Tag: NASA
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‘Space sisters’ plan stratospheric eclipse balloon mission: Which Lego lady should they fly?
Rebecca and Kimberly Yeung are getting ready to fly their third balloon — this time alongside other citizen scientists. (Photo Courtesy of Winston Yeung) The Seattle sisters behind a series of missions to launch Lego toys into the stratosphere on high-altitude balloons are at it again. This time, they’re teaming up with the pros at…
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TDRS-M satellite and its Atlas 5 rocket shipped to Florida for launch campaign
NASA’s TDRS-M satellite arrives at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville, Florida, aboard a U.S. Air Force transport aircraft Friday at dawn. Credit: Kim Shiflett/NASA-KSC CAPE CANAVERAL — A space-bound NASA satellite was hauled aboard a military transport aircraft from a Southern California factory to the launch site in Florida on Friday and its United…
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Are asteroids leaving the spotlight? No way, say Asteroid Day activists
An artist’s concept shows asteroids zooming past Earth (NASA / Asteroid Day Illustration) NASA may be closing down its grand plan to study a piece of an asteroid up close, but the researchers who focus on near-Earth objects aren’t turning their backs on massive space boulders. They say it’s just a matter of time before…
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NASA and Honeywell boost supersonic flight by tackling sonic boom problem
An artist’s concept of a possible Low Boom Flight Demonstration Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) X-plane design. (Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin) The historic Concorde supersonic airliner set a record flying from New York to Seattle in just under four hours, but after retiring at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, no successors were waiting in the wings…
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NASA enlists citizen scientists to widen its view of totality during solar eclipse
The sun’s corona gleams during a total solar eclipse seen from the northern tip of Australia in November 2012. (Credit: Romeo Durscher via NASA) Scientists are gearing up to gather data from the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, but the most crucial observations can be made during only two minutes of totality — unless they…
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It’s T-minus-2 months to solar eclipse: Officials brace for totality traffic jams
The moon’s shadow cones during a total solar eclipse. Observers on Earthwithin the smaller, central shadow, or umbra, see a total eclipse. Within the larger shadow, thepenumbra, observers see a partial eclipse. Credit: NASA The all-American total solar eclipse is still two months away, but federal and state agencies are already getting the word out…
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UW researchers’ ‘kidney on a chip’ will be prepped for space station experiment
The “kidney on a chip” is about the size of a credit card. (UW Photo / Alex Levine) A stack of card-sized gizmos that test the effects of drugs, toxins and weightlessness on human kidney cells is due to take a ride to the International Space Station as early as next year – and researchers…
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NASA’s Kepler space telescope points to 10 new planets in the habitable zone
An artist’s conception highlights the worlds detected by NASA’s Kepler probe. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Illustration) Astronomers say they’ve used NASA’s Kepler space telescope to discover 10 Earth-sized planet candidates where life could lurk. The 10 prospects are a part of a larger pool of 219 exoplanet candidates announced today. One of the newly detected candidates,…
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Opportunity rover’s roll on Mars eerily echoes Apollo 16’s stroll on the moon
NASA’s Opportunity rover snapped a picture of its own tread marks as it passed by Orion Crater on Mars. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU) Forty-five years after the astronauts of Apollo 16 rode out on a rover to look over a crater on the moon, NASA’s Opportunity rover looked over a crater on…
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From drugs to fruit flies: What SpaceX took to the International Space Station
SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket during the CRS-11 resupply mission on June 3. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX impressed the world yet again last week with a flawless ground landing of the Falcon 9 rocket and the fact that it became the first commercial space company to send a vehicle, the Dragon cargo capsule, into orbit…