Tag: NASA
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Congress toes a cautious line on support for commercial space partnerships
An artist’s conception shows Axiom Space’s commercial space station. (Axiom Space via Vimeo) WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of Congress spoke to space industry leaders on Capitol Hill last week to show their support for the private sector, but both sides expressed frustrations as well. At the sixth annual Future Space conference, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, the…
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Photos: NASA’s TDRS-M satellite being readied for upcoming launch
CAPE CANAVERAL — With the Atlas 5 rocket that will boost it into space now assembled and waiting, a $408 million NASA communications satellite is in final preparations for its science data relay mission. The Tracking and Data Relay satellite-M, or TDRS-M, will be carried aloft by United Launch Alliance on Aug. 3 from Complex…
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By Jove! Juno orbiter snaps the greatest pictures of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is ready for its close-up in this processed image from NASA’s Juno orbiter. (NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran) The long-awaited close-ups of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot have arrived from NASA’s Juno orbiter, and they’re spectacular. Juno has been orbiting the giant planet for more than…
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NASA says it’s OK for VP Mike Pence to touch that hardware marked ‘Do Not Touch’
Even Vice President Mike Pence couldn’t resist tweeting a Photoshopped version of the “Do Not Touch” photo snapped during his visit to Kennedy Space Center. (@VP Mike Pence via Twitter) You know that viral photo of Vice President Mike Pence putting his hand on a piece of space hardware marked with a “Do Not Touch”…
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Vice President Mike Pence vows return to moon and ‘boots on Mars’ in NASA speech
Vice President Mike Pence addresses a gathering at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a prototype Orion spaceship as a backdrop. (NASA via YouTube) Vice President Mike Pence, the newly minted chairman of a revived National Space Council, said today that President Donald Trump is committed to a return to the moon and a…
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Recycled SpaceX Dragon capsule makes history with its second splashdown
The re-entry of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule shows up as an orange flash against the backdrop of a shadowed Earth in this view from the International Space Station. The station’s robotic arm is silhouetted against the atmosphere’s glow. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA Photo via Twitter / Jack Fischer) SpaceX already proved…
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President Trump signs his executive order to reactivate the National Space Council
President Donald Trump shows off an executive order reviving the National Space Council. NASA astronaut Alvin Drew, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Vice President Mike Pence, the council’s chairman, are at far right. (Shannon Augustus / C-SPAN via Twitter) After months of foreshadowing, President Donald Trump today signed an executive order to revive the…
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Systima gets a piece of the action for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Space Launch System in flight. (NASA Illustration) When NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket starts carrying astronauts beyond Earth orbit in the 2020s, it’ll also be carrying a key component built by Kirkland, Wash.-based Systima Technologies. Systima will be responsible for providing a 27.6-foot-wide, ring-shaped joint assembly that separates the…
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Video: Bringing NASA’s TDRS-M satellite to Florida
Go behind the scenes to see the labor it takes to deliver a satellite to its launch base. In this case, an Air Force C-17 lands at the regional airport in Titusville after a cross-country flight on June 23 carrying NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M from the Boeing factory in Los Angeles. Workers then…
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MSNW’s plasma thruster just might fire up Congress at hearing on space propulsion
Pulsed power units are arrayed around the business end of MSNW’s thruster. (MSNW Photo) How will we send humans to the moon, Mars and other destinations in space? The chances are good that electric propulsion will play a role, and a company called MSNW is at the cutting edge of that technology. The director of…