Tag: NASA
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Surprise! NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe catches asteroid spewing bits into space
This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on Jan. 19 was created by combining two images taken by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Other image processing techniques were applied, such as cropping and adjusting the brightness and contrast of each image. (NASA / Goddard / Univ. of Arizona / Lockheed Martin Photo) NASA’s OSIRIS-REx…
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Months after aborted flight, U.S.-Russian crew makes smooth trip to space station
A Russian Soyuz rocket lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending three spacefliers to the International Space Station. (NASA Photo / Bill Ingalls) NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin finally made it to the International Space Station today, five months after their first trip went awry. The two spacefliers were…
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NASA considers shifting a key test flight beyond the moon to commercial rockets
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule with its European Service Module placed beneath it and an upper stage powering it out of Earth orbit. (NASA Illustration) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate hearing today that his agency is looking into an option to double up commercial launch vehicles in order to…
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White House budget proposal tightens the screws on science, from space to salmon
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Space Launch System in flight. (NASA Illustration) The White House’s $4.7 trillion spending plan for fiscal year 2020 aims to give a boost to the Space Force, but would dial down work on NASA’s Space Launch System, zero out the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, leave salmon in the lurch…
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SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship splashes down at end of crucial space station trip
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship hits the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for splashdown. (NASA via YouTube) SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean today, ending a six-day uncrewed test run preparing the way for astronaut trips to the International Space Station later this year. Scorch marks were visible on the side of…
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship makes maiden flight with robo-rider named Ripley
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending its first Crew Dragon spaceship skyward with a spacesuit-wearing mannequin seated inside. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was sent into space atop a Falcon 9 rocket tonight, beginning a crucial test of a spaceship that’s destined to carry NASA astronauts to…
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UW researchers and Florida middle school students form unusual bond over cosmic kidney stones
A collaboration between this Florida middle school robotics team and the University of Washington is potentially “life changing,” according to a science teacher at the school. (Pahokee Middle School Photo) Eight students from a low-income sugarcane town in South Florida spent months on a robotics project tackling kidney stones in space. Across the country, researchers…
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NASA, SpaceX and a test dummy are ready for Dragon 2’s first trip to space station
An artist’s conception shows a Crew Dragon docking with the International Space Station. (SpaceX / NASA Illustration) NASA gave the all-clear today for the first test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station in a week, setting the stage for crewed missions later this year. There won’t be any crew aboard…
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New Horizons finds Ultima Thule has an unexpected, flattened shape
Scientists’ understanding of the shape of Ultima Thule, officially known as 2014 MU69, has changed since the New Horizons spacecraft’s Jan. 1 flyby. Imagery downlinked by the probe in recent weeks suggests Ultima Thule’s two lobes have a flatter shape than the spherical projection suggested by the flyby’s initial pictures. The dashed blue line marks…
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Artificial intelligence — and a few jokes — will help keep future Mars crews sane
A crew touches down on the Red Planet in “Mars,” a National Geographic miniseries that delves into the dynamics of future Mars crews. (Credit: National Geographic Channels) WASHINGTON, D.C. — When the first human explorers head for Mars, they’re likely to have a non-human judging their performance and tweaking their interpersonal relationships when necessary. NASA…