protection against the 1918 virus, demonstrating the remarkable durability of the human immune system.

A new map of the halo of stars that surrounds our Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a complicated structure of crisscrossing stellar streams, many of which have never been detected before.

Cassini spots sources of icy plumes on Enceladus.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey results ID smaller stellar streams and dwarf galaxies in Milky Way's halo.

A changing magnetic field could expose satellites to damaging radiation storms.

State media reported Iran launched a rocket intended to carry a satellite.

An Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched Japanese and US satellites.

Air Force optimistic about meeting schedule to select design for the rescue helicopter despite negative IG report

ACI-NA supports port authority plan to block flights gained through FAA auction of slots at the New York area airports.

A net decrease of 0.3 percent came from scaling back the C-5 RERP program and the cancellation of the ERM.

Production rate believed at only 10 aircraft per month as key suppliers hold up shipments pending past-due invoices.

FAA is standing by its $10.2 million fine against Southwest that grounded some of its 737s this year.

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 19, 2008 - On August 14, Poland and the United States signed an agreement on the deployment of 10 ground-based missile interceptors (GBIs) on Polish territory.

Kolkata, India (UPI) Aug 18, 2008 - India's new Defense Procurement Procedure, unveiled early this month, like its predecessor focuses on vitalizing India's indigenous defense capabilities and moving away from the decades-old practice of importing almost all its defense requirements.

Washington (UPI) Aug 18, 2008 - The Cold War is back -- but it is already getting dangerously hot. Russia did not wait even a day after the announcement that Poland had agreed to station 10 U.S. anti-ICBM Ground-Based Mid-course Interceptors on its territory before announcing it would target Poland with its own missiles in response.

Hengelo, Greece (SPX) Aug 19, 2008 - On 2 June the new ESSM (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile) control capability on board of the Hellenic Navy's HS Salamis of the Hydra class proved to be successful.

Iranian officials claim their rocket launch was a test to send a satellite to space.

A coming lunar eclipse could strip the China's lunar satellite of its energy supply.

Ready your telescope: A partial lunar eclipse will be visible across the world on Saturday.

NASA pushes back the launch of the Orion spacecraft by one year.

A prototype spaceship abandoned by NASA is now in the hands of the U.S. Air Force.

APG-77 AESA Test AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radars offer a number of improvements over previous-generation technologies. They are more sensitive. They have better operational... [summary]

AARGM Concept (click to view full) The AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) is a medium range, supersonic, air-launched tactical missile whose primary job is to attack and kill... [summary]

C-20, ready (click to view full) Northrop Grumman Technical Services, Inc., of Herndon, VA received a $252.3 million firm-fixed-price C-20 Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) follow-on contract. The... [summary]

Amazon patrol (click to view full) After a public bidding process, Embraer and the Chilean Air Force (FACH) signed a contract for 12 EMB 314 Super Tucano advanced turboprop trainers and light attack... [summary]

The entire fleet (click to view full) The prime missions of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyer are to provide naval gunfire support and next-generation air defense in near-shore areas where other... [summary]

Michael Phelps of the United States has now won more Olympic gold medals than any athlete in the modern era, thanks to a new fabric tested in NASA Langley's 7-...

NASA's Kennedy Space Center will be closed Tuesday, Aug. 19, because of the potential threat from Tropical Storm Fay. Current plans call for the center to be closed for 24...

Our Guide to Weather, Rachelle Oblack, does a great job of telling the story of TIROS - World's First Weather Satellite. TIROS stands for Television Infrared Observation Satellite. Rachelle says, "Launched...

After missing a couple of weeks, our Friday Question has returned. If you enjoy this feature, please be sure to support...

Paul Sutherland, of Skymania News, discusses the hype around NASA's recent announcement that the Phoenix probe had identified water vapour on Mars. He feels NASA is trying to stir up...

NASA has set 21 August as the first opportunity for Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to launch...

In this exclusive photograph from the Rocket Racing League (RRL), Armadillo Aerospace's liquid oxygen (LOX),...

The European Space Agency is to spend up to €100,000 ($150,300) developing and validating guidance approaches and guidance algorithms for a future European...

NASA has requested propulsion proposals for its $80 million Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer...

A final series of rocket engine test firings that could lead to low-altitude flights are being prepared by Mojave air and spaceport-based Interorbital...

Sen. Barack Obama released a comprehensive space policy Saturday that endorsed sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020 as a possible precursor for going to Mars -- the first time he has committed to that goal -- and said the reach for the stars should be a U.S.-led international effort.

NASA has delayed the launch of an unmanned spacecraft to the moon to scout for potential landing sites for astronauts.

The Russian invasion of Georgia may have claimed an unexpected victim: U.S. access to the international space station.

Gov. Charlie Crist called a plan to beef up an abandoned launchpad for commercial use "historic" and said Monday that he was as confident as ever about the future of Florida's Space Coast.

NASA is not properly emphasizing safety in its design of a new spaceship, and its return-to-the-moon program faces money, morale and leadership problems, an agency safety panel found Monday.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center is expected to reopen at noon Wednesday after closing Tuesday as a result of high winds and heavy rains from Tropical Storm Fay, which battered Brevard County for most of the day and late into the night.In addition to KSC, both Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base are closed to all but "mission essential personnel." The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex also remained closed Tuesday.All three are expected to reopen Wednesday after the storm passes. KSC told workers they could return around noon. The storm is expected to be off the coast of…

NASA aims to add a shock absorber system to Ares 1 rockets to reduce significant vibrations that could shake Orion spacecraft and astronaut crews on missions to the moon and the International Space Station, agency officials said today.A spring-and-damper ring will separate the first and second stages of the slender rocket, and 16 actuators that act like shock absorbers will be added to the bell-shaped aft skirt at the bottom of the rocket.The system will reduce vibrations that would jackhammer astronauts aboard Orion spacecraft for a short time around 115 seconds into flight, potentially…

The U.S. Air Force is calling in only "mission essential" personnel to Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday -- a move made in anticipation of the threat from Tropical Storm Fay.Mission essential personnel are defined as all personnel required to take care of Air Force operational and installation assets during the passage of the storm.All other personnel are supposed to "shelter in place" -- stay home, that is -- and remain in contact with their supervisors. Air Force 45th Space Wing personnel should call 494-4636 or 1-800-470-7232 -- for updates on the…

NASA is keeping track of Tropical Storm Fay and will make a decision early Tuesday on whether Kennedy Space Center will remain open or close due to threatening weather from the storm.A decision will come at 5 a.m. Tuesday, and the 14,000 NASA civil service and contractor employees who work at the center can call the following numbers for a status report in the morning: 861-7900 or toll-free at 1-866-572-4877.Liberal leave will be in effect for all employees.Senior KSC managers met early this evening and were briefed on the latest weather forecast. Meteorological models show the storm track…

Senior managers will meet late this afternoon to determine whether Kennedy Space Center will be open or closed on Tuesday. Forecasters expect sustained winds of 50 mph to 60 mph to reach the spaceport by Tuesday morning or afternoon -- depending on the speed of the storm. Meteorological models today indicated a possible shift to the east in the projected storm track -- conditions that would bring high winds to the KSC area. A tropical storm warning now extends from Cocoa Beach southward, and a trpoical storm watch was issued for the area from the Brevard-Volusia County line to…

The presidential campaign battle over NASA has come to resemble a high-stakes poker game, with John McCain and Barack Obama steadily upping the ante in a bid to appear the closer friend of the U.S. space agency.

The additional NASA funding and shuttle mission are being pushed strongly by Democrats and Republicans from Texas and Florida.

Russia's military campaign in Georgia could have repercussions far beyond its borders, jeopardizing the U.S.-Russian partnership for manning the international space station in the next decade.

NASA's ability to send its astronauts to the $100 billion international space station is in danger of becoming a costly casualty of the Russia-Georgia war.

After a month of deliberations, NASA decided today against moving up the launch dates for two fall shuttle flights, including the October mission of the shuttle Atlantis and a crew of seven astronauts to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope.

Tehran (AFP) Aug 18, 2008 - Iran said on Monday that a home-built rocket sent into space in a move that triggered US concern over possible military use will be able to take a satellite into low orbit around the earth.

Tehran, Iran (RIA Novosti) Aug 19, 2008 - Iran will launch its first satellite in the nearest few days, the country's president said on Saturday.

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Aug 19, 2008 - With average temperatures of minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, an almost nonexistent atmosphere and a complex web of cracks in a layer of ice encompassing the entire surface, the environment on Jupiter's moon Europa is about as alien as they come.

Caracas (AFP) Aug 18, 2008 - China is to launch Venezuela's first satellite in November which will serve to relay telecommunications data and television signals over Latin America, President Hugo Chavez said.

We've all wondered at some point or another what mysteries our Solar System holds. After all, the eight planets (plus Pluto and all those other dwarf planets) orbit within a very small volume of the heliosphere (the volume of space dominated by the influence of the Sun), what's going on in the rest of the volume we call our home? As we push more ro

This reminds me of an idiot from St. Louis who was walking next to us in Amsterdam, and starting talking to us, and was interrupted by a man offering to rent us a room. Mr. Tact from St. Louis yells "I said no motherfucker" and the man looks at all 3 of us and says "Go home yankees, stupid fuckin americans!" Thank God the St. Louis guy vanished.

This false-color view of the Cartwheel galaxy was created by combining images captured by 4 space telescopes:Galaxy Evolution Explorer,Hubble Space Telescope,Spitzer Space Telescope,and Chandra X-ray Observatory.Astronomers think a smaller galaxy,possibly one of two galaxies(bottom left),passed through the center of the Cartwheel galaxy 100 M years

The Russian Proton rocket aims to prove its reliability on Monday by putting into orbit one of the biggest commercial satellites ever built.

We're already building or assembling massive structures in space — like the International Space Station and Dextre, the "monster" robot that got built in space this past spring — but space construction will soon become more and more common. And science fiction stories, from Isaac Asimov to Star Trek, show the way.

Astronauts on NASA's future Ares I rocket should get a smooth ride to space thanks to a two-tiered system of shock-absorbing springs

If you took a stab at renaming NASA's gamma-ray telescope earlier this year, now's your chance to see whether the agency took your suggestion seriously. After asking the public to suggest a new name for GLAST, NASA is set to...

Dense, compact galaxies in the early universe more than doubled their size in a short time – astronomers are struggling to explain how

The vents from which icy geysers erupt on Enceladus are revealed in new images – the vents' position changes over time

As the US election heats up, aspiring presidential candidates have turned their attention to Florida, where the shuttles are launched, and are pressing to clarify their positions on space exploration.Democratic hopeful Barack Obama released a seven-page position statement (pdf) on...

What if you woke up one morning and found your whole planet had been swallowed by the atmosphere of a star? Don't laugh, it could happen to you, and NASA has a special program to deal with it.

NASA scientists are preparing to launch a "flying tractor" with microwave sensors to explore the nitty-gritty realm beneath your feet.

There are places on the Moon where the sun hasn't shined for millions of years, inky-dark places that may harbor a treasure of great value. NASA's is about to light one of them up.

Have you ever stared up at the night sky, felt a gentle breeze, and wished you could set sail for the stars? Get in line. Many great thinkers from history have had the same idea. This long-held fancy could soon become reality with one solar sail mission on the drawing board and another already on the launching pad, slated to blast off this summer.

This Friday, August 1st, millions of people in China will witness a well-publicized total eclipse of the sun. Less widely reported is the partial eclipse, which *billions* of people across a quarter of the globe can observe and enjoy.

Thrust Oscillation Actuators. Credit: NASA NASA will add a system engineers equated to shock absorbers to Ares 1 rockets to reduce significant vibrations that could shake Orion spacecraft and astronaut crews during early stages of the flight. Earlier, engineers had determined that at about 115 seconds into the flight, the Ares rocket would vibrate for about 5 seconds, enough to potentially make it difficult for crews to read console displays. To mitigate what's called thrust oscillation, engineers have proposed an active tuned mass absorber that would detect the frequency and amplitude…

Phoenix Telltale. credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Uof Arizona More early morning frost is showing up on the Phoenix spacecraft. The Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) took several pictures of the "Telltale" on the Phoenix Mars Lander, the device used to measure wind velocities at the landing site on Mars and created a movie of bright specks of frost accumulating on the mirror of the Telltale. The movie was created from a series of images taken by the Surface Stereo Imager (SSI)between 12:54 a.m. and 2:34 a.m. during the 80th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Aug. 15, 2008 here on Earth).

Kennedy Space Center (Google) Topical Storm Fay has made landfall along Florida's southwest coastline and is working inland. Officials at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have decided to close down operations for 24 hours as a precautionary measure. Kennedy's 15,000 staff have been instructed to stay at home, although a small number of emergency personnel remain on site to monitor the storm's effect on the space complex. The Kennedy Visitor Center has also been closed. Fay had been forecast to make landfall as a much more powerful entity and there were concerns that the winds…

Spaceship of the future? Credit: 3Dtotal.com Currently, launching 1 pound (.5 kilogram) of payload to space costs about $5,000 USD, so every little bit helps if engineers can cut down on the weight of the spacecraft. Scientists from the University of Michigan have patented their ideas for cutting down the size and weight of the thrusters used in space to maneuver and control the spacecraft. Usually these thrusters are fairly big; they can be as big as a refrigerator. But the new thrusters, called nano-thrusters, could be made into flat, low weight sheets and mounted on the sides of…

Top 10 (unofficial) solar system mysteries (NASA) We've all wondered at some point or another what mysteries our Solar System holds. After all, the eight planets (plus Pluto and all those other dwarf planets) orbit within a very small volume of the heliosphere (the volume of space dominated by the influence of the Sun), what's going on in the rest of the volume we call our home? As we push more robots into space, improve our observational capabilities and begin to experience space for ourselves, we learn more and more about the nature of where we come from and how the planets have…

Europe's space agency reached two milestones earlier this year. A European-built lab was installed at the International Space Station, and Europe launched a robotic cargo vehicle that successfully docked with the station. The European Space Agency is thinking about converting the vehicle so it could take astronauts into orbit.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The conflict with Russia over Georgia might affect NASA's ability to get astronauts to the international space station after the space shuttle gets retired in 2010. Congress must pass a special waiver by Sept. 30 so NASA can buy Soyuz capsule flights.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Researchers say that if the conditions had been slightly different for our solar system, planets could have careened into the sun or been expelled into deep space. Also: A volunteer astronomer spots a strange gaseous object some are calling a "cosmic ghost."» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected a salt found on Earth on the surface of Mars. The salt, called perchlorate, is used in fireworks and rocket fuel. The news follows the recent confirmation of the presence of water on the Red Planet.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

A private company called SpaceX has failed three times to reach orbit with one of its rockets. But the company says it's learning from its failures and still hopes to radically decrease the cost of putting objects in space.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The last couple of weeks has seen a flurry of activity on space policy issues from the two major presidential candidates. Jeff Foust reports on the policy statements made by both campaigns as well as a recent debate on space issues by representatives of the campaigns.

Many commercial space ventures have grandiose visions and broad aims. Bob Clarebrough explains why these companies might be better off developing a much narrower focus that is easier to explain to and convince investors and to achieve market success.

Finding compelling rationales for government human spaceflight programs can be difficult. Greg Anderson argues that one explanation that might work is that, without such efforts, governments might be able to exercise little authority over private human expeditions and settlements beyond Earth.

Astronomers have discovered objects that appear to be from the distant Oort Cloud in orbits that come closer to the Sun than Neptune. Taylor Dinerman describes how NASA and partners could use those objects mount a mission to explore those distant icy bodies.

Last month NASA released a study which concluded the current Constellation architecture was superior to an alternative, DIRECT, that has been developed by some current and former NASA engineers. Stephen Metschan responds to that study and argues time is short to prevent the destruction of shuttle infrastructure that could be used by DIRECT.

In this week’s edition of The Space Review, I provide an overview of some of the space policy developments of the last week, including the McCain and Obama documents and the Garver-Cunningham debate. If you’ve been reading the posts here, there will not be much in the way of new information (other than some additional items from the debate and documents), but put together in an overarching theme that we’re learning more about the major candidates’ stances on space policy in this election than in any election in recent history. There are also some developments that…

Sorry to be a little late in the game on this (I’ve been traveling and dealing with flaky Internet access at a hotel) but the Obama campaign today formally released comprehensive space policy. By comprehensive: the document runs just over six full pages, and covers a wide range of issues. Some highlights: He formally signs off on one of the key milestones of the current Vision for Space Exploration: “He endorses the goal of sending human missions to the Moon by 2020, as a precursor in an orderly progression to missions to more distant destinations, including Mars.” Obama…

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is scheduled to speak in Florida’s Space Coast on Monday, with space policy likely to be among the topics he addresses. Among those looking forward to the speech are the editorial writers at Florida Today, who complain about “his deafening silence about the agency’s post-shuttle moon exploration plans” in an editorial Saturday. They note that McCain’s pledge to freeze non-defense discretionary spending “would slam NASA’s budget and cripple the Ares-Orion project to the point of possible death.” They…

The transportation gods were smiling on me Thursday, and I was able to make it to Boulder just in time for Thursday evening’s space policy debate at the annual Mars Society Convention at the University of Colorado. The debate pitted Lori Garver, representing the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham, representing Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The 90-minute debate didn’t produce a lot of new revelations, but did offer some insights into the campaign’s philosophies, particularly on the Obama side.

A Congressionally-mandated commission studying US national security space policy is recommending significant changes to how military and intelligence space efforts are run, AviationWeek.com reported today. The Allard Commission, named after retiring Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), who pushed for the commission, is calling for a major reorganization that would result in the abolition of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Air Force’s Space and Missiles Systems Center (SMC), and perhaps other organizations. In its place would be a new entity, the National Security Space Authority…

Obama Suggests $2 Billion In New Funding for NASA, Washington post "Sen. Barack Obama has detailed a comprehensive space plan that includes $2 billion in new funding to reinvigorate NASA and a promise to make space exploration and science a significantly higher priority if he is elected president. Campaigning in Florida yesterday, Sen. John McCain responded by telling business leaders that Obama has changed his position on some key questions of NASA funding in recent months and should not be trusted to support the program."

NASA Tests Launch Abort Parachute System - Releases Crash Photos   "NASA tested the parachutes for the recovery system on its Orion crew exploration vehicle above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona on July 31. The test proved unsuccessful when a test set-up parachute failed..." Editor's note: ... And the test vehicle crashed into the desert floor. Nowhere does NASA mention that the vehicle slammed into the desert floor or crashed. They just say that "the result was a landing that severely damaged the test mock-up." Nor has NASA issued a media advisory or a press release to alert…

NASA To Brief Media About Ares I Thrust Oscillation Plans "NASA will host a media teleconference on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 11:30 a.m. EDT, to discuss results and recommendations from the Ares I thrust oscillation focus team." Editor's note: Last week NASA decided to implement the so called "Option 2B Active Aft Skirt Reaction Mass Actuator (RMA) option" with "damping and isolation at the FS frustum/US region" in order to deal with the thrust oscillation problem with the current design of the Ares 1 launch vehicle. This decision is a hybrid of sorts between two earlier options - one called "Dual…

NASA's Kennedy Space Center Closes for Tropical Storm Fay "NASA's Kennedy Space Center will be closed Tuesday, Aug. 19, because of the potential threat from Tropical Storm Fay. Current plans call for the center to be closed for 24 hours, starting with workers' first-shift Tuesday morning. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex also is closed Tuesday. Kennedy managers are scheduled to meet again at 5 p.m. EDT to reevaluate the storm's status and its impact on the center." Tropical Storm Fay making landfall at Cape Romano, Orlando Sentinel "All hurricane warnings have been discontinued as…

McCain hears pleas to extend shuttle and accelerate Constellation, Orlando Sentinel "In one exchange with a top Lockheed Martin government relations executive, McCain pressed him for one solution to the gap. The executive, Adrian Lafitte, said increasing funding to speed the development of the new Ares rocket would be his top choice. Although, he and others pointed out alternatives that included funding a short-term solution using existing expendable rockets to launch NASA's proposed Orion spacecraft."

I have a very practical problem, and I’d like to get some opinions on it from this crowd.  My organization (Flight Dynamics Analysis Branch) at NASA does trajectory design and navigation work and in past years we’ve published end of year reports.  Usually, this report is sent out via email (or snail mail) to a particular distribution of individuals who are already connected (in some way) to our branch.  After a meeting today, we starting thinking about how we can get this information out to a wider audience.  Ultimately, we’d want anyone who thinks “how can I find…

I thought it was interesting that JSC decided to suspend operations for Tropical Storm Edouard. Yesterday was a blue-sky day, perfectly clear night. Then we had steady but light rain all day today. How has the 1.5 day hiatus affected your work? Will you be able to accomplish everything you needed to get done this week? (more…)

One morning this week on the way to work, I saw a truck with a “failure is not an option” bumper sticker. It got me thinking about the role of failure in my own life and at NASA. After all, I don’t know that there are many other phrases as closely associated with our organization! I appreciate the sentiment behind the statement, but I wonder if it is really such a good thing for a perspective like this to permeate our organization. Personally, I’m on the verge of taking on a new role as a supervisor at work. I know that what I want to do is to lead people; yet, a…

The young professionals’ panel at the 2008 International Civil Service Commission conference was a truly remarkable event.  Nick, Garret, and I met with our UN counterparts at United Nations Plaza 2, one of their main office buildings, to go over final preparations and introduce everyone face-to-face for the first time. We then crossed the street to enter the UN Headquarters grounds.  It’s hard for me to put in words even now the sense of honor and amazement I felt at being an invited guest there.  After we passed through security and were given our access passes, the group…

Last night (7/22/08), the JSC 20 Year Vision Team held a forum for all the JSC co-ops and interns (CS and contractors). For those who were able to make it…Thanks for coming!  We really enjoyed sharing the Vision with you and hearing all of your thoughts, comments, feedback, and concerns. (more…)